00:00:07
[Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:00:45
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always there's a man that would like to remind you that there are
00:00:50
a lot of wimps out there yeah I might freak your nose with my shoulder blade it's good to be seen and it's good to
00:00:57
see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend today we are drinking way Avera by the great cigar City
00:01:10
Brewing Company this is an American Citra Pale Ale ABV 5.5% garage grade four and three-quarter bottle caps out
00:01:18
of five this week's fridge is full because of You captain no we know that's not true
00:01:23
but the captain is thankful that the fridge is full because of you guys out there first up a big cheers to all of
00:01:31
our friends and parts unknown we got so many of them first we have Cortney we have Pamela B David R and Brian be all
00:01:40
hailing and P you a big shout to christen which wounded me to call Rick James a POS but ya get funky with a
00:01:48
little Rick James next up we have Michael in Long Beach New York and a big shout out to Terry in Harbor City
00:01:55
California and last but certainly not least we have a cheers to lady D two beats to G sweet and Adrienne thanks to
00:02:04
everybody for filling up the fridge for this week's shows if you want to help us
00:02:07
out with next week's shows go to true crime garage comm and click on the donate button and for everything through
00:02:13
crime garage check out true crime garage comm and check us out on Facebook Instagram Twitter all that stuff at true
00:02:21
crime garage and that is enough of the beers yes all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's
00:02:29
talk some true crime [Music] a 14-year old from the Newtown neighborhood of Sarasota still remains
00:03:08
missing tonight the best span was last seen back on Labor Day along 23rd Street in Sarasota ABC sevens Rick Adams joins
00:03:16
us live tonight from Sarasota Police Headquarters with more on the story Rick it's a parent's worst nightmare
00:03:23
having a child's vanish off the face of the earth Tawana spans 14 year old son Jabez has been missing now since
00:03:30
September fourth span her boyfriend and other family members are pleading for information to find him and hopefully a
00:03:37
safe return home anybody know anything like don't just let him be I hope they're like Jabez was last seen playing
00:03:48
near his grandmother's house in the 1500 block of 23rd Street in Sarasota the Sarasota Police Department are following
00:03:54
all leads and asking the community for their assistance we have dying that searches grid searches we have tried
00:04:01
pinging his phone we have followed up leads at this point we know and believe that there are people within our
00:04:08
community that has information about this young man and his whereabouts in fact the ping to Jabez his cell phone
00:04:14
tracked it to an undisclosed the wooded area near Sarasota but police weren't able to find the phone or any evidence
00:04:21
of him being there and one of the ways the community is trying to help is they're going door-to-door and store the
00:04:26
store with flyers like this groups are now going out daily handing out hundreds of these flyers with the hopes they get
00:04:33
in the hands of somebody who knows something this is an additional another opportunity for the community to come
00:04:39
together and to support one another to show love to collaborate you know to do what's right
00:04:44
Jabez Spanish describes as a bright teen who was very athletic he is between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall
00:04:51
weighing 120 230 pounds with black hair and brown eyes he was last seen wearing a turquoise shirt somebody got to know
00:05:00
something somebody has to know something where this boy is and if you know more information on Bess's whereabouts are
00:05:08
being asked to contact authorities immediately reporting a live from downtown Sarasota this evening I'm Rick
00:05:14
Adams Scott back to you alright Rick thanks so much that update this week we are discussing the case of Jabez Eugene
00:05:34
Spann who in 2017 was a 14 year old boy living in the Newtown area of Sarasota Florida Sarasota's population was about
00:05:44
56,000 people newtown is majority african-american in fact a historic plaque posted by the Sarasota County
00:05:52
historic Commission dedicates the area as the quote first black community in the city Newtown is near downtown
00:06:01
Sarasota Jabez was a great kid according to everyone who knew him he was full of
00:06:07
jokes and humor his mother Tawana Spann whom true-crime garage spoke with at length had various
00:06:15
troubles throughout her life Jabez was actually born in prison and as a newborn he was handed over to a foster
00:06:22
family but his grandmother Lucille Hillary tracked him down and put up a fight to raise him herself she got
00:06:32
legal guardianship of Jabez when he was just two months old she kept the biblical name Jabez that Tawana gave him
00:06:40
which means bearer of pain Tawana felt that this name would make him strong and bring him God's protection throughout
00:06:48
his life Jabez adored his grandmother Lucille although they sometimes butted heads because she was old-school in her
00:06:56
child-rearing ways and he would rebel a little and give her a hard time but everyone loved each other and
00:07:04
generally Jabez toed the lines drawn by Lucille Jabez also had a good relationship with his mom who was
00:07:11
released after serving her for you sentence she moved to Tampa Bay Florida not far away
00:07:18
Jabez was thriving in his grandparents home so his mom made the decision to let him continue to live with them Jabez his
00:07:28
mother Tawana was very involved with Jabez even though they did not live together or share a home Jabez his
00:07:35
father however lived in Jacksonville Florida and was not much a part of the boy's life now on the other hand it's
00:07:42
pretty clear the Jabez had some poor role models in his life an older brother was serving 15 years in prison another
00:07:50
brother was in rehab and his uncle Cornelius was in and out of prison multiple times for some pretty serious
00:07:56
crimes Tawana Spann told Dateline that Jabez had seen these family members making
00:08:02
serious mistakes throughout their life and he was determined not to go down these same paths he did have one
