00:00:00
[Music] is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size organ models help to map out complex
00:00:07
surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you know where to
00:00:15
go when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands
00:00:20
at winning prices and with special financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your
00:00:27
mattress purchase helps give the gift of better sleep to children in need and US
00:00:32
Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today and make every snooze count financing is
00:00:41
subject to credit approval see store or ashley.com for details [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
00:01:29
you are what ever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who's
00:01:34
strapped in the chair of the city's gas chamber here is the captain let me tell you it's pretty comfortable it's good to
00:01:42
be seen good to see you thanks for listening thanks for to a [Music] friend today we are featuring a great
00:01:54
beer from one of our many great travels how about a little space camper Cosmic IP from the great Brewers over at
00:02:01
Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City Missouri it doesn't have to be a red Friday to get down in a great town with
00:02:10
a great beer this is a delicious IPA ABV 5.9% garage grade four and a half bottle
00:02:17
caps out of five and let's give some praise and thank you to some of our good friends for helping us out with this
00:02:23
week's beer run first up a big cheers to Vanessa Bailey in beautiful Toronto Ontario Canada and we also have Marine
00:02:30
from Duan Wisconsin both marine and Vanessa went to our website true Crim garage.com and donated to this week's
00:02:38
beer fun and for that we thank you yeah bwe Ru in beer run make sure you support
00:02:45
the show by signing up on our mailing list and go to iTunes and leave us a fstar review it really does help the
00:02:51
show and Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
00:02:58
talk some true Crow [Music] when we left off yesterday Captain unfortunately the body of 5-year-old NAA
00:03:22
Buchanan had been located this after less than 2 weeks of looking for the missing girl now even before her body
00:03:30
was found police already had Persons of Interest and these Persons of Interest were announced within the one within the
00:03:38
first 24 hours and the second within the first 48 Hours of the little girl missing so let's get into these two
00:03:47
individuals shall we because these are both people that had some kind of relationship with the mother with nave's
00:03:53
mother and we're a little unclear what the current state of the relationships were at the time that NAA went missing
00:04:02
but we have to look at these people these are Persons of Interest per the sheriff so the first guy that we will
00:04:08
discuss is George Kennedy again the current status of their relationship between him and Jennifer is a little
00:04:14
unclear but perc andn Jennifer said that she had met George two years earlier while reporting to her probation officer
00:04:24
so this is always a good place to find a date convenient she said that her relationship was George was that they
00:04:30
were just friends she said that they haven't officially dated for over a year and a half before NAA went
00:04:39
missing but they remained friends after they were dating Jennifer says I'm not a
00:04:44
judgmental person so I looked over his sex offenses but at the same time I still kept my guards up on that she said
00:04:52
that George had a good relationship upon my daughter as a father figure always there for her she says if he came around
00:05:02
she'd see him and she'd run up to him and hug him so to quote the church lady well isn't that special a female child
00:05:11
hugging a sex offender and the mom treating him like some kind of special person in her child's life well when she
00:05:17
says well I always kept my guards up here's how you keep your guards up people don't have that person be
00:05:23
involved in your life or your child's life yeah and it gets even worse I mean we have on record saying that all three
00:05:31
of our relationship together was like a family he George Kennedy claimed NAA as his daughter Jennifer says she says that
00:05:41
he was in my daughter's life for more than her own father yeah and I don't know I I see the situation and I look at
00:05:49
it and I go all right so Jennifer mom or or who was supposed to be mom here Sherry should get credit as Mom because
00:05:58
she's doing the mother duties and in actually caring for the child and providing a shelter and food for NAA but
00:06:08
Jennifer who is supposed to be mom is she's essentially facilitating grooming of her own child to a known sex offender
00:06:17
that's the risk here well she has won a bad picker she's selfish she's looking at her needs above her family's needs
00:06:26
above her daughter's needs it's uh pretty pathetic she says in her own defense that she was unaware of his sex
00:06:34
offender status at the time that they started dating but of course she came became aware of that at some point so
00:06:39
you can very quickly push the guy away and say no thank you um which she did not do now she says they remain friends
00:06:48
that they weren't in any kind of romantic relationship at this point but the thing that that really pisses me off
00:06:56
here is when I hear statements like this Jennifer's telling media Outlets she told many media Outlets this that she
00:07:03
she's trying to paint herself as some kind of good person she's saying I believe in giving people Second Chances
00:07:09
well good for you lady how about giving your daughter the first chance by I don't know not making her be in the
00:07:17
company of sex offenders right so when Novea was taken George Kennedy was living in a Monroe motel room where he
00:07:25
had apparently been staying for about a month he's keeping it classy and and wt1 news they were able to get their
00:07:34
hands on a search warrant that was for Kennedy's motel room remember he's named as a person of interest and picked up
00:07:42
within 24 hours of the little girl going missing now they are asking a judge if they can search this motel room the
00:07:51
