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store today better sleep starts here [Music] [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
00:01:16
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man with
00:01:21
a reminder that you're not the only ship adrift on this ocean here is the captain
00:01:26
I can't even find my ship it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
00:01:35
[Music] today we are still sipping on some red bird ale from Portsmouth Brewing Company
00:01:44
Redbird ale is an All-American home run beer named for the Portsmouth Ohio minor
00:01:51
league baseball team of 1939. it's labeled as a California steam ale brewed with roasted caramel malts
00:02:00
ABV 4.8 percent garage grape three and a quarter bottle caps and a five and let's
00:02:07
give some thanks and praise to our good friends for helping us fill up the fridge this week first up we have
00:02:13
Desiree from Cincinnati and we also have Jennifer moss and her son Mason listening to TCG together in beautiful
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Parts Unknown thank you to everyone who went to truecrime garage.com and contributed to this week's beer fun yeah
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BW the warrior you win beer run you want to support the show and get something in
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return good at truecrime garage.com and click on the store Page and pick your up
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a T-shirt and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's
00:02:46
talk some true crime [Music] dispatch article from 2005 on the anniversary of The
00:03:14
Disappearance of Rob Boney titled police still searching for man gone nine years
00:03:20
this is on the nine year anniversary Captain and the article States Rob money backed his red Pontiac Firebird out of
00:03:28
his driveway and disappeared down the two-lane road this according to a neighbor working in her yard on Central
00:03:34
College Road on that hot July evening she saw him go as she said she had seen many times before said that it seemed
00:03:44
routine but as we know Captain unfortunately that was the last time anyone reported seeing Rob alive now
00:03:54
fast forward all of these years later today is the day after the anniversary of the day he was
00:04:03
reported missing way back in 1996 he was reported July 18th as missing and as and
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even though his body hasn't been found in this article Westerville police detective Dave King said he is convinced
00:04:20
that Rob has been murdered but they do not know how and back in 2005 they released
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investigative files on the case that showed that police suspected Foul Play early on in this case
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why would that be again this man goes missing and what we learn here is we talked so much
00:04:44
yesterday about his red Pontiac Firebird what this article makes clear is that when they found that vehicle and because
00:04:53
he was missing when they found the vehicle they called in Westerville police called in Columbus
00:05:01
Police and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation they come in and they take fingerprints
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they're looking for fingerprints on different parts of this vehicle they come to the conclusion based off of
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not finding fingerprints that it seems that the car had been wiped clean of fingerprints
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and I'm guessing here Captain if you're sitting in a room full of Detectives we're all going what this guy probably
00:05:30
didn't drive his vehicle to Hoover Reservoir over by the dam park it leave the keys in it wipe down all the
00:05:40
fingerprints from the car and then walk away from his life so somebody caused this man to go
00:05:47
missing and somebody is responsible for why he's missing and where he is today in fact I firmly believe and I think
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that there's a lot of evidence that suggests that this case is only the recovery of his body away from bringing
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forward charges again we stated yesterday police had already honed in on a suspect and
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referred to this person as he is the suspect in this case so a male is the prime
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suspect in this case well and what you were saying yesterday is he leaves his house but we have no sign of any kind of
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struggle or anything going down in his house we see his car no sign of a struggle so
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at first you're just going where did this guy go was he meeting up with somebody
00:06:42
what's the issue but then once you start investigating a little further and you go
00:06:47
we can't even find a single fingerprint right that's that's very fishy very fishy the
00:06:57
other thing that people thought to be a little strange as well is there are two different reports Rob's
00:07:03
listed at five foot ten inches tall or 5 foot 11 inches tall depending on which report you see and several people have
