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foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign welcome to True Crime garage wherever
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you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is my mahomy the
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captain Mahomes and just like Patrick Mahomes I will be beating the 49ers to win my Super Bowl ring it's good to be
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seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music]
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this week we are very happy to be featuring guayabera by The Fabulous Brewers down at Cigar City this is the
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three quarter bottle caps out of five and this week we are sipping on cold beer thanks to our good friends right
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here first up we have a cheers to Brenna and Parts Unknown and also in Parts Unknown we have Laura P who says she
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just moved to the parts that are unknown and a big shout out to Shannon in Monk's
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week's beer fund and for that we thank you yeah b w e w r u win beer run and that is enough of the business all right
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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you know the family did always hold on to hope that they would have a miracle and that maybe Jabez would be found
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alive but as we mentioned uh this all came to a tragic end here earlier today uh there is this has plagued the
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community for a year and a half The Disappearance of Jabez the 14 year old went missing on September 4th 2017
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Sarasota police telling us tonight in a late night news conference that as soon as they made a positive ID on jabez's
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body they called his family with this sad news investigators telling us that they identified his skeletal remains
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using dental records and that he was actually found a Saturday in a rural part of Manatee County just west of
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Interstate 75 we're told a man was out there just putting up a fence around 4 30 in the afternoon when he saw the
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remains he called 9-1-1 police at this point do not know how long those remains were there but we are told that forensic
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investigators are working right now to find out exactly what happened if there's any evidence on his body that
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they can use to catch whoever killed him it's not somewhere that we believe he would have wandered off to and then uh
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just sat down and passed away we believe that well we will and those facts will come out later on but we do not believe
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at this point that he left Sarasota under his own volition and went to Manatee County where his body was found
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job as his mom told us tonight that the family is just too distraught to talk about the developments they learned of
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what happened here just a few hours before they alerted the media of this break in this case the mom did convey
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that she wanted to thank members of the community who for the past year and a half have held search parties passed out
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flyers and tried to do everything in their power to find Jabez I know that they've been wanting this conclusion but
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not in this way we'll keep you posted as as the story continues to develop we're
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live here in Sarasota tonight Michael paluska ABC Action News [Music] thank you [Music]
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The Herald Tribune reported on November 24 2017 the Jabez witnessed the murder of Travis Combs and was seen by the
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suspects just a week before he went missing on Labor Day the article confirmed that this information was
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contained in a police report indicating that the rumors about Jabez seeing a crime were true apparently Sarasota
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police detectives were informed about the connection between the Combs case and jabez's disappearance by a Sarasota
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Pastor named Calvin Lumpkin who told police that he had information about the connections between the two cases
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but it seems possible that even this pastor became afraid to talk in a weird situation when the police tried to talk
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to him about what he knew they were served with a letter from his lawyer saying that he would invoke his Pastor
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privilege and refuse to answer any questions the strange thing is that the lawyer who wrote The Letter shutting
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down the questioning is also the mayor of Sarasota who happens to have a side business a law practice
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Lumpkin later told the Herald Tribune quote it's not true no one came to me specifically about Jabez span end quote
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on November 27th Sarasota Police Department released a statement acknowledging the possible links between
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Travis Combs murder and The Disappearance of Jabez span the statement said quote the Sarasota Police
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Department continues to investigate all avenues regarding these two cases both cases and their possible
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connections to one another remain under investigation they are both Active cases
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Sarasota Police Department is not discounting any possible connections between the two cases and continue to
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seek additional information and leads in both cases end quote meanwhile jabez's 15th birthday came and went with no
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movement on the case Sarasota PD doubled the reward to fifty thousand dollars hoping that someone would talk in
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exchange for cash but after three months Jabez had still not been located the family continued to hang jabez's number
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three football jersey on the clothesline outside Lucille's home where it had been