search is granted and the news station gets their hand on the search warrant so we know what they were looking for we
00:07:58
know some of the things that they found so according to that search warrant shorts and a towel were found with blood
00:08:04
on them in addition there was blood staining on the wall above the bathroom sink in the hotel room property was
00:08:11
searched and some was seized from the room the Monroe County Sheriff named Kennedy as a person of interest but the
00:08:20
warrant also covered a search of a vehicle I want to be clear here I said a vehicle this vehicle is believed to be
00:08:28
been driven by George Kennedy in that vehicle in the center console of this is a van there was a JVC radio face case
00:08:40
found to have contained a silver multi-tool we don't get an exact name brand or or an exact description but
00:08:48
it's listed as a silver multi-tool which they State appear to have blood on the exterior of this tool
00:08:56
a preliminary examination confirmed that the blood was human that the blood that
00:09:01
they found was to human blood also found were photos of young girls one of whom reportedly resembled NAA well if you're
00:09:11
law enforcement you have to be hopeful with the evidence that you are finding something else that was very disturbing
00:09:18
that was reportedly found in the motel room were three shiny metal Matchbox style mini motorcycle toys M were found
00:09:28
in his room these would be exactly the kind of toy that NAA would want to play with or did play with well again law
00:09:36
enforcement has to be excited but you have to do your due diligence and you have to make sure that this evidence
00:09:42
checks out and it's actually evidence in this case but that's not all the warrant
00:09:46
also states that police questioned two children who were outside playing with NAA on the day she disappeared this is
00:09:53
really interesting stuff here these were two kids ages six and ages eight who were biking and scootering and hanging
00:10:01
out in the parking lot of the complex with Navea as close to her disappearance as
00:10:06
we can come up with because the warrant states that this was around 6:30 p.m. that Sunday night that she went missing
00:10:13
again as you pointed out a few times Captain and rightfully so we don't know exactly when she went missing but one of
00:10:20
these kids one of these Witnesses was a girl who told the cops that NAA went into the woods to meet up with a man
00:10:28
named d George and the boy witness said that NAA was kidnapped by quote a bad man and
00:10:35
that the bad man stabbed her in the stomach now of course we don't have any evidence to suggest that the girl were
00:10:43
was stabbed at all so it's difficult when you're interviewing children it's it's difficult really to interview any
00:10:49
type of witness uh eyewitness as they often will make mistakes but especially here you wonder is is the boy
00:11:00
so the boy mentioned in the warrant was for those of you who are paying close attention to the case you guessed it
00:11:06
correctly this was nave's Friend Austin the one that she was playing with earlier on the afternoon that she went
00:11:13
missing we know based off of the autopsy that was determined that Navea died from aspirating dirt not stabbing
00:11:21
so you have to wonder is this kid just did he hear some kind of rumor or see something on TV that he was afraid of
00:11:29
and when police are probing him for information does he just recite something he saw on TV or recite
00:11:38
something that he heard was maybe a speculation of people because the people in the neighborhood the people in the
00:11:44
apartment complex are going to be talking while this girl is Missing well I'm poor kid you know he has to answer
00:11:49
these questions from law enforcement he's probably scared half to death and he probably misses his his buddy the
00:11:56
other thing that is interesting though too here is that Austin's mother goes on record
00:12:05
and she says look I know that he said that she was stabbed but what my son is saying is
00:12:13
factually not true it's factually incorrect so I don't know is if she's basing this statement off of the autopsy
00:12:23
findings or if she is saying you know he couldn't have seen this because I was with him in that 6:30 time period he was
00:12:33
not out of my sight he didn't he didn't see anything that I would not have seen But the daddy George thing is weird
00:12:39
because Mom Jennifer says that there was some kind of family type relationship between the three of them so it wouldn't
00:12:47
be completely out of the question if Navea was calling this man daddy George his first name is George and then the
00:12:55
other disturbing part of this too is that that same news outlet that had the information about the search warrant
00:13:02
said that George had failed a polygraph examination or failed portions of a polygraph examination this George gu is
00:13:12
a real piece of [ __ ] Crystal [ __ ] is Austin's mom and she's on record saying
00:13:19
that Navea left their apartment at 3:30 or 3:45 p.m that day so maybe that's what she's basing that statement off of
00:13:29
it's not factually true because my son did not see NAA close to the time that she went
00:13:36
missing it sounds like though and obviously so that the the rest of the family maybe not Jennifer but the rest
00:13:44
of the family immediately suspected George and this is based off of a statement given to ABC News it says
00:13:50
nave's family members said that they are even more suspicious now of George Kennedy he was aged 39 at the time he's
00:13:59
a registered sex offender and friend of Jennifer of nave's mother and Kennedy supposedly worked
00:14:06
with cement in the area and didn't live terribly far from or wasn't staying terribly far from
00:14:14
where the body was found again this is according to family statements to the news apparently George
00:14:21
worked for a Monroe base company and dealt with cement in the course of his his job I don't know exactly what that
00:14:29
means Captain it I don't know if he works for a cement company I don't know if he just works as like a general
00:14:36
laborer in some form of construction yeah he's probably not that high on the totem pole I think that would be a
00:14:43