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pointed out that when the vehicle was found the driver's seat was pushed all the way forward closest to in the
00:07:18
position closest to the steering wheel people that know him best say that Rob would have never sat that close to the
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steering wheel these people it's their belief that whoever moved that vehicle was shorter than Rob
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and that that might be a telling sign of who put the vehicle there and then let's
00:07:40
take that a step further it does not take a very big leap to go from well whoever placed that vehicle at Hoover
00:07:47
Reservoir either is responsible for why Rob disappeared or knows what happened to
00:07:55
him because assisted in moving that vehicle I spoke to the detective and a couple things that that we agreed on I
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asked him is there do you think there's any way that Rob is in Hoover Reservoir in the water over there
00:08:11
because that would make a lot of sense right his Vehicles found there we're talking about five square miles of of
00:08:17
water right and of course the detective said look until we find him nothing is 100 percent
00:08:24
I said but would you agree based off of the searches early on the dive team the the teams that drag the the water over
00:08:32
there would you agree that the statement is of the Westerville police that we are
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very confident that he is not in the water and the detective said yes we our department based off of our searches are
00:08:47
very confident that he is not in that water over there okay so we're learning that there's no fingerprints in the
00:08:54
vehicle again the like you said the obvious answer is he goes missing is he in this water and cops for whatever
00:09:02
reason law enforcement for whatever reason is saying no no we don't think he's there
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we I they're basing that off of their extensive searches of the that water yeah what what more can we learn from this
00:09:16
well some of this is a little repetitive but bear with me everybody oh you you're
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kind of like a parrot there you go uh this is the article that states that we talked about
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the half eaten steak dinner we talked about what is not public knowledge of the the Kool-Aid placed in the freezer
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that night his roommate being at work that is confirmed by by all parties involved in
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this investigation and you're not miss speaking it's freezer not refrigerator that's that's what I was told by more
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than one person okay and then on top of that this is the article that states Rob
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left his wallet filled with money at his home and this is coming from police in this
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article saying that that is further evidence that he wasn't planning on being away long so we're trying to go
00:10:06
back to figuring out why he even left at all this article 2 police saying we don't believe he was ever put in the
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Hoover end quote this is sad this is a sad part of the article where his mother had turned to
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psychics for answers for years and it was only through the Council of close friends some of them being Rob's friends
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they had told her kept telling her look these psychics are just using you they're giving you false hope that
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you're going to find your son and that he's going to be alive she's Clinging On hope she's desperate and so she's hiring
00:10:42
hiring psychics to talk with her I mean he's 29 years old but this is still her baby that's right and she says that and
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then she says also in this article that that eventually she stopped spending money on psychics
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when she kind of saw the light right one of them tells her that his body was close to water near an outlet mall in
00:11:03
churches and then she realized yeah that's pretty easy to state that because that could be anywhere yeah or
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he did some digging I mean this is this is where Sunbury Road or that Sunbury that the
00:11:20
area that's what his car would have been around this this is where we get the best
00:11:25
information yet the article goes on to say that Westerville police had solid reports
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early on that he was that Rob was the victim of Foul Play Rob was dating a woman who had once dated a friend
00:11:42
upsetting the man now let's use this term friend very Loosely and I'll we'll get into that in
00:11:49
just a second the article says that just before Rob vanished the man might have forced Rob's