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since he disappeared Genevieve judge a public information officer for the Sarasota Police Department told Dateline
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quote we've done all sorts of searches and we've partnered with the FBI and the Florida Department of law enforcement to
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do that unfortunately at this point we have not come up with anything of significance so technically they could
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charge the pastor with the same thing that they charge Reginald but because of his religious privileges
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they can't do so correct plus they don't have any sworn statements from others claiming that he told them that he had
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Direct knowledge about the case right in months that followed as 2017 turned into
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2018 the number of tips submitted to Sarasota Police Department obviously they dwindled drastically Sarasota PD
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interviewed a number of people but had not named any suspects or Persons of Interest in this case
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then in May of 2018 some potentially new information came in Tawana Spann told us that a female
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witness reported seeing Jabez with two other boys around 1am on September 4th this technically would be September 5th
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she said that this eyewitness said that they saw Jabez with these two other boys
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on Martin Luther King Jr way Tawana knows one of these boys this boy had also been one of the boys who also
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witnessed the Combs shooting along with chabez according to what Reginald Parker
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told the family and the private investigator Tawana wanted to know whether this boy
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who had been with Jabez right before he vanished knew anything about what had happened to her son
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whether the boys met up with somebody whether Jabez got into a car with someone whether someone took him she
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confronted this boy the one we have been calling Jay and when she did she told us that Jay
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flew off the handle and screamed at her saying he did not have anything to do with what happened to Jabez
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he didn't know nothing or something along those lines Tawana does not feel that Jay's overreaction is typical of
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someone who really knows nothing it seems likely that Jay is scared could he be afraid of what happened to Jabez will
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happen to him according to Tawana J and two other minors were prevented from talking to police by their parents
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with whom no doubt were scared for their kids safety two of these kids witnessed
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the crime according to the affidavit and Jabez almost certainly talked to these friends about what he saw
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one of these kids ended up in juvie and told investigators that Jabez was not in
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Sarasota but would be found in Bradenton although no one knew why that would be the case and he said that he warned
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Jabez to not smoke with everybody which could be an indication that Jabez was lured Away by his abductors with the
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promise of pot or cigars one of these men who the pijr believes is responsible for what happened to
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Jabez admitted that he gave the boy a cigar this is a man with the initials JJ who at the time of the Combs murder
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remember there were three perpetrators according to Parker had dreadlocks apparently Jabez told several people
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after Combs was shot that he saw a man with dreadlocks at the scene and he knew who JJ was as he was from Newtown in
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fact JJ was dating Travis's cousin one of the men who ran away toward palmodelia Avenue after Travis was shot
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Wheelock was also known to Jabez but that's not all you see Jabez knew one of the men named by Parker and the unnamed
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female witness very very well this was the man named Curtis and Curtis was best friends with jabez's older brother the
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one in prison in fact Curtis practically grew up with Jabez and his brother even
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calling Lucille grandma chabez told people after Combs was murdered that he knew who killed Travis
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at the end of 2018 jabez's case was featured in people Magazine's list of missing people this was in November of
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2018 and then in February of 2019 there was a break in the case on February 16th a man working on a cow
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Pastor fence on the 4100 Block of Canal Road in in Bradenton this is in rural Manatee County Came Upon a skeletonized
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human remains a joint press conference by the Sarasota Police Department and the Manatee County Sheriff's Office
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announced that the remains were indeed those of Jabez span he was identified using dental records the location was
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quite far from his home in Newtown 16 miles and was outside of the search area and
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they did not believe that he left Sarasota under his own power according to statements at the press conference it
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was unknown how long the remains which were fully skeletal were there whether the body was dumped there and or
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if they were transported to the rural area after Jabez was held and killed elsewhere
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deputy chief Robinson emphasized that they were still seeking tips and leads and the reward remained available well
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the amount of eyewitnesses that could have put these guys away that aren't coming forward is absolutely