00:08:10
incident involving the police but generally he was a good kid with his head screwed on properly he got good
00:08:16
grades in school and in fact he was a teacher's assistant and was a football star according to his mother
00:08:24
Jabez was always carrying a football around his family had hopes of him playing football in college and maybe
00:08:31
even making it to the NFL one of his friends described Jabez as fun energetic and very athletic he was great at
00:08:39
basketball football and he was also known to do these flips at a moment's notice you see these people sometimes
00:08:46
you see a football star on on TV who will just do one of these flips randomly just standing there and all of a sudden
00:08:51
they're in midair and then they're back on their feet again crazy stuff yeah that's how I get out of
00:08:56
bed on flip at a time Jabez was usually found somewhere in the neighborhood often playing ball or
00:09:02
hanging out at the park with his friends Jabez was not tiny I mean he was 14 years old he was 5 foot 9 inches tall
00:09:10
120 pounds and we talked about Jabez being full of humor and just really a fun kid almost every picture I've seen
00:09:19
you can see how happy he is in these pictures he was a kid with a great smile a broad and warmth
00:09:27
just a good-looking all-american kid yeah they say when you smile that big you also smile with your eyes let's talk
00:09:34
about the night in question the evening in question that the night that Jabez vanished this is on the night of
00:09:43
September 4th 2017 Labor Day it's a Monday Jabez attended a Labor Day party this
00:09:51
was held by his family family members said Jabez did not appear to be having fun at the party this is probably
00:09:59
because there weren't many kids there he's 14 years old he's probably bored at a shindig that's just full of adults he
00:10:07
did hold his uncle's baby for some time but around 5:30 p.m. he left to go hang out with some buddies his grandmother
00:10:16
reports that she saw him around 6 p.m. near a memorial recently erected for a shooting victim from the neighborhood
00:10:25
this man that was killed his name was Travis Combs there was a vigil held for Travis and Jabez attended this one of
00:10:34
Travis's female cousins had a relationship with Tawana spans brother so he was sort of family to Jabez this
00:10:43
vigil was in the 15-hundred block of 23rd Street at Palma Dahlia Avenue right near Lucille's house where Jabez lived
00:10:52
Chavez returned to Lucille's house with his buddy whom we are just going to refer to here as t because he is a minor
00:11:01
the two were there sometime in the 8 to 10 p.m. range they left after that Jabez
00:11:08
was supposed to spend the night at a friend's house that night as he often did but he always would come home to go
00:11:15
to school and the next morning you know this is a Tuesday morning there is school that day when he did not show up
00:11:23
at school well this is unheard of for Jabez he had good attendance records and his grandmother is now quite concerned
00:11:35
about where could this young boy be where could this young man be and so she tries calling Jabez and gets no answer
00:11:42
on his phone Lucille says she knew something was wrong immediately she was calling around looking for him to no
00:11:51
avail finally she called tuwana Jabez his mother who immediately jumped in her vehicle and sped off to Sarasota now
00:11:59
she's actually thinking while she's making her way there how much trouble Jabez was going to be
00:12:06
in once she locates him because she's upset that hey you worried your grandmother you didn't go to school
00:12:13
you're gonna be in trouble when I find you yeah it could be something simple like he spent the night
00:12:19
at his friend's house supposed to wake up in the morning to go home to get ready for school
00:12:23
but they overslept or something the other thing too I mean even though it was unheard of for him to miss school he
00:12:31
had great attendance records kids get older they do things maybe you stay the night at your buddy's house but he
00:12:38
doesn't want to go to school you find something stupid to go off and do instead and then you go that way the
00:12:43
problem here we have is now we're talking about getting close to the 24-hour mark of when the last time he
00:12:51
was seen he doesn't go to school and he's not responding to phone calls going to his phone so his kid yeah well good
00:12:59
kid and the family thinks he's a good kid but you also have all these people in his family that started making wrong
00:13:06
turns at some point in their life and so you had to be concerned with that as a parent is this an action of him going
00:13:15
down the wrong path correct and with any neighborhood be it I don't care where it's located I don't
00:13:22
care the class of people there are ways for teenagers to slip into the wrong crowd very easily now his mother arrived
00:13:31
in this new town area after dark again this is right around the 24-hour mark after she last saw him
00:13:40
so Lucille then calls police this is to report job missing this is on the evening of
00:13:47
September 5th after some persuading the Sarasota Police Department did issue a missing persons report but of course
00:13:56
initially treating this case as a possible runaway situation this was based off of past behavior as Jabez was
00:14:04
known to stay with friends sometimes for multiple days at a time and occasionally
00:14:10
you know he's going to get into it with Grandma from time to time you know as teenagers
00:14:14
we don't always agree with those with our parents or those who are raising us and sometimes you get in an argument and
00:14:22
you stomp away and police I think we're kind of thinking Jabez is 14 years old that's a
00:14:27
possibility here we don't have any reports of that from Jabez family on September 8th with Jabez missing now for
00:14:35
four days and no activity on his phone or social media the Sarasota Police Department upgraded the case to a
00:14:41
missing child case the Department issued a media blast about Jabez being missing
00:14:48
and this blast said it's unclear what the circumstances were leading up to his disappearance detectives are asking
00:14:57
anyone who knows the whereabouts of Jabez who called detective Megan buck and gave a phone number but then six
00:15:05