little bit more of a likelihood but the the thing with the with the cement or the concrete and I know I'm going to get
00:14:50
an email from somebody that says I'm using the incorrect term I understand that there's a difference I don't know
00:14:55
the difference so don't worry about it he's not a expert I don't work in concrete this George guy does never
00:15:04
claim to be a concrete expert here's the problem with the concrete right you can
00:15:10
say a guy works with concrete or he's familiar with working with concrete and so that would make him a good suspect
00:15:18
but at the same time it doesn't sound like it was properly put together and so you could you could use that as the
00:15:25
reverse and say well it makes him less likely because this person just may not have known what they were doing when
00:15:31
they were trying to form this concrete slab right or like you said they're in a location that they feel that they have
00:15:38
to speed up whatever process they're going through they could have just been rattled uh you know um go out there to
00:15:46
to dump the body and try not to get caught and something happens and it rattles you and you have to abort all
00:15:54
plans now later Jennifer and I'm going to kind of FastTrack this because people have spent a lot of time analyzing this
00:16:01
stuff and I don't think that it's necessary to the case but you know Jennifer defends George Kennedy for a
00:16:09
bit but then very quickly backtracks on those statements well everybody deserves
00:16:13
a second chance right it's a well and you know it's a very bad look for her to be standing up for a registered sex
00:16:21
offender so she goes on record later saying that she wouldn't put it past George and adds more fuel to the fire
00:16:28
major fuel at that by saying in at least two interviews that it was possible that
00:16:34
George Kennedy owed someone money and they took NAA and hurt her because George was close to her yeah which I
00:16:42
think is silly because yeah if if anybody should be looked at it's George and that's what the police were doing
00:16:51
maybe not so much somebody associated with George yeah the a loser like this he owes you money you go out after him
00:17:00
you hurt him you don't nobody's going to be missing old George Kennedy no old Papa George old Papa George all right
00:17:09
Captain would you like to hear a rundown of George Kennedy's criminal record let's hear all about Papa George so
00:17:16
according to ABC News in 1998 George Kennedy was charged with a felony for having sex with a girl under
00:17:24
the age of 16 I guess that charge was later dismissed according to court records and we're not
00:17:32
going to we're not going to get into this too much because it's a little confusing but don't get aggravated just
00:17:39
yet because I think this will come around full circle here in addition to that 1998 charge court records show that
00:17:45
in December of 2001 Kennedy was charged with a home invasion and ACC costing a 13-year-old girl during the course of
00:17:53
that home invasion he took a plea deal for fourth degree criminal sexual conduct conduct and a misdemeanor charge
00:18:01
for accosting children for immoral purposes he was released on parole in 2007 and again this is one of those
00:18:10
things I Jennifer says she believes in giving somebody a second chance uh the parole was this guy's second chance
00:18:18
right the the state gave him a second chance you owed him nothing because his second chance was parole and and part of
00:18:28
that parole was that he not be associated with children or not be Associated or in
00:18:34
relationships with women that have children look and they they make that statement through the law because these
00:18:43
guys pray on single mothers because the single mother goes oh well maybe they don't feel that they can do any better
00:18:53
than Papa George and he's around and he's helping and and well he he loves loves my daughter but it's okay that he
00:19:01
has these bad things in the past I'll keep an eye out on him I'll make sure you're you're playing with fire and
00:19:10
that's not a chance I would take with my my children so it's a little confusing because we say that the the one charge
00:19:17
was later dismissed but we also say that he took a plea deal for fourth deegree criminal sexual conduct I don't know if
00:19:23
they were able to plea that charge down to fourth degree criminal sexual conduct
00:19:29
and that's why I said hold on to your anger for a little bit because he he he likely did serve time for that that it
00:19:35
was just the charge was reduced now Jennifer on record and there is you can find this on YouTube where Jennifer
00:19:45
is interviewed by Nancy Grace and Grace gives her the the business during this interview because Jennifer says that
00:19:54
okay so that charge that was dismissed or that he pled down to was because George Kennedy raped a 15year old girl
00:20:02
behind a gas station uh this in in that uh area of Monroe Michigan right in Monroe County
00:20:09
Michigan so he's convicted for that in 2002 but Jennifer says she's trying to defend herself and defend her
00:20:18
relationship one-time relationship with George Kennedy by saying we discussed it
00:20:24
he told me that so he was 26 at the time of this charge of of committing this rape and she says to Nancy Grace the
00:20:35
girl was 15 years old but it was consensual the sex act was consensual and Nancy Grace is very quick to jump in
00:20:43
and say hold on Jennifer in that jurisdiction there is no such thing as consent from somebody that is under the
00:20:50
age of 16 it's rape get her Nancy so good for good for Nancy to try to straighten out Jennifer George Kennedy
00:20:59
he is not hiding or ducking from the cameras he openly gives jailhouse interviews to local news stations and
00:21:10
during which he's professing that he's innocent uh he's saying I didn't take her I didn't kill her I have no clue
00:21:18
what happened to NAA um and in fact he was even interviewed before they even found her body and he kept saying that
00:21:26
hey I'm hoping that they find her alive I'm still hoping that they find her alive now after additional forensic
00:21:33
testing on some of the items that were removed from his motel room investigators came out to the
