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[Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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[Music] tonight we are drinking holy city pilsner by the good people at Holy City
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Brewing garage grade 4 out of five bottle caps this is the first Flagship beer in the Holy City Arsenal this is a
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crisp and clean hopped up Bohemian style pilsner holy city will quench your thirst and please your palate all in one
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glass and today's beer was brought to us by these pleasing peeps first up we have
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Sam and Frasier in London England and a big shout out to Lindsay and Fort Wright
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Kentucky next up we have Audrey from Norfolk Virginia serving this great country in the Navy so Audrey thank you
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for your service and also in Virginia we have Alan in the town of Raven and a big
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last but not least we have Charles and Bobby Moore murderland that was my nickname in high school Captain Boykin
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Hagen all right well a big salute to you captain boykinhagen and a big salute to
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the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] first 1985. 3 10 am I love you all last will and testament
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I love you mommy daddy Robert Dawn and Richard and everyone else and all the other friends and relatives
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I'll be with my father now so please please don't worry just remember my witty personality and
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great special times we all share together please don't ever let this ruin your lives just keep living one day at a
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time for Jesus some good will come out of this my thoughts will always be with and in
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you casket closed I love you all so damn much sorry Dad I had to cuss for once Jesus forgive me
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Richard sweetie I really did and always will love you and treasure are special moments
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I ask one thing though except Jesus as your personal savior my family has been the greatest
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influence on my life sorry about the cruise money someday please go in my place I am sorry if I ever disappointed you in
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any way I only wanted to make you proud of me because I have always been proud of my
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family Mom Dad Robert and Don there's so much I want to say that I should have said before now
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I love you I know you all love me and will miss me very much but if you all stick together like we
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always did you all can do it foreign do not become hard or upset everything works out for the good for those that
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love the Lord all of my love always I love you all with all my heart Sharon Sherry Smith
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P.S Nana I love you so much I kind of always felt like your favorite you were mine I love you a lot
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[Music] Friday May 31st 1985. at 3 38 PM Bob Smith discovered his daughter Sherry's car unattended with
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the driver's door open and the motor running at the end of the long driveway leading to the family's home
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he called out her name several times and got no response he checked the vehicle and found Sherry's purse on the seat but
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where was his daughter Sherry's father started searching for her when his efforts failed Mr Smith
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contacted the police this is just two days before seventeen-year-old Sherry Fay Smith was
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scheduled to sing the national anthem at her High School graduation so while most of her friends and
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classmates were packing for their High School graduation trip Sherry was abducted from the driveway of her
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Lexington County South Carolina home What followed was the largest search in South Carolina history
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the investigation was Bleak they had no Witnesses and no leads Sherry is what law enforcement would
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consider to be an extremely low risk victim therefore it was important to clear the family as fast as possible and
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move on to other possibilities police very quickly ruled out any involvement by the immediate family or
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any of the members of the immediate family they're hoping for a ransom demand so
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police put a trace on the Smith's home phone the next day the Smiths received a phone
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call on the line a strangely distorted voice of a man who claims he has Sherry captive
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he tells Sherry's mother Hilda who answered the phone so you'll know this is not a hoax Sherry had on a black and
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yellow bathing suit beneath her shirt and shorts then the caller says you'll get a letter from Sherry later
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State officials intercepted her letter this was entitled last will and testament from the mail
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the letter we read during the trailer was that exact letter apparently her abductor had Sherry
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drafted shortly before her death this was a two-page handwritten letter and while it clearly displayed an
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amazing amount of strength and courage on Sherry's behalf after reading the letter no one was optimistic
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the papers were sent for fingerprint analysis local law enforcement was all over this
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one the FBI was very quickly sent in and the FBI feared the worst their Theory is
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that the abductor most likely killed Sherry by the time that they arrived to assist in the case and the killer would
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now be ready to search for another victim they believe the kidnapper saw Sherry and her boyfriend Richard kissing at the