days later this is I'm sorry six days after Jabez vanished the area was hit by a hurricane this is hurricane
00:15:14
Irma this knocked out the power to much of the area for quite some time it wasn't until after the storm was over
00:15:22
that police began to take Jabez disappearance much more seriously they reissued the missing child alert and the
00:15:31
request for information this on September 18 while police were probably thinking well the whole city's under
00:15:38
attack by weather if this kid was just mad at his family he'd probably come back for safety correct and we're
00:15:45
getting up there in the number of days now that he's been missing at this point Sarasota police chief bernadette de Pino
00:15:52
updated reporters on the investigation and affirmed that it was officially a missing purse
00:15:59
investigation while the police had issued a florida missing child she said the case did not meet the
00:16:06
criteria for an Amber Alert because there was simply no evidence to suggest that Jabez was abducted and this is
00:16:14
something that we've talked about in other cases captain that this one is a little trickier this one's a little more
00:16:20
difficult and I just base this off of one victimology and to kind of the movements and behaviors of everything
00:16:29
involved right we we've discussed plenty of cases where somebody see somebody go
00:16:37
missing off of the streets or somebody see somebody actually grabbed her snatched and grad we don't have any
00:16:43
reports of anybody claiming that Jabez was was spotted being attacked or being pursued by someone and then on top of
00:16:52
that when we look at victimology just the just the nature of his age his gender and his size makes him a less
00:17:01
likely target for you know the more traditional that's a terrible word to use but some of the more trash that
00:17:10
we've discussed on this show in regards to child abduction cases in in the predators and the perpetrators of those
00:17:17
crimes only you said he's five nine one twenty highly athletic so he would be a lot harder to kidnap yeah and I think I
00:17:29
don't know that I can emphasize the athletic part enough I mean given what I've been told by several people
00:17:40
this is the kind of kid that if he wanted to get away from somebody he could I mean he was fast and it was very
00:17:46
athletic doesn't rule out the possibility of several people right and also the scariest thing is one the days
00:17:55
are really starting to add up here and there's zero absolutely zero activity on his phone
00:18:01
chief de Pino also stated that police had pinged Jabez a cell phone she would not say anything further other than to
00:18:10
state that it did not lead to anything but it came out later that the phone had pinged in a wooded area near an
00:18:18
industrial park and nothing was found when this area was searched apparently this area is mostly water in
00:18:26
woods okay now for the general timeline this takes us to about the two weeks mark Jabez his family had been searching
00:18:36
for him now for two weeks at this point credit to his family they were doing all
00:18:42
the right things they were vocal and outspoken about demanding action on Jabez case they pushed for searches they
00:18:50
handed out flyers and they spread the word about their missing boy Jabez is aunt set up a Facebook page for missing
00:18:59
Jabez span which publicized the boy's disappearance and posted about volunteer searches and flyer distribution Tawana
00:19:08
had been able to determine Jabez movements on the night that he was last seen she figured out that he had gone to
00:19:15
the park this was to play basketball but he didn't stay very long he he left before too long because he was not
00:19:23
really dressed appropriately for sports activities right we all know the situation captain you like to play a
00:19:30
little ball in the neighborhood you want your t-shirt on you want to be in some shorts and in your basketball shoes and
00:19:35
given that he was just coming from the party he was on you know wearing a nicer shirt wearing the pair of slacks wasn't
00:19:43
really dressed for any sports activities yeah I like to do my whooping and penny
00:19:48
loafers and shorts from the park she was able to figure out that he did in fact go back
00:19:55
to his grandmother's where he lived this is in the 8 to 10 p.m. time frame that we discussed he was at his grandma's
00:20:03
until he left with a friend this kid that we're calling T after that the trail went cold
00:20:10
Jabez 'as mother Tawana and grandmother lucille knew that the boy would not have
00:20:15
just run away their mother's intuition was telling them that something was very wrong
00:20:20
and Tawana told ABC Action News at the time that she believes someone knew where her son was saying quote I don't
00:20:29
know if they are holding him or if something has happened to him I feel as though if there was nothing wrong with
00:20:36
him he would have contacted someone by now there has to be information out there
00:20:42
there is somebody that knows something Tawana told true-crime garage that she had a sinking feeling very early on and
00:20:52
she didn't really want to communicate that with anybody but it's mother's intuition so he misses school the
00:20:57
grandma is trying to make contact with them the mom is rushing back like you said initially thinking that he was just
00:21:05
doing something wrong misbehaving then they do another step by starting to retrace his steps which is there's
00:21:13
something that everybody should do if somebody goes missing right and this is also you know when they're doing all of
00:21:19
this and trying to put the puzzle pieces together to really fill out this timeline and follow it to the end or to
00:21:29
the last known point they're also talking to people in the neighborhood and she's talking to other kids in the
00:21:36
neighborhood especially kids they're Jabez 'as age right just simply you know have you seen him have you heard
00:21:44
anything is there somewhere that I should be looking that we're not and during the conversations amongst these
00:21:51
different kids and and whatnot at some point one of these kids tells her frankly just blurts it out says quote
00:21:59
you know he witnessed a murder so she begins to hear rumors about Jabez disappearance
00:22:06
Tawana told the ABC reporter that she had heard from various people that Jabez was in danger she said quote Jabez was