00:21:41
public and admitted that the blood found on the items there did not match Navea so it was human
00:21:47
blood but it did not belong to our victim could have just been part of the decor there's another person of interest
00:21:55
that is named and again this is very quickly in in our case here and this other man his name is Roy Lee Smith this
00:22:02
guy he too has sex offender status he was also an ex of Jennifers he too was named as a person of interest now per
00:22:12
the Detroit Free Press Jennifer said she met Smith through George Kennedy so this
00:22:17
is this is where this gets really difficult to see past one or both of these guys right right that not only
00:22:26
did they both have an association with the victim they both had an association with each other and they're both Persons
00:22:33
of Interest separately or together in this case Jennifer says that she wasn't specifically aware of Roy's sex offender
00:22:42
status she admitted that she guessed it because of her because of the association between him and George
00:22:49
Kennedy so she's not aware that he's a sex offender but says that she susp say that she suspected him of being a sex
00:22:57
offender not for sure but I'm just assuming since he's hanging out with Papa George Papa George likes to hang
00:23:03
out with a bunch of creeps Roy LE Smith was convicted of third degree criminal sexual conduct for a 1991 rape and he
00:23:12
was also listed as a habitual offender so he got they try to give him the maximum here he was looking at 15 years
00:23:21
to 50 to five Z years prison sentence but he was released from prison in February 2008 this after serving 15
00:23:33
years for that conviction remember what we discussed in the one search warant you may recall that a van was being
00:23:42
driven by George Kennedy that was being searched by police and a bloody tool was removed
00:23:51
from that van well this is where things get a little weird too Roy Smith was the
00:23:59
actual owner of that van that's why I stated earlier that the search warrant didn't say that George Kennedy was the
00:24:06
owner of this van the search warrant said that it is believed that George Kennedy had been driving that Van Roy
00:24:13
Smith the other sex offender actually owned the van so these guys are friends unfortunately two
00:24:23
terrible guys with sex offender status are chummy well they had a lot in common that's true yeah and supposedly they had
00:24:34
swapped vehicles they had traded Vehicles now this is really weird to a lot of people but it's not so weird to
00:24:42
me this is something that when I was young I remember hearing quite a bit that it wasn't uncommon for people
00:24:48
especially when we're talking about vehicles that aren't worth very much or or don't have much of a value to them
00:24:54
right that it it's not uncommon for guys to straight up trade vehicles and just sign off the the slips to the other
00:25:03
individual so one good piece of news though here that comes of this is they had sex offenders parole status both of
00:25:17
these individuals and what happens here is because they violate that parole these two aren't just locked up in jail
00:25:26
and then interrogated in and investigated for Na's homicide in both instances judges revoked retracted their
00:25:40
paroles and so both Kennedy and Smith were sent back to prison this to finish out their full sentences for those
00:25:48
parole [Music] violations [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe
00:26:16
you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even
00:26:22
anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings
00:26:28
therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to
00:26:36
manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
00:26:43
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
00:26:48
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
00:26:55
better help visit better help /ar toay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp
00:27:04
hp.com garage is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size
00:27:14
organ models help to map out complex surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you
00:27:23
know where to go dreaming of overseas Adventures or connecting more deeply with family from
00:27:29
afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice
00:27:36
feedback technology are game changers dive into 25 Languages by learning intuitively just like when you were a
00:27:42
kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now and save 50% gift yourself the world head to
00:27:51
rosettastone.com now and save 50% [Music] all right we are back papa George hotel motel holiday in
00:28:17
cheers to you Colonel cheers to everybody in the back and cheers to everybody in the front stop looking at
00:28:23
me y gross gross gross gross uh this brings us to a third guy that was pulled in by police for questioning in Na's
00:28:34
disappearance and even named as a person of interest this is James Easter who was
00:28:40
age 64 at the time reportedly he was the subject of a tip that came into police because he was seen often at the
00:28:50
apartment complex and there's some question whether he had registered as a sex offender or he was required to do so
00:28:59
but there's question if he actually did register uh the Detroit Free Press who did gangbusters work obviously on n's
00:29:07
case and we've cited them multiple times throughout part one and through out this
00:29:12
episode as well but they reported that FBI agents knocked on his door and accused him of following Jennifer and
00:29:21
NAA home from Kmart remember we said that that day late that afternoon Jennifer and NAA walked home from
00:29:28
Kmart now this James Easter guy would not have been a person that was known to Jennifer or known to NAA but he was
00:29:37
known to hang out in the area of this apartment complex and I don't know if there was a witness or somebody that
00:29:45
stated that they had seen him following them or watching them or if this was just a scare tactic to try to present
00:29:53
that they may have more information than they actually did and see if he would confess to something whatever they have
00:30:00
or don't have on this guy at the very least they they search his home and I'm a little confused