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Firebird off of Route 161 in retaliation for Rob dating this woman now this article refers to this woman as
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Rob's girlfriend so it says Rob's girlfriend told Westerville police that she had talked
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by phone with him at about 8 PM July 16th this is the last day that he's seen and according to remember we have the
00:12:22
neighbor Witness so this air quotes girlfriend as they refer to this woman in the article says
00:12:30
that she talked to Rob at about 8 PM July 16th one hour later he pulled out of his driveway so that's the neighbor
00:12:38
witnessing him pull out of the driveway around 9pm and we know that the vehicle his vehicle
00:12:45
is found 0.3 miles from his home opposite direction that he travels less than five hours later that's when
00:12:54
it it could have been there much sooner but we know based off of the security logs from the park ranger that it was
00:13:02
spotted shortly after midnight so we're starting to see a little bit of a picture here right now
00:13:12
here is where this running Rob off the road comes into question as well this article says might have run
00:13:20
him off the road I spoke with two people that said 100 percent Not only was Rob run off the vehicle Rob and his vehicle
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run off the road on a Friday night before he disappeared but that Rob knew the man that ran him
00:13:39
off the road so you remember do you remember Captain the Billiard Club on 161 they they host
00:13:46
bands there often they got a bunch of pool tables yeah kind of a bigger Club it was it was very popular in the 90s
00:13:54
well in the late 90s Rob his roommate and a bunch of people in Rob's Circle a bunch of the people that rob went to
00:14:01
high school with they're from Westerville this club is in Columbus proper but not far from
00:14:10
Westerville and a lot of the the Westerville people that were of Rob's age would hang out at
00:14:17
the Billiard Club in the late 90s early sorry the mid to late 90s because they knew the owner they went to high school
00:14:26
with the owner on a Friday night before Rob went missing this is very some Reports say that it was the week
00:14:36
before he went missing other Reports say that it was the Friday before he went missing it's hard for me to sort that
00:14:43
out over 20 years later the story is this he's talking to a girl a woman that he knew that's roughly his
00:14:53
age at the Billiard Club on that Friday night right let's call her Shirley okay don't call me Shirley that's right
00:15:02
surely leaves with Rob and we know this because Rob's there with several of his friends
00:15:11
who have all told me the same story in fact one of those friends was with Rob at the Billiard Club and was in his
00:15:19
own vehicle and would be meeting Rob and other friends at Rob's house after departing the Billiard Club
00:15:27
so Rob talks to this woman Shirley Rob and Shirley leave in his Firebird they're driving toward Rob's home on
00:15:34
Central College Road and the guy that she was either in a relationship with or previously in a
00:15:42
relationship with let's call him Andy he spots the two he's aware that the two are hanging out this drives him crazy
00:15:52
and he decides to force Rob's Car off of the road now look there's no damage done nobody was
00:16:02
injured some would say no harm no foul but let's keep in mind this is a violent act yeah somebody could have been hurt
00:16:09
severely hurt or injured in this situation or possibly worse we have a whole bunch of people telling
00:16:16
police the same name who would want to hurt Rob the same name keeps coming up over and over and over
00:16:23
and over again well it's not too big of a leap to go the guy that ran him off the road just days
00:16:31
before is probably the same guy's name that keeps coming up to police the friend meets Rob and Shirley back at
00:16:41
Rob's place that night after he's run off the road remember the friend was at the Billiard
00:16:46
Club prior when he gets to Rob's house he didn't witness robbing ran off the road what he
00:16:52
Witnesses is he shows up at Rob's house and remember Rob's living for the weekend
00:16:58
work hard Party hard bunch of people roommate everybody at the house and what are they talking
00:17:05
about that Andy guy ran Rob off the road oh he just ran him off the road he could have
00:17:10
killed him that is the topic of discussion that night that they hang out now listen to this article
00:17:18
what did they say here they referred to this woman as Rob's girlfriend which I think is difficult to say because we're
00:17:24
talking days they they would have if if they were dating at all this started days before he went missing
00:17:34
I think they're just calling her that because they they didn't want to use her name we're calling her Shirley so she
00:17:40
tells Westerville police that she talked to Rob on the phone at 8pm on July 16th
00:17:46
then the neighbors see him leaving in his car by himself about an hour later his car is found less than five hours
00:17:54
later abandoned at Hoover Reservoir 100 Captain whatever caused him to leave the
00:18:01
house that night led to his disappearance and police are saying that he was murdered
00:18:07
now this man is not unknown to police this article article continues the man took a lie detector test but results