00:22:16
supposed to have witnessed something of a violent crime whether or not that's true or not a 14-year old does not fall
00:22:23
off the face of the earth no social media no nothing you're going to contact your friends or somebody Sarasota Police
00:22:31
had clearly heard these rumors as well chief de Pino said that they were following up on every lead but the
00:22:39
rumors and the gossip surrounding Jabez disappearance had not been verified as credible she made the following
00:22:47
statement alluding to the word on the street the Jabez had been victimized by someone
00:22:53
quote we have done grid searches and we tried pinging his phone we have followed
00:22:59
up on leads at this point we know and believe that there are people within our community that has information about
00:23:07
this young man and his whereabout as she's asking around in the community she also knows that some of these kids are
00:23:14
more likely to talk to her than they would be to law enforcement but but now she is getting these rumors but she's
00:23:23
not able to connect some of the dots on September 26 2017 Tawana Spann and Lucille Tillery made a
00:23:31
public plea for the return of their beloved son and grandson Lucille was pouring tears as she said quote I just
00:23:39
want to say I know somebody out there knows what happened to Jabez we love Jabez all we want is for anyone who
00:23:47
knows anything just give him back to us we just want him back this could be anybody's child
00:23:55
I'm begging pleading just bring him back she went on to say quote the house is so
00:24:01
empty without him in it that's my baby somebody please please help us Lucille emphasized that she was no stranger to
00:24:09
emotional pain she had already lost a husband who dropped dead in their yard she lost a brother a sister who was
00:24:17
killed by a lightning strike and she had lost her parents as well but she said this is a feeling I've never
00:24:24
felt before in my life chief de Pino also spoke addressing the frustration that her department felt at
00:24:31
not finding anything she said quote we're doing everything we can but it's very frustrating we are not getting
00:24:39
information from our community so we are asking again and reaching out to the citizens in our community to please
00:24:46
consider coming forward she was appealing directly to people in the neighborhood who police clearly felt
00:24:53
knew something specific about what had happened to Jabez she stated that foul play was not being ruled out but
00:25:02
reiterated that there was no information either way under pressure from the family Sarasota Police announced a
00:25:09
reward in Jabez case on September 30th this reward offered jointly by Sarasota Police Department the Florida Department
00:25:18
of Law Enforcement this was for $6,000 in addition a digital billboard had been donated this was to be used to ask for
00:25:28
information in Jabez case by october 3rd the FBI got involved they had joined in
00:25:34
the case helping in the search for Jabez volunteer searchers organized by the family continued to spend their days
00:25:42
looking for clues throughout the neighborhood and surrounding areas the family put together prayer vigils and
00:25:48
marches down Martin Luther King jr. way to where Jabez was last seen this near his grandmother's house keeping the case
00:25:57
in the public eye the reward for information leading to Jabez whereabouts grew all the way up to $25,000 19 was
00:26:07
contributed by the FBI 5,000 by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and 1000 by the Sarasota Police
00:26:16
Department all right so but now we have the family doing their due diligence talking to the community getting answers
00:26:23
relaying that to law enforcement now law enforcement is making public statements
00:26:29
and also adding a reward so it seems like everybody's doing as much as they can everybody's on the same page everybody's
00:26:38
working together they all have the same goal in mind let's find this fourteen-year-old boy the family did
00:26:45
report to the media that they were receiving daily calls from Sarasota Police with updates on the case it
00:26:52
seemed that the police department was actively investigating the case and legitimately interested in solving it
00:26:59
this should not sound like information that we need to report but sometimes we've seen that police do not give their
00:27:06
full attention as much to inner city victims at least publicly that does not seem to be the case here I want to
00:27:14
really underline this and reiterate this very strongly true crime garage spoke with Jabez family and with people very
00:27:24
close to the case every single one of them said that they firmly believe and have seen so much evidence of such that
00:27:34
the Sarasota Police Department was fully vested in this investigation that they were they were being driven emotionally
00:27:43
and by the community and by their just their own wants and needs to find Jabez themself they were fully all in on this
00:27:51
case nobody on the inside be it the family or otherwise has questioned that now I think one thing that we see here
00:27:59
captain when a child goes missing and has been missing for weeks this is a crime or
00:28:07
this is this is something that truly affects the community it's a crime against the community and
00:28:13
when that takes place we want the community wants something physical to point at and to blame you know why did
00:28:21
this happen why would this happen here and unfortunately in this case we had kind of two different approaches to it
00:28:29
where we had some people were saying look if you had been a better mother your kid would have never gone missing
00:28:36
and I won I I won't stand for that at all I can't cannot stand that I understand that his mother has made
00:28:44
mistakes but she is a good person and I believe that she is a good person she made mistakes just like anybody is
00:28:52
capable of especially when we're younger well here's the thing you gotta love though is he was basically being put
00:28:58
into the system right foster family mm-hmm his grandma steps up to the plate and says oh no but he's gonna stay in
00:29:06
our family I'm gonna raise this boy and then the mom starts getting her life together and she has the love for her
00:29:15