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ridiculous and I understand that they're afraid for their safety but again my argument would be if law enforcement
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doesn't get involved these guys are going to be out running the streets and controlling the streets and you're going
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to be um that threat is always going to be there and then on top of that you then
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have not only witnesses that saw um witnessed him see a murder but you now have people also saying oh you'll
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find him and you're going to find him in this other city and then they find him so there's a lot more people that know
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what happened and who's responsible that are just not coming forward well and we
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say that he was found outside of the search area which he was found 16 miles away and that's a good distance but some
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would say well hey it's just 16 miles away he was missing they could not locate him for 17 months almost 18
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months that's a long time for this family to be I mean just really clueless as to what
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took place and to be just miserable the whole time but I want to make sure that everybody understands that the search
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efforts for Jabez were were large were massive there was a lot of searching for him going on they were constantly
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searching over the 17-month period in fact his mother says that they searched Sarasota they searched Bradenton
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Palmetto and they even searched just north of Venice and searched Northport so if you look at all those spots on a
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map this is a pretty large area that they were working on covering they also ran into some problems during the search
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efforts some of these searches were with the Sarasota Police Department and others
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involved but some of these searches were with volunteers from the community and the problem that they ran into with
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these volunteers from the community look they're they're so grateful that all these people came out to help the
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problem with that was there were people that they suspected either knew what happened to Jabez or possibly were
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involved in whatever happened to him and or Travis that were showing up to volunteer at these searches because they
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want to keep an eye on what's going on and report back to whomever or just for their own information so at some point
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they had to make these searches very private and that means really reducing the number of people searching in these
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areas and I do want to give a shout out to the Peace River search and rescue group they provided a lot of help
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in the efforts to find Jabez and they provided a lot of help to the family pro bono so a big a big high five goes out
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to them now once Jabez is found once his body was located the cause of death has
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never been released officials would not even confirm that Jabez was wearing the same clothes
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that he was last seen it this is reported to be a turquoise t-shirt and some other items but I couldn't couldn't
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locate exactly the description of the other clothes that he was wearing yeah we asked detective Megan Buck whether
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she could tell us the cause of death and of course she would give no comment on that
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for what it's worth the man who called 9-1-1 about finding a body told the dispatcher he did not see any signs of a
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weapon at the site just a skull and some bones but what's also interesting and this is heretofore unreleased
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information was that rope was found with the skeleton and police do believe that
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Jabez was bound in the press conference deputy chief Robinson also said that people in the
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community are scared to come forward saying quote the folks that did it we believe are from our community we know
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that people in our community know things they haven't shared yet he refused to speculate as to the connection to any
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other crime in response to a question about the Combs case he said we will be going back and basically starting from
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the beginning scouring our case files to ensure every lead every tip was followed
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up on we are going to run this thing to the end well it's a lot easier for us to
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sit you know in our high chairs and and say well we would have went to police and we would have stopped this
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but I think um when the threat is right around the corner and the threat is like
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I said it's a lot easier just to say than to to do I agree with that I think though the issue here is the the
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perception the the wrong perception that is out there in this case and the the problem here is that this this
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criminal element that is responsible for one or both of these murders or maybe even more plus
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100 no doubt about it other crimes as well this criminal element we're not talking
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about the you know the Irish mob or the the mafia or even something as big as like the the official Bloods or the
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official Crypts or anything like that this we're not that's not what we're talking about here this criminal element
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that's responsible for these crimes and these murders you can be protected from the Sarasota Police Department could
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absolutely protect you from these guys that's all they are is a bunch of a couple of thugs