00:18:15
were inconclusive uh how do you feel about that Captain do you feel like sometimes police are
00:18:22
telling us results are inconclusive when they can't throw the guy directly under
00:18:27
the bus publicly or to the newspapers well that's them throwing them under the bus yeah let's let people speculate uh
00:18:36
as to what what this man may have said so here here's what I wondered though so are we saying that
00:18:45
the night that he goes missing that maybe he gets a call from somebody in there saying hey you know that guy that
00:18:50
ran you off the road he is here or I saw him there [Music] and so that Rob would have ran out of
00:19:00
the house to maybe then confront this guy the problem becomes that the neighbors
00:19:06
don't see anybody but Rob right they see Rob hop in his car and leave I'm gonna when we get to the theories
00:19:13
here I this the breakdown of that timeline according to the person surely that they refer to as Rob's girlfriend
00:19:22
is very telling to me now real quick before we get to the theories this woman that they're referring to is
00:19:30
Rob's girlfriend says that a week later a week after Rob disappeared that she is
00:19:36
at a place called Hammer Jack's Bar on route 161. and I do not recall Hammer Jacks ever I
00:19:45
don't know where it is where it was it's not around today right uh in 1996 I was
00:19:50
not of drinking age or close to it so if this you know wherever this bar was but
00:19:56
it's on 161 so not terribly far from the previous club that we talked about and this is the same woman Shirley says
00:20:03
that she's at Hammer Jack's Bar on Route 161 and she runs into what is referred to as another man
00:20:11
so this is when they say another man they're clearly pointing out that it's not the same man as the suspect right
00:20:18
this is another person and the article says she ran into another man who ran with Rob's
00:20:25
Westerville crowd that man tells her your boy is six feet under quote your boy is Six Feet Under
00:20:35
now police say we interviewed that man who then denied making that statement and the police go on in this article to
00:20:45
say that they are optimistic that somebody out there knows something and this is nine years after the fact they
00:20:52
say I hope one day that they are going to do the right thing by this family and they do say in this article that
00:21:00
they are confident that they could solve the case at some point given the right information
00:21:08
now before we get into the theories Captain we should State Rob is listed on namis on the namis website he is missing
00:21:15
persons identification number mp1123 so much more to get to join us back here in the garage right after this
00:21:24
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00:23:32
to truecrime garage.com sign up on the mailing list and if you want to join the kernel at crimecon in Orlando
00:23:40
make sure you use promo code tcg10 to get 10 off cheers Captain cheers to everybody out there cheers to the people
00:23:48
in the back now let's can we all agree here in the garage I say that like there's 30 people
00:23:55
here it's me and you currently oh there's a there's a couple people in our pockets if the police tell us that they
00:24:01
have good reason to believe that there's Foul Play can we can we move past the idea that maybe Rob just walked away
00:24:07
from his life right okay so let's take the police at their word they're telling us that there's Foul Play I believe
00:24:14
there's Foul Play too even even if police weren't upfront about that I look at this thing and say it's got Foul Play
00:24:19
written all over it now where is Rob that's that's the whole thing here I believe that the one thing
00:24:28
that is holding charges back from being brought forward against an individual is the finding of Rob's remains
00:24:38
and the thing is there's been a bunch of people over the years that have told police what happened to Rob
00:24:44
Unfortunately they cannot confirm that without the evidence that would be his remains
00:24:50
or the location of his remains as to which Theory or which story that's being presented to them is true we've talked
00:24:59
about this several times here in the garage if you find Rob what will happen it will confirm one of those stories for
00:25:06
police as being true that will be the lead that they need that will be the evidence they need to
00:25:13
go out and charge somebody with this homicide now the car it was moved can we agree on that Rob went somewhere
00:25:24
he went in the opposite direction of where the car was later found things happened very quickly here now didn't
00:25:30
they because we know that according to his air quotes girlfriend Shirley who he had
00:25:36
Maybe started dating just days before he goes missing she says she called him around eight o'clock neighbors see him
00:25:43
leave around 9pm Park Rangers find his car abandoned in the parking lot less than five hours after he leaves his home
00:25:51
things are moving very quickly something happened to Rob in that five hours and it happened early enough that whoever is
00:26:00
responsible for his disappearance was able to move his vehicle after the fact to that location yeah I'm not sold on
00:26:08
the idea that his car was moved I I would I would go with you on the idea that that's
00:26:15