child enough to say you know what maybe he's in a better situation because I made
00:29:20
these mistakes and I don't want him to go down the same path I want to give my child the best opportunity and maybe the
00:29:27
best opportunity is with my mother and with me being as much of a cheerleader as I can from the sideline and being as
00:29:36
much of his mother from the sideline yeah and I think that's exactly right and the thing here too is she is upfront
00:29:44
Jabez --is mother Tawana she's upfront about her mistakes that she made and she says look I didn't make these mistakes
00:29:50
because I had a bad upbringing she says I had a very good upbringing the problem
00:29:55
was that once I got to a certain age I started making bad choices I started hanging out with the wrong people going
00:30:02
to the wrong areas doing the wrong things and that's what ended her up in prison for that 4-year sentence and as
00:30:09
you said she gets out she finds that her son is in a very good situation thriving
00:30:14
in that situation and she allowed him to continue to thrive in that situation the
00:30:20
other thing too that the family pointed out especially Jabez his mother was that
00:30:25
the people that were friends with them and you know community co-workers whatnot they also wanted somebody to
00:30:34
blame they wanted something physical to point out and to blame and it was a whole different blame game they wanted
00:30:40
to blame the police and say that the police were not doing enough that maybe they didn't care that they weren't
00:30:46
trying as hard as they could and the family has said straight up anybody that was wasting our time with that
00:30:56
we had no time for that that is not helping this case along and that in fact was just not what was going on at all
00:31:03
Sarasota Police Department was all in [Music] simply safe home security is getting
00:31:23
commercial-grade enterprise level security for your own home think about the security fortune
00:31:30
500 companies use this is exactly what kind of security you get with simply safe if there's a break-in simply safe
00:31:38
uses real video evidence to give police an eyewitness account of the crime and we all know how important that is and
00:31:45
that also means police dispatch up to three hundred and fifty percent faster than a normal burglar alarm with simply
00:31:53
safe you get comprehensive protection for your home outdoor cameras and doorbells alert you to anyone
00:31:59
approaching your home entry motion and glass breaking sensors guard inside simply safe protects your home from
00:32:07
fires water damage and carbon monoxide poisoning and it's all monitored 24/7 by live security professionals you can set
00:32:16
it up yourself with no tools needed or they can do it for you and it's only fifty cents a day with no contracts
00:32:23
protect yourself protect your family with simply safe visit simply safecom slash garage you'll get free shipping
00:32:30
and a 60 day risk-free trial you got nothing to lose go now to simply safecom slash garage so
00:32:38
they know that our show sent you that's simply safecom slash garage I say I love
00:32:44
you to people all the time when I'm leaving for work when I'm dropping Nick off at school so he can study computer I
00:32:52
say it all the time but when I think about how much they mean to me sometimes saying it doesn't feel like enough when
00:32:59
you say how much you love someone in a Hallmark card it just feels different like taking that every day reminder and
00:33:05
turning it into a kind of love they can hold on to so I decided to gave a Hallmark Valentine's Day card to
00:33:12
all their important people in my life this year because hallmark has so many kinds of Valentine's Day cards I know
00:33:18
I'll be able to find the one for every important relationship plus this year for every Valentine's Day card purchased
00:33:25
Hallmark will give a card to someone who could use a little love up till a million cards Valentine's Day
00:33:32
is Friday February 14th just a reminder to everybody keep the love going and visit Hallmark comm slash garage to find
00:33:40
Valentine's Day cards for everyone you care about and use our promo code garage to get 20% off your first card purchase
00:33:48
give a little love with Hallmark check out Hallmark calm slash garage today [Music]
00:34:08
all right cheers mates from very cold parts unknown I'm in the garage and normally I like to
00:34:17
say cheers to you through the glass captain because we're separated by glass like a couple of wild animals but today
00:34:25
we are separated by several state lines so it cheers everybody out there I am in
00:34:30
beautiful sunny Florida uh-huh and that's a lie I'm actually I'm joining you from a bunker at the bottom of the
00:34:39
ocean yeah and it smells a lot better in the garage this way all right well cheers everybody out there back to our
00:34:48
case captain by the end of October law-enforcement officials were stepping up efforts to find Jabez agents from the
00:34:56
FBI the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Sarasota Police Department we're recanvassing certain
00:35:04
areas of Newtown and the surrounding areas they're knocking on doors and talking to
00:35:09
people trying to uncover new leads in this missing persons case this is because by this time there was some
00:35:18
information about what likely happened to Jabez and this comes in the form of a probable cause affidavit as you recall
00:35:28
we said earlier that Jabez 'as mother Tawana stated that she had heard rumors that Jabez had witnessed something he
00:35:37
should not have a violent crime of some sort yeah while Jabez had not told his family about witnessing anything Tawana
00:35:45
had learned through her inquiries that Jabez had talked to others about what he had seen and then something happened on
00:35:53
october 29th that would confirm for the family that these rumors were true all of this information is from a probable
00:36:02
cause affidavit filed in the Sarasota County Clerk's office on November 8th 2017 bear with us here because this gets
00:36:11
a little complicated here's what the probable cause affidavit says on October 29th 2017 when Jabez had been
00:36:22
missing for nearly two months a man named Reginald Parker came to the home of Lucile Tillery
00:36:29
on 23rd Street in Newtown he said he had information that might help the family in their quest to find out what happened