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they can protect you from these guys the thing that you run into a little bit of
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trouble with if you are the witness or if you have information is okay if what I tell police or detectives if what I
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tell them is it going to be good enough to get these guys to lock them up and to
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bring charges against them because just because I say I saw something may not mean that it provides them with any
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thing of evidentiary value other than me saying so yeah we have one eyewitness but in this case like you've talked
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about there's multiple eyewitnesses but if all of them came together now you're building a way stronger case but then it
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becomes this very odd situation where it's like well nobody really wants to come forward and they'll leak stuff to
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the family to try to make the family feel better but if all those individuals went and made sworn statements that
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they'd be building a way bigger case against these individuals 100 and this community is is starved for this thing
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to be over with this community I that's that's where that's where I'm trying to rally the troops in a way of saying you
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know what let's it takes a community to raise a child let's in this situation it
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might take a community to get Justice for a child and it also might take a community to come together and get
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Justice for Travis Combs as well jabez's body was found just feet from the road it's
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really hard for me to understand how he remained there for so much time undetected now the people that I spoke
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to who are close to the case and know some of the inside information about it and this is just their opinion I I don't
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know that this is scientific fact nobody told me that but every one of them seemed to believe that he was there for
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a very long time even though I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it they say
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trust me Nick he was there for a very long time he was missing for 17 months now that doesn't mean he was there from
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the moment he disappeared it could have been days afterwards and that's what I suspect and I think that there's
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information out there to suggest that he was elsewhere for a short period of time but
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unfortunately he there's no nice way to put it he he lied there in that area in that location for a very long time and
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that's one thing that his mother is very upset about and rightfully so uh but as we said the police are not
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saying whether they believe that Jabez was there the whole time or whether the body was dumped there after he was kept
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elsewhere they're just not they're not commenting on that they've not even released the cause of death but we do
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have information that a virtually complete skeleton was found with with just two tiny bones and a front tooth
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missing we also know that police impounded and searched the vehicle being driven at the time by
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who I'm calling the suspect JJ so perhaps they have suspicions that his vehicle was somehow involved now Jr the
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pi the private investigator told us that it is his belief that jabez's phone which has never been found was thrown
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out of the window of a vehicle as it traveled this accounting for why it pinged in an area that was not near
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where the body was found at all the phone continued to ring for about 36 hours after Jabez went missing this
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before the phone went dead so usually late in these episodes Captain we start getting into some of our thoughts or
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some of the more popular theories out there in a case and when we talk about popular theories in this case for Jabez
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span what could have happened to him so what there's only one real Theory here and to me there's only one that
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makes sense based off of eyewitness reports and what the locals know from those who are talking
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it's the no snitching rule if you talk you'll be punished or you'll be killed which well sometimes in a missing person
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case there's just theories and there might not be a lot of evidence in this case there's evidence that points you
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know it funnels you into the theory yeah and it's just I think it's just a small
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matter of tying all this stuff together and lying it all out in a way that makes
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sense and it tells the complete story and then we can start putting people where they belong which is behind bars
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so when when we explore this Theory and and I hope I'm not speaking at a turn uh for you here Captain I when I say I
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only believe there to be one Theory I think I think you probably agree with that is
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that correct well there's two there's too many eyewitnesses to assume that there's
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other theories so if we're going by this what I'm calling the no snitching rule Theory
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you know if you talk you could be you could be killed or you could be harmed in some way
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look I get it we we've you know I'm not going to claim to be from anywhere that I'm not or to claim
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to know anything more about certain Lifestyles or or certain neighborhoods or anything
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like that that I just don't but you do have that but you do have that Thug Life I mean there's just there's just some