00:30:07
because there's no mention of a search warrant so maybe he just openly says come on in guys go ahead and search my
00:30:13
my home if so that shows a level of cooperation that I may not expect from a child killer but inside his home They
00:30:23
confiscated over 100 porno tapes uh pornog graic videos and also his bed spread oh that's disgusting that is he
00:30:33
was held for questioning for well that that's actually one of the most common things that will be taken from some
00:30:40
disgusting in any kind of case especially these kinds of cases he's held for questioning for approximately
00:30:47
12 hours by the FBI he produces receipts showing his whereabouts on the day that
00:30:54
NAA went missing and so they're forced to let him go because he has receipts that show them where he was what he was
00:31:03
up to now I don't know the details of these receipts this is unknown but what we do know is like an
00:31:16
idiot so he's released on Saturday night on the 30th he's back at his home around 5:00
00:31:23
a.m. on Sunday May 31st he's in his yard burning items and these items in include
00:31:31
receipts TV dinners and a sex toy well sex toys make good firewood I don't know if somebody called the police or if they
00:31:38
were surveilling him I I suspect they were surveilling him yeah because he's like midf fire burning this stuff early
00:31:47
in the morning it would have still been dark there so a neighbor could have spotted it and maybe called it into the
00:31:52
fire department or what have you but he's confronted by police guns drawn they're like get on the ground dude and
00:31:58
they surround him get on the ground they want to know why he's burning stuff the
00:32:03
the FBI's called in to sift through the debris of the fire they charge him with with a very light arson charge some form
00:32:14
of obstruction of justice or or possibly the destruction of possible evidence it's it's very weird I don't understand
00:32:23
why somebody would take these receipts was NE it was essentially his get out of jail card and then later he's being
00:32:34
charged with burning them yeah but here's what I wonder knowing what I know now the crime takes place on a
00:32:42
Saturday between six o'clock 9 o'clock I think they're gonna look at it was a Sunday no I'm just saying hypothetically
00:32:51
okay at any time there's a crime that took place I think they're going to look at me I don't think it would be that
00:32:58
hard to go to some local businesses and get some [ __ ] receipts hey I was here Saturday I got
00:33:07
um a cappuccino and blah blah blah it was around uh 6:30 I I don't have my receipt and they then they look in their
00:33:17
computer and and maybe they find something that's close close to what I told them and they print out a receipt
00:33:24
that has nothing to do with me does that make sense and so it's almost like did he get all these fake receipts and then
00:33:32
when he used them and and and and pass that portion of the test well I better burn them now because if they actually
00:33:41
go through with a fine tooth comb and try to go through all the details I'm going to be busted right and that's what
00:33:47
I'm saying that the the burning of these receipts is incredibly suspicious Behavior like it it's just makes no
00:33:56
sense at all all especially since they were essentially your get out of jail card they sent him
00:34:04
home they brought him in for questioning for 12 hours and because of the receipts
00:34:10
sent him home and then he's like I'm going to burn these now so incredibly suspicious I think they were surveilling
00:34:17
him this Easter guy he's a real dumbass to put it as politely as I can he talked
00:34:23
way too much sounds like somebody I know he did four interviews that I could find
00:34:29
with the newspapers and spoke openly about the case he openly told the newspapers I
00:34:37
failed portions of a polygraph test he goes I I wasn't given the details I don't know which questions that I failed
00:34:43
but I failed portions of the polygraph test according to the FBI that's what they told me anyway and then they're
00:34:50
like well what questions did they ask you and he rattles off a few you know like right did you did you do it did you
00:34:57
abduct her you know the typical questions you would expect to hear but also things like they asked him at one
00:35:03
point in the polygraph test if you had done it how would you have carried out this crime or how do you think the
00:35:12
killer carried out this crime and he goes into like great detail saying well if it were me I would have I would have
00:35:20
pulled onto the street turned on my hazard lights pretending that I have some kind of problem with my vehicle
00:35:27
then I would have snuck up on The Blind Side of the pine trees that are in that area walked up to where the victim was
00:35:35
and I would have snatched her there and he even goes into like that would be a long way to walk you have to go up past
00:35:41
the dumpsters so clearly he has a a very good understanding of the area in which
00:35:48
we believe that NAA was abducted from he even goes out of his way to say that you
00:35:52
know the one problem with that area if you were looking to do something like this this is there were always
00:35:58
maintenance people hanging around there so he's already he knows where the people would be or where possible
00:36:07
Witnesses could be yeah I mean very strange and like like you said so far we have three suspects that I think you
00:36:15
could easily put either one of them at the top of the list and then this Easter guy just continues to
00:36:24
get more strange and more strange so he's relased remember they picked him up on these for the burning for the arson
00:36:30
charges how can we forget him burning his sex toys he's released from jail on June 1st and at that time a district
00:36:40
judge said that Easter was no longer a person of interest in Na's case which is really interesting to me
00:36:49
because I don't know why this judge is declaring this is this based off of insufficient evidence to charge
00:36:58
or because on record we have local law enforcement saying that we still consider Easter to be a person of
00:37:07
interest a judge kind of publicly declares him as not a POI but police have never officially or