00:36:40
to Jabez he told her that he had witnessed the murder of Travis Combs you might recall that Jabez and his friends
00:36:48
had been seen near a memorial for combs and this of the guy that was connected to his family yes and he was murdered on
00:36:56
August 28th 2017 and that combs as you stated was connected well known to Jabez his family well known to Jabez and it's
00:37:07
kind of considered a member of the extended extended family and you would think this would put him in a situation
00:37:14
that he felt like he could talk to his family about what he saw but obviously we had reports kids stating this other
00:37:23
people in the community and now I witness claiming that that Jabez was a witness to this murder
00:37:30
okay so let's step aside for a minute and discuss this other case here that we have referenced several times but let's
00:37:37
take this opportunity to go through the murder of Travis Combs in some detail Travis Combs was a pretty regular dude
00:37:44
he was a working man a proud father with a son that loved him very much but the one thing that would make him
00:37:52
different from other working regular dude fathers Travis was a weed dealer now many of the papers report him to be
00:38:01
a drug dealer of course marijuana is a narcotic but nowadays when we have several states in
00:38:07
this country where it's declared legal to dispense sell marijuana and cannabis THC products I think the term drug
00:38:16
dealer probably sounds a little too sinister for a man who is selling a product that is well frankly legal in
00:38:25
other states yeah it's very confusing in this country because we've talked about this before and one
00:38:32
state he would be looked at as an entrepreneur and in other states he's a criminal
00:38:37
yeah and then we have our state like Ohio that is now allowing medical use of marijuana and down here in Florida
00:38:45
they've just recently made use of medical marijuana as well so it seems like a lot of the states are going that
00:38:53
way whatever side of the fence you fall on I think it's a fair assessment to say
00:38:58
that a weed dealer is different in to me anyway it's different to me than then somebody that would be labeled a drug
00:39:06
dealer or a pitcher of hardcore drugs another interesting fact about Ohio is once a medical marijuana was legalized
00:39:15
glaucoma has gone up five thousand percent I well the thing here is I think often to people here someone is a drug
00:39:24
dealer and they say silly things just really nonsense things like oh well he got what he deserved
00:39:30
right I want to point out Travis overall was a pretty good dude he was selling marijuana simply for two reasons one
00:39:36
this was a good amount of extra income and two he was a smoker or user himself I want to be clear I'm not condoning
00:39:45
illegal behavior and frankly in my opinion he probably should have got out of this the moment he became a father
00:39:53
but that's a whole nother conversation and from everyone I spoke to and everything I could find he was in fact a
00:40:01
good father now Travis's mo was he sold weed out of his vehicle this is much more common
00:40:08
than I think most people would truly know in fact it's happening on several streets in your neighborhood or town as
00:40:15
we speak you have a basic system of you park your car or vehicle in a certain location on certain days of the week and
00:40:24
you're open for business on the day that he was killed Travis pulled his car into
00:40:31
a vacant grassy lot on 22nd Street this is a spot where he was known to deal and
00:40:38
customers would approach him there to conduct business yeah he called his weed dispensary the
00:40:43
grassy knoll this lot is located according to reporters and others who have written about this case four
00:40:50
hundred and fifty three feet from Jabez grandmother's house just four hundred and fifty three feet from Jabez
00:40:58
grandmother's house we should point out on this night August 28th this reginal Parker the man mentioned in the
00:41:06
affidavit happened to be nearby at a rooming house this is right down 22nd Street Parker said that he saw three men
00:41:15
surround Travis Combs and his vehicle in the empty lot he heard the three men yelling something like give it up and he
00:41:24
said he heard Combs yell back I ain't got it Travis tried to flee on foot and then Parker heard a gunshot
00:41:32
Parker saw two of the men run north on Palma Dahlia Avenue and saw the third guy get into Travis combs car and then
00:41:40
drive off combs lie on the ground in the vacant lot having been chased and then shot once in the upper torso someone
00:41:49
called the cops or emergency medical tax it's unclear who exactly called for first responders that has not been
00:41:59
released to the public the rumor is that this call came from a woman either way poor Travis was dead when first
00:42:07
responders arrived on the scene the neighborhood together mourned the death of one of their own
00:42:14
Travis Combs was just 31 years old he was found dead at about 9:20 p.m. near 22nd Street in Palma de Lea Avenue well
00:42:23
this is the problem when when something is illegal then they're selling like you
00:42:31
said he's just parking out in the open and so people know that he's also profiting from this so he's gonna either
00:42:41
have product to steal or he'll have money to steal yes this is very problematic for for Travis okay so and
00:42:51
these are other people's words not my own but I got the same vibe as well when I was going through this
00:42:56
Travis even though he was selling weed and he was doing this on the side let's keep in mind this was a guy with a with
00:43:04
a family with a growing family and with a job okay he was not what these other guys might refer to as street or thug he
00:43:15
was not that kind of guy and this as you pointed out captain might be the icing on the cake
00:43:22
right because if it's known throughout the neighborhood and it totally was the Travis was a man that was able to move a
00:43:31
decent amount of marijuana well that means one of two things are both the on any given day especially
00:43:39
when you know he's parked and open up for business he very likely could be in possession of large sums of cash or
00:43:48
large sums of marijuana or both and this makes him a desirable target and then if
00:43:55