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stuff that can only come with real life experiences that I just don't have and but what I can say you know from seeing
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it on TV watching the movies or hearing hearing other people's real life stories
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I know that this no snitching thing is a real thing in in some walks of life but
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in this particular situation in this particular area look I've spoke to some of the locals they've told me this this
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is unheard of in this area that there can never think of another time in the history these are people older than me
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that have told me I can never recall another crime that was reported that it that somebody was killed because they
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knew something or because they were talking and the thing that makes this so damn stupid here in this particular
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instance is a couple of things one Jabez may have witnessed something it seems almost a certainty that he did
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witness something the problem is he was walking around of his own free will for a week before
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he went missing he wasn't going to police he wasn't even communicating what he saw to his family
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he was just talking to his friends like a normal 14 year old kid would talk this
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kid was not a snitch in in the sense of the word or in the sense of the term right he but again it could have been a
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situation like they said one of the friends is saying I'm I told him not to smoke with everybody it could be as as
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far as these you know quote unquote thugs they they killed Travis maybe it's a robbery gone bad or whatever but like
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we stated before it ends in a murder and then maybe it took him a week to realize
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we we have a eyewitness and we're smoking with that eyewitness something was said something was done and then and
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then he stands up for himself and says hey well you guys did this and if I have to go to the police I will we don't know
00:27:06
that information right he could have said the wrong thing to the wrong person I I get that I just
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I don't know it seems to me like there is a chance that these morons who killed Travis
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panicked and they took it to another level and and and somehow tricked Jabez and then
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killed him as well which may have been totally unnecessary is what I'm one that I'm getting at and then two the other
00:27:37
thing that makes this no snitching rule that these guys pretend to be living by so freaking stupid to me is that we have
00:27:47
evidence we have reports that all three of these guys and I want to be clear about that I'm pretty certain we we have
00:27:55
witnesses saying three people involved in Travis Combs is murder I believe all three of those guys plus maybe one or
00:28:02
two more people may have been involved in the whole Jabez span mess which that means a some form of
00:28:10
abduction probably some form of holding him and then of course killing this young boy
00:28:16
but we have reports that all three of these guys they themselves were talking yeah they weren't talking to police but
00:28:24
they were telling others what they did who killed who who you know who was involved in what so these these guys
00:28:33
that pretend to be living by this no snitching rule they're all talking they're all telling people what's going
00:28:40
on now to further out this Theory a bit an ant of Travis Combs this is Teresa Richardson told the media that Jabez was
00:28:49
killed because he witnessed her nephew's murder Travis's murder right outside her
00:28:54
door she said Jabez knew Travis well and he started to talk about what he saw and
00:29:01
her opinions that's what cost him his life Tawana span agrees she believes that her son was silenced because of
00:29:11
what he knew and because he wasn't following the unwritten no snitching rules he wasn't actually naming names as
00:29:19
far as anyone knows but he was telling people that he knew who had done it at least one woman that Jr knows of told
00:29:27
Jabez to keep quiet for his own good well these three guys these three individuals are three pieces of [ __ ] and
00:29:35
and also though I think it's it's the community making a statement the kingdom the community is making the
00:29:41
statement that this 14 year old boy that had some promise had some Talent at you
00:29:47
know was making the right decisions going to school getting good grades being kind to other people this kid
00:29:55
we're not backing him up we're backing up the three pieces of [ __ ] that robbed a guy and murdered a guy in
00:30:03
front of everybody and that were probably stealing from their own community and they're bullying people within their
00:30:11
own Community that's we're making a stand for them by not doing anything by not standing up you are making a stand
00:30:18
you're saying this is acceptable and and if uh this kid died because he saw something he's done it well that's just
00:30:27
fine that's this the statement that this community is making Tawana actually feels that it's likely
00:30:35
that Jabez did not feel he was in any danger from The Killers of Travis Combs because some of the suspects were pretty
00:30:43
close to Jabez and his family these were people he knew and could identify but also people that he probably did not
00:30:52
think would harm him she also believes that it's possible that someone told his abductors where he would be that night
00:31:00
or even arranged for him to be taken [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] we're back cheers from the cold chilly
00:31:42
really cold garage and Parts Unknown cheers to you captain and you know what before I forget I've been forgetting to
00:31:52
do this and meaning to do so we need to announce have we officially announced that we are going to be at
00:32:00
this year's crime Con in Orlando Florida that was supposed to be top secret oh we are uh they have forbade us from
00:32:10
telling you that we will be there the crowds they didn't want the crowds to get out of hand yes we'll be in Orlando
00:32:16
Florida you're going to be in Florida half the year then right all right so if you want more information here's what
00:32:23
you do you just simply Google crime con 2020 that will take you right to their website and you can find all the
00:32:30
information there there are going to be other wonderful people there as well but
00:32:35