probably more likely what happened um but what we do know for certainty is somebody wiped down that car they
00:26:23
altered that they altered that vehicle destroying evidence so unless something unless Rob drove his car to that
00:26:32
location right and somebody abducts him from there which we do know is in the opposite direction of where he he was
00:26:40
heading when he left his house I don't think it matters what direction he was heading when he left his house then that
00:26:45
car had to have been moved the thing is if that car was moved to me I'm looking at at minimum a two-person
00:26:53
operation here somebody to help the perpetrator the murderer whether after the fact or after
00:27:01
witnessing or being a part of the murder of Rob Mooney moving that vehicle and then getting
00:27:09
everybody back to where they need to be away from that vehicle now we should point out here remember
00:27:17
Shirley was in a relationship prior to with the man who ran Rob off of the road we're calling him Andy we're not using
00:27:27
his real name even though he's real [ __ ] bag because he's not been charged in this crime [ __ ] he has been convicted of
00:27:35
other crimes but right we're not going to use his real name here because he's not been charged in this crime so we'll
00:27:41
just call him Andy for short Andy's parents live on Central College Road the same road
00:27:50
that Rob lives on not far from Rob's home in the direction that Rob was leaving that evening
00:27:58
remember all signs point to Rob believing or or his actions suggesting that he believes he would be returning
00:28:07
rather quickly back to his home and possibly back to his meal that night by her own admission
00:28:15
Shirley says that she's on the phone with Rob at 8 pm is there any chance that Shirley's call
00:28:22
is the one that led Rob to leaving his home and then we have people telling True Crime garage that
00:28:36
they were well aware that when Andy and Shirley were in a relationship together that there was violence in that
00:28:45
relationship could a threat against Shirley Inspire Rob to leave and maybe go confront this
00:28:52
individual who had run him off the road right or was he meeting did he think he was meeting Shirley and running to her
00:28:59
defense because she was at this man's residence there's a lot of stuff going on there
00:29:07
and I feel like we were just one maybe two pieces away from solving this puzzle and like we've said over and over
00:29:16
the whereas Vehicles found is minutes from his house and if it's and like you said
00:29:23
if there's evidence that leans towards the idea that the car was moved again whether or not we agree on that
00:29:30
doesn't matter because we do have somebody is messing tampering with the car and so is it out of the Realms a
00:29:38
possibility of we now have Rob we wiped on his car we toss him in the water and we go about our way yeah the thing the
00:29:48
thing that's telling to me too is even though police are tight-lipped the question that I gave to the detective
00:29:53
was do you believe that it had to have been more than one person to move his vehicle
00:29:59
and put it at that location where it was found and the detective said the vehicle could have been moved by one
00:30:07
person or two the key part of that answer to me is it sounds like police are of the belief too
00:30:14
that the vehicle was moved and placed there yeah but the reason why they're saying one is because if the our Prime
00:30:21
Suspect is this Andy guy his parents live on the same road no no I get that what I'm saying is that
00:30:30
the the question the there's an answer within the non-answer of that question the answer is that they believe that the
00:30:38
vehicle was moved by 1 2 20 30 people they're not saying maybe they don't know how many people move the vehicle but
00:30:46
they are of the belief working on the theory that it was in fact moved now let's hone back in on something that was
00:30:53
stated in that article by Shirley who says I was at Hammer Jack's Bar on 161 about a week after Rob went missing I
00:31:03
ran into another man who ran around with Rob and his crowd and this man says to me your boy is six
00:31:11
feet under quote your boy is six feet under police say they interview that man and that man says I never said that well
00:31:20
guess what one of them is lying either he said that and Shirley's being honest with police
00:31:27
or Shirley is lying to police and trying to implicate somebody else having knowledge
00:31:36
of what happened to Rob well why would she do that probably wants to take herself out of
00:31:44
the equation of being involved in whatever happened to Rob if in fact she was the one lying
00:31:52
this case is difficult because I've been told by a few different sources captain that it
00:32:01
possibly could be linked to another homicide and this is a Columbus homicide that
00:32:09
took place a few years after Rob disappeared so in Rob's case law enforcement has a
00:32:18
lot of reasons to believe that this is a foul play maybe charges would be brought if they
00:32:23
could find Rob's remains but some people have speculated that Rob's disappearance
00:32:29
could be connected to another local homicide yes and this comes from as you said Captain Crime Stoppers who were
00:32:38
looking for tips offering up a reward for information leading to an arrest in a separate completely separate homicide