we factor in on top of that that he's not considered thug or street or whatever he might be considered a soft
00:44:03
target someone that would be easy to rob and at the time at 2017 and actually a little before this you can back it up
00:44:12
about a year or so and even a little bit after all of this was taking place there
00:44:18
was a few groups around town that were known for committing armed robberies for robbing a drug dealer like Lake Travis
00:44:28
or holding somebody up just really taking advantage of the situation and bullying other people in robbing them
00:44:36
the police said that this was an isolated incident and that there was no indication that the public was at risk
00:44:44
early on detectives were not releasing information to the public they were asking that anyone with
00:44:51
information on the case that they called Detective Kim Laster at 9:41 three six four seven three two seven from what I
00:45:02
could find Travis was shot in the upper torso police would not release what kind of
00:45:08
gun was used in this homicide but the rumors are it was a single shot to the back and either a shotgun or a
00:45:16
larger caliber gun was used you know which is very cowardly I do want to point out to all of our listeners that
00:45:23
the murder of Travis Combs is still unsolved and the investigation is still very much ongoing the purpose of these
00:45:33
episodes of true crime garage that we are doing this week are not only to get justice for Jabez span who was just 14
00:45:41
years old when he went missing but also to get justice for Travis Combs and anyone with information regarding the
00:45:48
senseless murder of Travis Combs I beg you please call or email the Sarasota Police Department or call the detective
00:45:57
we just mentioned at 9:41 three six four seven three two seven yeah but also is a
00:46:04
sign of the community and also a sign of the the cards that are stacked up against Jasmine when these three
00:46:13
individuals feel that they can go into to a public spot right in the open Rob somebody murder them steal their car and
00:46:24
almost like they're not even afraid that enough people will turn them in yeah this whole thing is difficult because
00:46:31
these these guys and we're gonna get into some suspects as we go along in our case an investigation of Jabez Spann but
00:46:41
the issue here in one of the problems is again we have these several groups that
00:46:47
are out in the community and they're committing robberies the thought that in the vibe that I got from people close to
00:46:55
the case and I feel like maybe law enforcement shares this opinion to the in Travis Combs's case they may not have
00:47:06
intended to murder Travis Culp's it may be something went sideways during the commission of that robbery and it led to
00:47:14
murder regardless of whatever their mo was or their motivation was it ended in murder and this is a crime
00:47:24
against the community as much as it is against Travis Combs and his family and really the police are asking for the
00:47:31
community's help in that case so what does all of this have to do with the disappearance of Jabez well it is
00:47:38
because of what reginald Parker the man who came forward the man named in the affidavit it is what he told Jabez
00:47:47
grandmother Lucille Tillery that changed everything for the family and for their
00:47:53
search mm-hmm not only did reginal Parkers say that he witnessed the shooting of Travis Combs but he also saw
00:48:02
Jabez span and two of Jabez buddies emerge from a home on the 1600 block of 22nd Street this during the incident
00:48:11
according to Parker they too saw everything and the three men involved in the shooting of Travis Combs they may
00:48:20
have seen the three kids or at least they saw Jabez now they may have only seen Jabez because Jabez did yell
00:48:30
something out when he saw this and witnessed this he yelled out oh my god you all shot him Travis combs his
00:48:39
vehicle was found some time later about fifteen or sixteen miles away and it had
00:48:44
been set on fire normally there's two guys in the garage this week there's only one guy another guy is soaking up
00:48:50
the Sun but if there was a third wheel I mean come on crispy kernel the captain and reginal
00:49:00
you like that NATO trio what a great name Reds well we don't want this reginal in the garage and we'll get into
00:49:09
that a little bit later but I thought we were trying to hire Carlos he is he not
00:49:15
returned our calls and reginal yeah well it's important to our understanding of the story to note that the gunman did
00:49:23
not know that reginald parker witnessed this murder the shooting this robbery of
00:49:28
Travis Combs furthermore it is unlikely that they knew that there was another this in addition to Jabez and his
00:49:36
friends on October 13th detectives interviewed a witness who stated that on August 28th between the hours of 8:30
00:49:45
and 9:00 p.m. this witness was walking on Orange Avenue approaching 23rd Street this witness heard a single gunshot
00:49:55
unfortunately after hearing the gunshot as the witness was crossing Orange Avenue heading toward 23rd Street they
00:50:03
observed two black male subjects running northbound on Palma Dalia Avenue the witness immediately recognized one of
00:50:11
the men and later revealed his name to the detectives again it seems unlikely that the gunman knew that they were
00:50:18
observed by this witness from across the street at night but they did know for certain that one person had seen them
00:50:27
that one person was fourteen year old Jabez spam what's even more important is that both these adult witnesses reginal
00:50:37
Parker who saw the whole thing go down and the unnamed witness later reported to be a woman on the street who saw the
00:50:45
men running from the scene could identify at least one of the gunmen by name the unnamed witness told detectives
00:50:54
the name of the man that she recognized this was a man named Curtis whose last name we are withholding so we know that
00:51:05
police received information from a witness as to the identity of one of the killers of Travis Combs although this
00:51:14
witness saw the men running away not the actual murder itself as for Reginald Parker who did witness the shooting he
00:51:23
did not go to police as we said he spoke to the seal Tillery Jabez grandmother and Reginald told her the name of two of
00:51:34