00:37:17
publicly anyway cleared him in this case and we're sitting here these all these years later with an unsolved homicide on
00:37:25
our hands and then his girlfriend Jane Austin told the news that she might be the last person to have seen
00:37:34
NAA when she said she spotted the little girl from her balcony so I got to kind of break this down a little bit because
00:37:42
this part's a little confusing so I'm confused yeah one this this dirt bag has a girlfriend yeah all three of these
00:37:48
dirt bags apparently didn't have trouble getting girlfriends as for for at some period of time anyway but so this Easter
00:37:57
guy lives in a trailer by himself now the girlfriend Janie Austin I think I mispronounced her name earlier
00:38:08
as Jane Austin but Janie Austin from my understanding lives in the apartment complex or close to the Charlotte Arms
00:38:16
apartment complex where Navea went missing from because she's saying from my balcony I believe I was one of the
00:38:23
last people to see Navea before she was abducted so when we say this guy was hanging around the apartment complex he
00:38:30
he very likely could have been hanging around the apartment complex because his girlfriend lived yeah because like you
00:38:35
said the first two suspects that we we brought up had a connection to NAA had a connection to her family right so that
00:38:44
would give them reason to be on that property but this [ __ ] stain you got to go well did did he
00:38:55
actually follow them home from Kmart or was he just going to his girlfriend's house yeah it's it's very weird stuff so
00:39:05
what her statement is to the news is that she says that she was out on her balcony in the evening time she sees the
00:39:16
little girl on her scooter you know riding around like she like most of the neighbors would expect to
00:39:23
see and then this woman says that at some point she went inside to prepare dinner and she believes that it was
00:39:33
during that time period that she was inside preparing dinner that the abduction took place because when she
00:39:38
goes back out to her balcony she sees the scooter abandoned where it was later found by the
00:39:46
mother yeah and like you said roughly about 180 units it's really surprising that nobody saw anything we have a lot
00:39:55
of stuff that I want to get get to Captain so I think that we can I included a lot of things in my notes
00:40:02
about how the public did not care for Jennifer how the public really was very suspicious of her I don't know how much
00:40:12
detail we need to go into that aspect of the case I think there's so many obvious
00:40:18
reasons why people would not like Jennifer in this case would not trust the mother may even suspect the mother
00:40:25
of some wrongdoing the the problem though with Jennifer being your prime suspect in
00:40:33
this case in my opinion is Jennifer did not have her own transportation Jennifer also is
00:40:41
reportedly actively looking for her daughter at the time that she goes missing or at least roughly at the time
00:40:48
that she goes missing right it her story would be even more believable if Sherry
00:40:53
her mother would have been home I can trust Sherry I think I can't trust Jennifer but at the at the
00:41:00
very least we have another witness saying that look NAA was alive and well at 3:30 or 3:45 when her mother came to
00:41:09
my house and the two of them walked to Kmart Jennifer saying they walk back home they were doing their own thing
00:41:16
Jennifer's hanging out in the apartment NAA eventually goes out to play we also have this witness of saying I saw the
00:41:23
girl zipping around on her scooter went in to prepare dinner it came back and the scooter was abandoned right so the
00:41:31
problem with Jennifer being your Prime Suspect I'm not saying she has no involvement at all or may not know more
00:41:38
than she's letting on what I'm saying is she could not have done something to her
00:41:44
daughter and disposed of her daughter she just didn't have the means she didn't have transportation one she would
00:41:51
have had to have have some kind of help is what I'm getting at here as much as I
00:41:57
dislike Jennifer yeah but give Jennifer a second chance everybody deserves a second chance and I know there was a lot
00:42:03
of local rumor especially back in 2009 and 2010 that she knows more I just I see better suspects here
00:42:14
yeah I don't think she's a good person I don't think she did at least not smart she's not smart not smart at all and
00:42:22
also she's not she was selfish she wanted a relationship she wanted companionship
00:42:29
and she took that over the safety of her child and and that is horrible and she's
00:42:37
going to have to live with that the rest of her life we have to remember if she's
00:42:41
not responsible that she also is a victim here and I know a lot of people don't like polygraphs they don't care for them
00:42:49
they don't put any weight in them we're not putting any weight in them either but when it's part of the story We
00:42:54
report it it's part of the story I'm putting a lot of weight well here we have now on Jennifer who openly tells
00:43:02
the news that she was told that she failed a polygraph exam as well so those things are always a little weird to me
00:43:09
right you you might be more some people may be more inclined to be suspicious of
00:43:14
an individual who failed a polygraph but I also find it odd that a person that let's say we have a guilty party and the
00:43:22
world doesn't know 100% that this person's guilty if I were guilty of something I don't think I would openly
00:43:28
be telling the news like you know I was told I failed a polygraph test right failed Parts yes and but yet we have
00:43:38
several people who reported that they they either failed the polygraph test or were at least told by law enforcement
00:43:44
that they failed which can be a tactic uh on its own so what is unclear is if Jennifer has ever officially been
00:43:56
cleared by police there are some news articles out there that say that she is not and has never been a suspect but
00:44:04
again it's unclear if she was ever officially cleared by the police and then this is totally weird because
00:44:13