we will certainly be there and the dates for that May 1st through 3rd in wonderful Orlando Florida and please use
00:32:44
our code if you're looking to buy tickets you can save some cashola by using our code t c g 2020
00:32:55
tcg2020 cheers to you Captain you'll have to go to Crime con all weekend they actually have day passes as well so if
00:33:03
you're in the local area it might be something you want to check out for a day and plus we'll probably
00:33:10
do a outside of the crime con Meetup at some bar like we normally do and one thing that I will say real quickly here
00:33:18
is I've been asked many times by people they say look I've never gone Nick is crime con worth it and I always say yeah
00:33:25
I'm Blown Away by the amount of events and the amount of things that they have to see and do there it's like going to
00:33:33
an amusement park where you just can't do everything that they have to offer so we hope that you will join us in Orlando
00:33:40
for this year's crime con now jabez's mother Tawana span I think she's a very very brave woman in
00:33:50
fact she told us that when you are trying to locate your missing child you do not feel any fear perhaps this is how
00:33:59
when Jabez first went missing and rumors were swirling about who was involved she
00:34:05
was able to confront Curtis remember he's one of our suspects and ask him quote do you know what happened to my
00:34:12
son who loved you she says that when she asked him this Curtis's first response was who told you
00:34:20
that she also talked to the third suspect who was seen running away with Curtis this
00:34:27
is Curtis's friend who we've already mentioned Wheelock who denied having anything to do with what happened he did
00:34:35
say to her I thought they would have found Jabez by now this was a long time before jabez's body
00:34:42
was found Tawana took this to mean that Wheelock knew that they had dumped Jabez
00:34:49
somewhere where he was likely to be found and probably likely to be found fairly quickly
00:34:56
Street rumors tell us that we lock very recently confessed to someone while he was partying while he was high or drunk
00:35:05
that he was paid to take care of Jabez and Wheelock and Curtis were both picked up by police after Jabez first went
00:35:14
missing well before his body was found but neither were arrested now I want to be clear here we do not
00:35:21
know because this is Police business Official Police business we do not know whether they were picked up to be
00:35:28
interrogated about Jabez being missing or if they were picked up for other reasons we just don't know yeah or
00:35:35
Travis's murder correct that could be a possibility as well a JJ the other suspect was also picked
00:35:43
up and questioned about Jabez that's what the reports are he told J.R the private investigator that he didn't have
00:35:52
anything to do with what happened to Jabez but the other guys Wheelock and Curtis I want to clear something up here
00:35:59
JJ refers to Curtis uh by his nickname which is tank so his exact statement was but the other guy's Wheelock and tank
00:36:10
might have see this as I get into this whole thing of if you're living by this no snitching
00:36:16
rule why Don't You observe this rule yourself and quit telling everybody else what you've done or what you've seen or
00:36:22
what you've witnessed dumb asses they're dumb asses that's why they're committing crimes because they're not
00:36:29
smart enough or capable enough to do anything else now apparently I've been told that JJ also told someone that he
00:36:39
that he personally was afraid that what happened to Jabez could happen to him personally
00:36:46
now Tawana and Jr the private investigator of course have other theories now that doesn't mean that they
00:36:53
have other theories in regards to Jabez this is not about who killed Jabez it's pretty clear it is one of these guys
00:37:02
Curtis Wheelock or JJ but about what or how deep this whole plot could go they do not believe that the robbery of
00:37:13
Travis Combs was spontaneous and they cite this because they say Travis had not planned to be in Sarasota
00:37:23
that day for reasons we cannot get into and so whoever targeted him knew that they may have known that his plans had
00:37:32
recently changed I was being told that his plans changed the night before or even as late as the morning of it's
00:37:40
possible that whoever robbed him and killed him that somehow they had knowledge about where he would be and
00:37:47
probably Insider knowledge that he would have money and or marijuana on him at the time yeah or
00:37:57
maybe even something bigger I mean just because the the rumors out there or the speculation out there is that he
00:38:05
just sold weed there's look you got into that because of the money and could you
00:38:12
got into something else because you're going to make a little more money but what we do have is Witnesses hearing
00:38:19
people say give us whatever and Travis saying I don't got it you know so so like you said these guys playing
00:38:27
something out and they were looking for something and Travis was claiming he didn't I don't have it yeah it's it
00:38:34
seems to me like there's there's enough talk enough evidence here that the three men
00:38:40
who surrounded Travis's vehicle who killed him and disposed of the car I think they they planned this event
00:38:48
whether there was anyone else involved behind the scenes who set Travis up or ordered the Jabez be taken out that's I
00:38:58
think purely speculation but clearly someone orchestrated the robbery and then wanted to send a message and chose
00:39:05
to use Jabez to do it one of the truly terrible things about this case and there's many terrible
00:39:13
things about this case but one of the truly terrible things about this case and you've mentioned this already
00:39:19
Captain is how many people seem to have Intel about what happened to Jabez and who did it but won't talk it's one of
00:39:27
the few cases we've covered where there are known suspects but cops just can't pin the crime on them we know that one
00:39:36
of jabez's friends told Lucille that Jabez was in Bradenton which is where he was eventually found
00:39:44
how did he know that another witness told the private investigator that the family was not going to like what was
00:39:51
done to jabez's face this was before his body was found remember he was missing a
00:39:57
tooth that we know of that was one thing that was reported again how did he know
00:40:02
this how did he have this Insider information and some witnesses were shut down from speaking with authorities
00:40:09
altogether by their parents now I want to go on record and say I get that I get that I get the parents saying
00:40:16
you know what I I don't feel comfortable with you talking um I understand that but ever ever like
00:40:24
I said everybody here everybody that's not coming forward with information they're they're making a stand whether
00:40:32
they think they are or not they're basically saying the bad guys win the innocent kid that died who cares
00:40:40
and and that's what I want for my community that's what they're stating so if they say well that's not what I
00:40:47
want but that's what your actions prove you know so it doesn't matter if you I always tell people
00:40:54