the men he saw and one of them was Curtis so we have two different eyewitnesses both naming one of the
00:51:42
suspects of the three and naming the same person Reginald also met with Latoya Jake's
00:51:49
this is Jabez aunt he told her the same story about Travis combs shooting and Jabez witnessing the whole thing he also
00:52:00
told the story to a third person and this was a private investigator who was working with Jabez family pro bono on
00:52:09
Jabez case and reginal told this private investigator junior the names of two of
00:52:15
the men he saw shoot Travis combs one was Curtis and the other was a guy named a Wheelock Sarasota Police
00:52:24
Department almost certainly heard about reginal statements to the family because
00:52:30
they arrested him on November 7th he was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in a court as it turns out old
00:52:39
Reggie he's 55 years of age he was a sex offender and he had earlier failed to give a notice of change of address per
00:52:49
the requirements and he had been arrested and given a court date and then released he then failed to appear so
00:52:57
police had a reason to arrest him this took place on the 7th and to hold him as well what they want to do captain is
00:53:05
they are going to put pressure on him they want him to name the guys that he saw shoot Travis combs because the story
00:53:15
he was telling seemed to pretty clearly implicate the men who killed Travis probably they were involved in the
00:53:25
disappearance of Jabez as well so Reginald's Reginald touchy-touchy flicky flicky so what the cops end up doing
00:53:33
captain is they obtained sworn statements this from Lucile Latoya and Junior regarding what reginal had told
00:53:42
them about Jabez witnessing Travis Combs shooting and the shooters seeing Jabez why did they need the sworn statements
00:53:51
to the story told by Reginald Parker because Reggie clammed up once the police had him in custody he denied
00:53:59
having witness combs murder he denied telling the story of the event to JR or either of Jabez
00:54:05
relatives police even marched the three people he talked to Lucille Latoya and jr. down to the jail and had them
00:54:15
confront him in person and say hey you told us his story confront him in person about the story they he had told them
00:54:24
Parker continued to deny deny deny that he had told them any such thing maybe reginal is this protecting himself
00:54:32
and he's afraid that the murder that he took the murder that he saw to take place those guys could then be after him
00:54:39
but on some level you go they're responsible for the disappearance of Jabez if you're not telling the cops
00:54:47
then maybe your piece of [ __ ] this is one of those difficult things because I think he was I do think he was truly
00:54:54
trying to help in some way I think the problem is what we have is a man that's afraid afraid to tell the authorities
00:55:04
now some people in Newtown not just reginal they may be afraid to come forward to tell what they know because
00:55:13
they are afraid of retribution and who would retaliate against the snitches well
00:55:22
fact these suspicions that what happened to travis combs then led to what could have happened to Jabez if that's true
00:55:33
those suspicions are true then it turns out that we probably have some pretty aggressive well known thugs in this area
00:55:41
the witness who told police the identity of one of the men that she recognized running away from the crime scene
00:55:50
probably felt comfortable doing so only because she was not named in the affidavit and she was not seen by the
00:55:58
killers it seems pretty clear that reginald parker he wanted to give the Jabez his family some information about
00:56:08
Jabez to help them figure out what had happened to him but he would not go so far as I sell this information to police
00:56:16
yeah and but the problem is if you don't take a stand that these people are going
00:56:22
to keep attacking the community and that more people are in danger and then you might also be in danger and you don't
00:56:31
even know it yet so why not have law enforcement go after these guys to get them off the streets the probable cause
00:56:39
affidavit that we mentioned to you is a statement the probable cause actually exists to charge Reginald Parker with
00:56:49
accessory after the fact to the murder of Travis Combs this is because he impeded the investigation of armed
00:56:58
robbery and murder knowing the identity of the men who committed the crimes and then refusing to reveal their names
00:57:06
thereby helping them avoid detection arrest trial and of course punishment so prosecutors charged Reginald Parker with
00:57:16
accessory after the fact and he continued to refuse to talk while sitting in jail meanwhile Jabez still
00:57:24
had not been found the family members stated publicly that they believed that Jabez witness a murder and someone
00:57:31
associated with the murder did something to him [Music] this show is sponsored by simply safe
00:57:52
with simply safe you get comprehensive enterprise level security for your own home if there's a break-in simply safe
00:57:59
uses real video evidence to give police an eyewitness account of the crime and just costs fifty cents a day visit
00:58:07
simply safecom slash garage and you'll get free shipping in a sixty day risk-free trial you got nothing to lose
00:58:14
go down to simply safecom slash garage so they know that our show sent you that's simply safecom slash garage
00:58:20
protect yourself protect your family simply safecom slash garage give a little love with hallmark sometimes when
00:58:27
i say i love you it feels like i have it you know like yeah i love you but when i
00:58:32
say i love you and a Hallmark card it just feels different it feels good it's like I love you but you can hold on to
00:58:39
it Valentine's Day is Friday February 14th write that down Friday February 14th visit Hallmark comm slash garage to find
00:58:48
Valentine's Day cards for everyone you care about and use our promo code garage to get 20% off your card purchase give a
00:58:56
little love with Hallmark calm slash garage make sure you check out our old episodes on the stitcher app and our
00:59:04
bonus show off the record join me tomorrow in the garage Nick will be in Florida get in all well you don't crispy
00:59:12
Colonel until tomorrow be good be kind adulthood [Music]