00:32:46
in the in the Crime Stoppers request says man shot and burned beyond recognition a man was shot and killed
00:32:53
his body burned beyond recognition it's a murder case that Columbus Police have been trying to solve for more than a
00:33:00
year and we have a quote from the victim's mother Dolores Donahue who says quote I
00:33:07
want these people off of the street she wants to see Justice for the people who killed her son the victim of a gruesome
00:33:15
murder that took place in January of 2002. the last time her son Troy Donahue was seen alive he was hanging out with
00:33:23
some friends at a pool hall in North Columbus you're going to recognize a name that we
00:33:29
just spoke about previously Troy left the Billiards Club around 11 o'clock now keep in mind though this is six years
00:33:37
after Rob disappeared five and a half years exactly after Rob disappeared Troy told his brother
00:33:45
and Friends he was going to the parking lot and would be gone only a few minutes
00:33:49
as minutes turned hours Dolores remembers watching news reports of a body found near Freeway Drive it turned
00:33:57
out to be her son he had been shot three times in his body set on fire burned so
00:34:03
badly a delivery man thought that it was a pile of trash I will never understand why he had to be
00:34:10
hurt so bad because he would give anything to anybody and what's likely to be more than just a
00:34:18
coincidence someone also broke into Troy's apartment that same night the night that he
00:34:24
disappeared right so this article more than a year later Columbus Police saying we need the Public's help we do not want
00:34:31
some other mother to have to sit by and get hurt as bad and a family hurt as bad
00:34:37
as this one has so they offer up a a reward now let's cut the story short here in this Troy Donahue murder okay it
00:34:49
was no coincident this that his apartment was broken into that night his apartment's broken into there's
00:34:56
money stolen from the apartment and they find blood in the apartment now I'm not
00:35:01
certain I've sorted through this Captain I can't figure out exactly where the blood came from if it was Troy's blood
00:35:08
it sounds to me that this is what happened because we know based off of eyewitness statements from the Billiard
00:35:15
Club that night that he said oh a car pulls up into the parking lot a vehicle pulls up into the parking lot I believe
00:35:21
it was a van and he goes oh I gotta go out there and talk to these people I'll be right back
00:35:28
he goes out doesn't ever come back into the bar I'm guessing that those people abducted
00:35:35
Troy Donahue took him to his apartment and either used him to gain access the or or threatened him while they gained
00:35:44
access to his apartment they were looking for something in that apartment money drugs maybe even weapons
00:35:52
and we know that the apartment was all busted up and at the end of the night Troy Donahue is killed and set on fire
00:35:58
now he was killed it was ruled by the coroner that he was set on fire after he died he he was already dead by the time
00:36:08
that happened um eventually they catch up to all these people so the vehicle the these people were out
00:36:18
stealing a bunch of vehicles that night too there were three of them and they arrested them and charged them with the
00:36:25
stolen vehicles and charged them with breaking into Troy Donahue's apartment it would take several years for these
00:36:34
people to turn on each other but eventually what we end up with Captain is all of those people involved start
00:36:41
spilling the beans and then we end up with three people being arrested and charged in some form or fashion with
00:36:49
either Donahue's murder or with abuse of a corpse how does this store y have anything to
00:36:56
do with Rob's disappearance Rob and Troy knew each other a little bit okay from my understanding the way it's
00:37:06
explained to me is that Rob ran with some of the people that ran with Troy and Troy ran with some of the people
00:37:13
that ran with Rob but the two never really ran together right does it make sense
00:37:20
a person that knew both of them says that they went to Troy's and I'm having difficulty
00:37:28
recalling this because we have grandparents and parents that are named throughout this story by different
00:37:34
sources it was either Troy's parents home or grandparents home this person is close with Troy goes to
00:37:42
Troy's parents home or grandparents home Troy's to with the purpose of meeting Troy
00:37:50
this meeting takes place in July of 1996. same month that Rob goes missing this Source says
00:38:02
Troy was out in the backyard doing yard work when this person talks to Troy Troy is
00:38:10
sweating he's all dirty he looks like he's been digging in the backyard and the person said you know what's
00:38:19
going on you look tired you look all beat up you look you look you're sweaty what's going on I was just out in the
00:38:24
backyard digging and doing some work nobody really this person doesn't think much of this at that time
00:38:32
this person then sees Troy again at another time they're at a different location
00:38:41
this person has told us that Troy pulls this person aside and says if anything ever happens to me
00:38:52
remember just remember that there's something buried in my in that backyard if anything happens to me remember