you're totally weird examining this case yeah my first thoughts are George Kennedy borrowing the van or swapping
00:44:25
out vehicles with Roy Smith George Kennedy's my my favorite suspect at this point in our timeline Roy is a close
00:44:33
second maybe the two of them did it together maybe they're in cahoot somehow but we have to Pivot off of that Captain
00:44:40
because pivot after a few months he that a few months after n's nave's murder believe it or not
00:44:50
police announced that Roy Smith and George Kennedy were no longer longer Persons of Interest in this case and
00:45:00
that's a shocker it's a it's a complete shocker but it's true we have a detective on record saying quote we are
00:45:07
looking in a different direction in recent months based on our investigation We are following up on leads and
00:45:14
investigating new information every day so what happened here is a little unclear but it sounds like they must
00:45:23
have moved on to a different suspect now again we still have that that Easter fella who is not mentioned as no longer
00:45:35
being a person of interest but shockingly enough police come out and say this guy these two guys Kennedy and
00:45:44
Smith are no longer Persons of Interest in n's murder now on the first anniversary of nave's murder the task
00:45:52
force that was put together had disbanded but police said that they were still very actively investigating the
00:45:59
case authorities said that they had called on Experts from around the country to weigh in and give their
00:46:05
insights and that they were leaving no stone unturned in August of 2009 the reward
00:46:14
for information in Na's case increased to $20,000 and by the end of 2010 this amount increased to
00:46:24
$50,000 so there's a lot of people out there hoping for some information to come forward in this case the special
00:46:32
agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit Bureau who oversaw the federal agency's role in this
00:46:41
investigation is on record saying that there was no shortage of suspects in this case but sometimes there are too
00:46:48
many and that what they needed was one good one that they could actually connect to the victim connect to the
00:46:56
case well that's a problem is when you start interviewing the family and you realize well look the mom is a little
00:47:03
bit of a scumbag herself and so she's going to have scumbag Associates and and you're going to have to start there and
00:47:11
I think that could hinder the case because oh every turn you make she's connected to these guys with uh that are
00:47:21
sexual offenders that have criminal histories and so if you're law en M you're like oh this is going to be easy
00:47:27
because we're just going to do this pervert Roundup of of all the guys she knows and we'll get the killer but to me
00:47:37
these cases tend to lean towards stranger on Stranger in 2012 this case is back in the headlines
00:47:46
and this is because the police are giving us a little insight into their investigation in 2012 they say that they
00:47:54
are closer to an arrest in the kidnapping and murder of Navea Buchanan this is directly from the county sheriff
00:48:02
Crutchfield who we've talked about several times during our discussion of this case he says quote investigators
00:48:09
have an eye on a person or persons and have significantly narrowed their focus but he goes on to say that the public is
00:48:18
not in danger this is a very interesting statement to me and I know that we try to read a lot into these statements but
00:48:25
you have to you have to read between the lines when they're holding back so much
00:48:29
information so if we've cleared two guys that look good Kennedy and Smith Easter
00:48:35
is still out there walking around on the streets and the sheriff says that there's no danger to the public and they
00:48:42
got somebody in their crosshairs somebody that they like right you start to wonder well does that mean that
00:48:49
they the suspect that they're looking at is dead or locked up yeah because as they're going through these suspects
00:48:56
like we've seen with the first couple probation violations and with those probation violations were able to arrest
00:49:04
them and like you said provoke some of the Privileges and they and having them to serve the the Remain the remainder of
00:49:12
their sentence when they say hey we don't think that the Public's in danger again probably leans towards
00:49:19
incarceration all right now this next part I'm going to have to go through every piece of
00:49:26
this statement because it's it's very interesting and it helps to clear some things up in this case and gives
00:49:32
valuable insights into their investigation this is in 2014 and it sounds like again they are
00:49:40
reminding the public hey we got a suspect that we kind of like here and it's from a Monroe News article and it
00:49:47
reads as follows despite widespread public opinion that stated otherwise police have long ago said Jennifer Na's
00:49:56
mother had nothing to do with the crime the family still lives in Monroe but has
00:50:01
moved from Charlotte arms where they lived where NAA was kidnapped nave's grandmother Sher Buchanan remains
00:50:09
frustrated that no arrest has been made she said she is considering seeking legal advice because she's not sure what
00:50:16
else can be done at this point quote I want answers Miss Buchanan said it's been too long police investigating the
00:50:24
case still don't have much to say on the record the current Monroe County Sheriff
00:50:29
this is Dale Malone said nothing more than stating it remains an ongoing case but several of those who have been close
00:50:36
to the investigation have said over the years that they are certain they know who did it the suspect is not any of the
00:50:45
men who were identified at the time as Persons of Interest those men were strong candidates because of their
00:50:52
backgrounds which included sexual assault and a costing children and because they had befriended Jennifer but
00:50:59
they didn't do it investigators said retired Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield who oversaw the investigation that included
00:51:07
about 100 individuals agreed that police were close to making an arrest but just
00:51:11