don't don't give a [ __ ] about people's words it's their actions their actions prove and everybody's actions here prove
00:41:02
they don't they don't want a safer community they don't want a community that people
00:41:07
feel safe to go to law enforcement and and to say this crime happened they don't want that because if they did
00:41:15
they would take a screen the sad irony here is the result of all of this fear and silence is that the bad guys are
00:41:23
being protected the bad guys are being protected while an innocent young boy paid the ultimate price now a community
00:41:31
activist in Newtown named Wayne Washington who was a contact person for the family and led several of the search
00:41:40
parties for Jabez he asked community members to reconsider the so-called no snitch rule he said we let our kids kill
00:41:50
each other and we don't say anything about it they tell us not to snitch and that is wrong detective Megan buck one
00:41:59
of the two detectives currently on the case said two People magazine quote somebody knows something it's so sad and
00:42:07
no one is helping his friends aren't talking nobody's talking yeah but on top of that you also have a a pastor that
00:42:15
comes forward with some information and then backs off it's it's absolutely ridiculous
00:42:21
you know it's oh well if you if you question me more I'm I'm going to use these little
00:42:27
loopholes there's supposed to be a separation of church and state but we create these
00:42:32
loopholes so the pastor then can just say I don't need to talk to police that God that you're praying to every week
00:42:40
might have some kind of judgment for you at the end of all this for not coming forward not taking a thing yeah I I
00:42:47
agree with that but he's the pastor is not the only one that gets to invoke this privilege now in his defense what
00:42:55
his public statement is is that he had no real knowledge of he's saying nobody came to him directly specifically about
00:43:04
Jabez spans right so he's just hearing Rumblings in the community he yeah he could be hearing rumors and he may have
00:43:11
thought hey maybe they have no idea maybe they're you know their investigation is a search in the dark
00:43:18
right now they you know they have no breadcrumbs at all maybe I could at least pass along some rumors that I
00:43:24
heard well great now I sound like a pastor hater well I don't think you're I'm not a
00:43:31
Creator but I I get I won't speak for all the listeners I'm sure somebody's uh very upset with you right now but one
00:43:37
thing that I think we all should be very upset about is I want to reference another crime that took place in this
00:43:43
community and you know I this is this is a situation where there's there's a young man who
00:43:51
his name was Christopher Ramos and I believe he yes he was 26 years old at the time that he was killed
00:43:59
this is an article from uh September of last year of 2019 it says to charge in Sarasota murder deputies seek more
00:44:11
information well the result of this whole thing and I won't read the entire story but they arrest two young men this
00:44:19
is Sean Thomas and Davon Lee well these two young men are suspected of killing this other man
00:44:29
Christopher Ramos who was just 26 years old this is important this story is important to the Jabez story and to
00:44:37
Travis Combs story for many reasons for me and and first of all is Ramos this Christopher Ramos there are plenty of
00:44:48
Rumblings that he ran around with our three suspects that he was known to hang out with that group probably even
00:44:56
committed crimes with these guys I don't know that there's enough out there to suggest that he was involved somehow in
00:45:03
Travis's death or jabez's death but he somehow all wrapped up and tied into this thing his name is weaved in and out
00:45:11
of the story lines of this big case well he's killed and he's he's a thug I I mean I'm sorry to the to his family I'm
00:45:21
sorry that you lost him and I you don't deserve that he didn't deserve to lose his life either but
00:45:29
the problem that I have here is this article clearly states it was the community it was tipsters that provided
00:45:38
the information to detectives that led to the arrest of these two other guys of of this uh Thomas and Lee characters
00:45:46
so what you're saying that the community then spoke up and said hey this Thug this Thug that was doing no good
00:45:55
right again it's protecting the bad guy yeah a bad guy was protected people were
00:46:01
willing to come forward and here here's the INF the information I have is basically
00:46:08
Christopher Ramos rob somebody and somebody that was either tied to one of these two guys or both of them or one of
00:46:17
these guys directly yeah he robbed them this guy is picked up on other charges and has to serve eight months in jail
00:46:27
okay he gets out eight months later and goes and retaliates against Christopher Ramos
00:46:34
and kills him for for robbing it right that's really the underlining story that's the behind the scenes story of
00:46:42
why that young man is now not with us and again it's like can you can you come forward whoever came forward in that
00:46:53
particular case should be an inspiration for these people to come forward for jabez's
00:46:59
murder and for Travis Combs murder and look I understand that Travis Combs was out peddling weed
00:47:07
um and I understand that Jabez was not you know may not have been a saint I'm not a saint we all were 14 years old at
00:47:14
one time and we all smoked a cigar or did something stupid with our friends we all did that yeah it was an innocent
00:47:21
child at the end of the day he's an innocent child and he was taken from us by some
00:47:28
of these some of these real [ __ ] who can't even follow their own quote-unquote Street code
00:47:34
and it's time to put them away and look here's the other thing these guys the three that we're talking about they
00:47:43
commit crimes on The Daily on The Daily it's part of their it's part of their regular weekly routine they're always
00:47:51
looking to rob somebody they're always looking to take advantage of someone they are always looking to hurt someone
00:47:58
they are a bad terrible horrible people and if you don't know anything about jabez's murder or Travis Combs murder
00:48:05
but you know that one of these three or all of these three have done something else that's terrible go tell the police
00:48:11
go get them locked up for anything anything it doesn't have to be for the murder of Jabez or for Travis Combs get
00:48:18
them behind bars that is where they belong your streets will be safer if you do that your community will be better
00:48:25
for it these are bad people do not convince yourself otherwise yeah and don't convince yourself that you're safe
00:48:33
either as long as these pieces of [ __ ] around the street nobody's safe because
00:48:38
like you said they they don't follow their own code and so guess what if you're protecting a piece of [ __ ]
00:48:48
guess what you smell something that's because you use a piece of [ __ ] and then when a piece of [ __ ] possibly is
00:48:58
murdered and then you stand up and then you you protect him by then going after his Killers then what doesn't that make
00:49:06