00:38:59
there's something buried in the backyard now to be perfectly clear to be perfectly clear this this homicide
00:39:07
poor Troy Donahue was killed may have nothing to do with Rob's case at all what's buried in that backyard what was
00:39:16
Troy telling trying to tell this person may have nothing to do with Rob's case it could be money in that back backyard
00:39:23
it could be drugs it could be weapons who knows what it could be but it's a circle that might be connected it's this
00:39:31
another Circle it's exactly it's the circle and it's this person saying I've always said that somebody needs to dig
00:39:39
up that backyard because of the timing of everything he's out there digging in the yard not
00:39:47
terribly long after Rob disappears and by the way whatever he's digging or why ever he's digging in that Row in that
00:39:54
yard at a later time tells the same person if anything ever happens to me remember that there's something buried
00:40:02
in that backyard and what unfortunately we know something terrible ends up happening to this young man
00:40:11
so this is one of those things captain again I believe whoever is responsible for
00:40:20
Rob going missing probably had some kind of help whether that help was killing Rob
00:40:28
making him disappear whether that help was moving the vehicle whether that help was
00:40:35
burying the body I believe that he had some help and I believe that there are probably
00:40:42
I hesitate to give a definitive answer here but after speaking to all the people that I could get in touch with
00:40:50
that that have Insider knowledge of this case and the people that we've discussed
00:40:56
in this story that there's probably about we're probably down to about four places that
00:41:02
they should be looking for Rob and again I can't speak for Westerville police department but I can I can speculate
00:41:11
right and you've seen this a hundred times I've seen it a hundred times I believe they are one body away from
00:41:18
charging somebody and we do know that at some point they had a prime suspect and
00:41:23
that Prime Suspect was a male you and you would think that maybe that would at least be able to search that property
00:41:30
with cadaver dogs from what I've been told by multiple people the four locations that that I'm not
00:41:37
going to talk about here today in the garage that we are choosing not to announce to the public these locations
00:41:45
and for good reason but what we've been told is that these locations have been discussed recently
00:41:54
with police right it's in their power if if they're able to do something with this information
00:42:03
they might be doing something with it relatively soon frustration is is probably the key word in these cases but
00:42:10
let's not be fooled we've talked to so many people in law enforcement and when they believe they know who is
00:42:18
responsible for somebody's murder they want to get the bad guy just as as much if not more than anybody else well
00:42:27
and here's the thing you look for the the weak link right you are the weakest link
00:42:34
you look for that because what do we have here Captain if as stated by law enforcement they have a
00:42:42
prime suspect in this case we can't say for certain that it's the person that we're calling Andy but
00:42:49
according to everybody we've talked to all roads lead to this person that we're calling Andy
00:42:55
and then I think the way to go about this you're talking over 20 years later and no solution to this homicide case
00:43:06
you've not been able to crack this person whether he failed that lie detector inconclusive whatever you want
00:43:13
to call it tests that he took years ago you've not been able to build a great case against him so what do you do
00:43:21
I believe based off of the vehicle its location where it was found in the events of the night that Rob went
00:43:29
missing and off of statements that have been relayed to us the prime suspect had help whether it
00:43:37
was in the murder the concealment of the body or the moving of the vehicle or the
00:43:42
destruction of evidence the the murderer had help the prime suspect is probably the murderer and had help
00:43:51
so you look for the weak link you look for the person or persons that helped the prime suspect and see if you could
00:43:58
get them to crack or see if you can find or build a case against one of them so who could have helped
00:44:05
the prime suspect well we already mentioned the individual that we're calling Shirley who says that they
00:44:12
called Rob that night is that why Rob left did this person we're calling Shirley come up with a
00:44:19
story to convince Rob to leave that night to go to a place to put himself into danger and where he got ambushed
00:44:26
we also have that person that same person that we're calling Shirley that says I talked to some guy bumped into
00:44:32
another man like a week later and he said your boy is six feet under police say we talked to him he said I did not
00:44:38
say that one of those two is lying right if it's surely it's not too hard to believe that she's lying about a whole
00:44:44
bunch of other stuff in this case oh let's point out another weird thing here the people that were calling Shirley and
00:44:53
Andy years after Rob is gone they move in and rent that house well that's a little strange Now isn't
00:45:03