couldn't develop enough solid evidence to seek a warrant and pursue a trial quote we are very close to making an
00:51:20
arrest we know who the person is I believe we have the right person targeted we had nothing that pointed to
00:51:28
the mother end quote the man many police believe is responsible remains in prison on
00:51:35
unrelated convictions and is not going anywhere anytime soon in fact he is facing additional felony charges for
00:51:43
reportedly trying to kill a fellow inmate this dude's locked up going to be locked up for a very long time this kid
00:51:50
a monster continuing with the article they say the killer police said acted in impulsively without any planning he
00:51:58
reportedly saw an opportunity and took it apparently if what some police officers believe is true it was a
00:52:05
classic yet rare case of stranger abduction end quote so that's a very interesting article that shows that they
00:52:14
moved on to a completely different suspect well it's pretty crazy because there are so many creepos in this area
00:52:23
and it's sad and uh we need to protect the children a lot better than we are yeah it's it's difficult because in
00:52:30
these investigations you want a suspect as an investigator you probably want a couple
00:52:36
suspects but you don't want dozens of suspects it it complicates the case so have we figured anything out about
00:52:45
this unn unnamed perpetrator well what we do know from that article and other articles this individual is in prison on
00:52:54
totally unrelated charges for the next decade if not longer the Monroe news reports that the suspect was born and
00:53:03
raised in Monroe he is now in his 30s and is Con a convicted wife beater he is in prison on felony charges for repeated
00:53:13
domestic assaults some of these on a pregnant person according to court reports he was a problem teen who was
00:53:20
suspended from school had bad grades and fought with his family and this part is
00:53:26
really interesting to me here Captain it says he was interviewed at length during
00:53:32
the original investigation but did not confess and was not named not named publicly most of the investigators are
00:53:39
sure it was him so he was somebody that was on their radar may not at the top of
00:53:46
their list but at least on their radar at the very initial stages of this investigation well this case is
00:53:54
difficult because you want resolve and it sounds like law enforcement is saying we have resolve
00:54:02
it's just going to take a little more time the guy's in jail so don't have to worry about that and we're going to get
00:54:09
more information on him and eventually we'll have charges against him that's what it seems like to me but it doesn't
00:54:16
seem as satisfying as as you know hanging the guy up in the middle of town square right you want this guy to be
00:54:26
named publicly I think that they probably won't do so because they are working still working to try to build a
00:54:34
case against this individual but based off of their statements off of law enforcement statements to the public and
00:54:41
to the news it sounds like they really believe that this is the guy that they have
00:54:48
narrowed it down through or narrowed it down to this guy and and what's so interesting to me about that and what I
00:54:58
think presents a strong argument that they have the guy in their crosshairs have the right
00:55:06
guy targeted here in their investigation is it look at how good these other Persons of Interest looked look at how
00:55:15
good they what we were calling suspects looked in this case and they've been able to move on from those people to
00:55:22
land on him somebody was part of the initial investigation somebody that was on their radar early which often times
00:55:31
in these cases and even sometimes in stranger abduction cases the person responsible is on the radar early on in
00:55:38
the case yeah and so this is a very powerful and a very interesting suspect to me
00:55:47
now may of this last year sadly was the 13th anniversary of Na's death of her murder and there was an article that
00:55:59
came out at that time that said that throughout the years the Sheriff's Office and the early stages of the
00:56:08
investigation which involved the task force followed up on over 2,000 leads by the 13th anniversary and then
00:56:17
the following month in June of 2022 you know a considerable amount of time has passed so of course they have a
00:56:26
new sheriff by now but the current sheriff in charge provided a statement to ABC13 News and said the investigation
00:56:36
is sometimes referred to as a cold case this investigation has never been closed
00:56:43
nor has it ever been reduced to a Cold Case rather this investigation is very much active and as long as sheriff
00:56:52
goodno is leading this organization solving this heinous crime will always be among the highest of
00:57:01
[Music] priorities so many thoughts and so many ideas about this case if you have
00:57:20
thoughts and opinions go to True Crime garage.com and leave those on the blog Colonel do we have any recommended
00:57:27
reading for the beautiful listeners this week we are recommending love bombs and
00:57:31
molesters in FBI agents journey by the great Kenneth Lanning here's a quote from friend of the show The Great John
00:57:39
Douglas says Ken Lanning was one of the best instructors the FBI Behavioral Science unit ever had and he went on to
00:57:47
become one of the leading experts in the country on the behavioral analysis of crimes against children this is the
00:57:55
story this book is the story of his life leading up to his assignment at the BSU
00:58:01
and how he developed his expertise and inspired others during his 20year career make sure you check out love bombs and
00:58:09
molesters in FBI agents journey by the great Kenneth Lanning you can find that title and many more on our website's
00:58:17
recommended page at true Crim garage.com if you're not following us on Facebook or Twitter Instagram or YouTube
00:58:26
check us out at True Crime garage and until next week be good be kind and don't [Music]
00:58:53
litter is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size organ models help to map out complex
00:59:09
surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you know where to go