the community too shitty well you know no I'm not good I mean you can do that but I'm not going
00:49:12
to fault anybody for coming forward and saying hey I know who killed Christopher
00:49:15
Ramos that's the right thing to do you know what I'm saying is it doesn't make any sense doesn't make any sense well it
00:49:20
doesn't make any sense before the people the people that have information about the murder of Christopher Ramos may have
00:49:26
no information about Jabez or right we can't believe that we don't have anything or any reason to
00:49:34
believe that those are the same people and and here's what I firmly believe if in fact I wish they were the same people
00:49:40
because those people would have came forward obviously against Jabez or would have came forward I mean for Japan or
00:49:47
for Travis and I mean really there's just a lot of there's a lot of activity here there's a lot of rumors
00:49:58
there's a lot of things that are going on in the streets a lot of talk amongst these these circles
00:50:04
and here's the thing that I I want to take this even a step further to not even to go beyond the good people in the
00:50:15
community because this is a community filled with lots and lots and lots of good wonderful people lots of good
00:50:23
families but here's the thing I want to go beyond that and I want to talk to the
00:50:28
three suspects that we have called out on this show if you're one of those three guys
00:50:36
everybody knows you know your buddies are talking you know you've told people what you've done or what you've saw what
00:50:44
you've witnessed what you've been a part of if you want to do something good for
00:50:50
yourself it's time for you to go to police and for you to go to detectives because
00:50:57
guess what it's only a matter of time before one of your so-called Buddies one of your so-called friends
00:51:06
who think about the other two in your group for a second think about all the terrible things that they've done or
00:51:12
been involved in think about what kind of what kind of person they really really
00:51:16
are they're not going to have your back at the end of the day they're not going to have your back when they're pushed
00:51:22
into a corner it's only a matter of time before one of these turds turns on the other two and if you want to be the
00:51:30
smartest guy in that terrible group you better be the one that turns first do something good for yourself now
00:51:39
the other sad sad sad thing here that just breaks my damn heart is is that the tragedy of this case is that Jabez
00:51:51
span was truly just in the wrong place at the wrong time he was last seen less than 200 yards
00:51:59
from the vacant lot where he came out of a friend's house and witnessed the shooting of Travis Combs right in his
00:52:07
own backyard both his case and that of Travis Combs case both of these cases remain unsolved
00:52:15
these are unsolved cases jabez's case is an open active homicide investigation according to the private investigator
00:52:24
Anton jabez's family J.R and Tawana had a meeting with detectives this took place in early November of last year
00:52:33
this two exchange information and Tawana says that law enforcement is diligently
00:52:39
working on her son's case that they are all on the same page and she just tries to stay out of the way of the
00:52:48
investigators unless she has information to relay we spoke to detective Buck she
00:52:54
did tell us that the investigation is open and active and that the fifty thousand dollar reward for information
00:53:02
leading to an arrest is still available but the fact remains the same men who were suspected in the early stages of
00:53:12
the investigation remained the suspects to this day yeah although they've never been officially named as such
00:53:18
authorities just need that little bit of additional evidence before they can make
00:53:25
arrest in the murder of Jabez Span in a surprising turn of events prosecutors dropped the accessory after
00:53:35
the fact charges against Reginald Parker now he does remain in jail on charges of
00:53:41
failing to report in as a sex offender where he will be until 2022 but he isn't getting any legal pressure to talk about
00:53:52
Jabez spann's case that we know of yeah again like I said I think that's a lot of pressure or if you feel a threat of
00:54:00
death to come forward again what information do some of these individuals have is it just secondhand information
00:54:10
but if these people could come together collectively I think it would be a lot more powerful
00:54:16
and they'd probably feel a lot more safe as well but again easier said than done
00:54:22
I am I am so hopeful and I'm very optimistic and I think there's plenty of reason to
00:54:28
be optimistic that this case will be solved and I feel and I have had people tell me that it's as plain and as simple
00:54:36
as this if you can solve Travis Combs murder you'll solve Jabez spans murder if you
00:54:43
if you can solve Jabez span's murder you will solve Travis Combs murder that's the only way for your community to heal
00:54:51
let's get these cases off of the books Let's get further closure for these families these families are still trying
00:54:59
to live their lives and still trying to cope they're still grieving they're still trying to
00:55:04
in a sense you never truly can move on but they're trying to move on and I I thank God that Jabez span was finally
00:55:13
found and I and and my heart breaks so much for his mother and grandmother and extended family that they had to wait so
00:55:21
long and go through that misery for 17 almost 18 months again I I want to make sure that I give a big
00:55:28
big shout out to the Peace River search and rescue team uh for their fantastic efforts for for efforts over the course
00:55:38
of many many many months donating time efforts uh a lot of people came together to try to find this young boy now to
00:55:48
learn more about what they do and they are doing so many so many good things and or to make a donation you can visit
00:55:55
them at prsar.org now Jabez chabez's mother has created a non-profit foundation called the Jabez span
00:56:07
foundation in his memory it acts as a resource for families of missing children the website isn't up and
00:56:15
running yet but you can follow the foundation on Facebook if anyone has any information on either of these
00:56:25
unsolved cases on the unsolved murder of Travis Combs or if you have any information about the unsolved murder of
00:56:34
Jabez span please please call detective Kim Laster at 941-364-7327 or call the Sarasota Crime
00:56:48
Stoppers at 941-366-8477 [Music] all right thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend thanks for joining
00:57:14
us in the garage be good to one another and before we go we have a little recommended listening for everybody out
00:57:21
there this comes from some of our very good friends we have Justin from the Generation Y podcast and the minds of
00:57:28
Madness podcast have teamed up to do something very awesome that we want you to check out called deadly Misadventures
00:57:35
and we will have that on our recommended page at truecrime garage.com everybody be good be kind and don't litter
00:57:46
foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]