it that's a little weird they rent the same house that Rob was living in that Rob
00:45:10
once rented and lived in himself the the home he was living in when he disappeared
00:45:16
and then so who who was involved that's where we want to go with this now we talked about
00:45:22
Troy Donahue who who had said that weird statement to a person that that knew both Rob and new Troy
00:45:29
if anything ever happens to me remember there's something buried in that backyard
00:45:34
could it be Rob it might be we don't know right it it very likely is not but it could be
00:45:42
again if the prime suspect had help could Troy Donahue have been a helper uh then we've had a couple people tell
00:45:53
us that there were two strange guys that they believe were from Columbus or the Columbus area that were hanging out at
00:46:00
Rob and Ron's house the weekend prior to Rob going missing could they have helped our Prime Suspect
00:46:08
oh and let's take that a step further could one of them have been Troy Donahue who was from Columbus
00:46:15
we've had another source that told us that two very evil men suspected of other evil Deeds from Nelsonville may
00:46:25
have been involved and while we will not disclose the locations the exact locations of those
00:46:32
four properties that one should call in a question and that that I believe and would hope that someday they can be
00:46:40
searched one of those properties is obviously that property that Troy Donahue referenced if anything ever happens to
00:46:48
me remember there's something buried in that that backyard the other property should be down the
00:46:54
street from where Rob lived the direction he was driving that night is in the direction of the person we're
00:47:00
calling Andy of his his parents home where Andy was residing at the time that Rob disappeared
00:47:10
could something be there could Rob be there on that property uh these bad guys from Nelsonville
00:47:18
there's a property and we we know the address there's a property in Nelsonville that might have something there worth
00:47:27
looking for and then another location that that we can't that we won't give a description of here but this is one of
00:47:34
those cases Captain that's so damn frustrating because there's it feels like there's
00:47:40
it's described as this very mysterious case of this man just disappears one night and his car is found by the water
00:47:48
well you start peeling back the layers and you see that there are some very plausible theories here there are some
00:47:55
very suspicious looking individuals involved in this story and then you start digging and you go maybe there's
00:48:02
some low-hanging fruit here but here we sit all these years later without answers as to whatever happened
00:48:09
to Rob money but also with a lot of local rumors and and speculation and and people saying well there there
00:48:19
could be a body in this backyard well they've had plenty of time to move it law enforcement says oh well we don't
00:48:28
believe that his body was in the water well you could move the body and put it in the water
00:48:34
so there might have been answers that they could have found at one time at one time but that doesn't mean that
00:48:44
people haven't um tampered with the evidence even more since being questioned and hearing these
00:48:53
rumors coming from law enforcement and like you said there's still a lot of hold back information but we believe
00:48:58
that law enforcement thinks if they could find a body that they could bring charges to these individuals so
00:49:06
please please please remember Rob money Rob 29 years old who was ambushed killed embodied
00:49:17
concealed since 1996 if you have any information regarding the murder of Rob money or if
00:49:25
you can provide a lead or a tip so that his body can be found and recovered please call Westerville police detective
00:49:34
Grubbs at 614-901-6881 if you are not comfortable speaking with law enforcement you can go
00:49:47
to our website truecrime garage.com please if anybody has information please pass it along
00:49:55
and the Westerville police phone number will be listed in this week's show notes
00:50:02
[Music] [Music] I want to thank each and every one of you for joining us here in the garage
00:50:15
Colonel do we have any recommended reading this week Captain we are recommending tantamount the pursuit of
00:50:22
the freeway Phantom serial killer by Blaine Pardo and Victoria Hester I've got to say these two
00:50:30
are probably the best in True Crime writing today I am blown away by their books they're amazing their research is
00:50:39
second to none tantamount is about the freeway Phantom who was stalking the streets of our nation's capital back in
00:50:46
1971 and 1972 still an unsolved case about a deadly predator who's stalking the streets and leaving
00:50:55
the remains of his victims along busy roadways in plain view some of the victims were held captive for several
00:51:03
days if you enjoy reading if you enjoy True Crime if you enjoy audible you'll want to make sure that you check out
00:51:09
tantamount the pursuit of the freeway Phantom serial killer by the great Blaine Pardo and Victoria Hester you can
00:51:17
find that title and many other wonderful recommendations on our recommended page
00:51:22
truecrime garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't litter thank you
00:51:48
foreign [Music]