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local shopping mall from there he followed her home she stopped at the mailbox and that's where
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he snatched her seems like a lot of creeps are hanging out at the local malls so that was their working Theory
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and after this first call was received they decided to set up recording equipment at the Smith home because now
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they're anticipating another phone call on June 3rd they received a call asking if they had received the letter
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and the caller asked do you believe me now to which Hilda this is Sherry's mother replied no I have not heard from
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Sherry and I need to know if she is alive and well so basically if I'm following you correctly this dirt pack
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calls the family and he says I have her and then he says you're going to receive
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a letter right but the letter is the last will and testament so it's almost implying that she's dead
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and then he calls him back and says do you believe me now right right he wants to know if they've
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received the letter they as said it was intercepted by law enforcement and this is actually a really good move by
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Sherry's mother Hilda to not kind of cower to this distorted voice on the other end of the phone yeah she's saying
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look I've not heard from my daughter I need to know if she's alive and well I don't believe anything you're saying you
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say you have her captive well let me talk to my daughter right and so in a sense she's kind of calling his bluff
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right or hoping so yeah and he says that when she asked him I need to know if Sherry's alive and well he then responds
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that you will know in two or three days and he hangs up the phone now later that
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same day he did call again this time saying Sherry was alive and he would release her soon
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and that he wanted to tell her one thing that Sherry is now a part of him physically mentally emotionally
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and spiritually he says our souls are now one Hilda asked again if her daughter was
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alive and well the man said Sherry is protected and she is a part of me now and God looks after all of us okay so
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this guy's uh Wackadoo weirdo well these are not clear and simple answers to very clear and
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simple questions from Hilda and the other thing too Captain using those words Sherry's now a part of me physically
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mentally emotionally and spiritually our souls are now one I I can't feel like anybody's got any good feelings in the
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Smith home hearing that that sounds very Bleak sounds very well on top of that you have you know
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her car is found on so the fact that this individual was able to just pull up behind her grab her take her captive and
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now this comeback is going to bring the Lord Jesus Christ and our savior into this so because of the first call that
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was received they were anticipating these two phone calls and attempting to trace the location of these two phone
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calls now they did they did have some luck with that they were able to determine that these two phone calls did
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come from the general area you know they were they were local let's say right but
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there are some issues there were some issues with the phone trace according to the FBI in 1985 it took about 15 minutes
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to get a Pinpoint location of the exact phone from which the calls were placed even with the strength and courage shown
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by Hilda Smith the caller never stayed on the phone for that length of time now the man called again this time it was
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was four days after the abduction and this time Sherry's 21 year old sister Dawn answered the phone the man gave her
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details about the kidnapping saying he stopped his car when he saw her at the mailbox he said he took a few photos of
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her then approached her acting friendly and when he got close enough he forced her into his vehicle at gunpoint he told
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Don he was regretful that the whole thing got way out of hand he then went on to tell her that at 3 10 a.m Saturday
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the 1st of June Sherry wrote the letter you received and then at 4 58 Saturday the 1st of June we became one Soul he
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said don't there he goes with the weird talk again right and he says don't ask me any questions he told Don Sherry
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would be returned the following evening and that they should have an ambulance on standby adding you'll receive
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instructions on where to find us well and this makes you wonder because you take someone like Dahmer for example and
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he would talk about possessing his victim by eating his victim and that they would become a part of him by doing
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so so that's where my head goes with these comments my head actually goes in two directions one what you just said
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there Talent one right there is is is the possessing um you know we even hear zodiac uh wrote
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in his letters that they will become slaves my slaves in the afterlife yeah but the weird thing that I find here is
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a bit of the opposite that we've seen with like when we talked about Kemper we talked about BTK where both of them said
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you know after I killed somebody I just immediately went into pure paranoia where I felt the whole world
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knew what I just did right and at any second they're going to come and get me you know they're going to come and
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apprehend me and here you know we have the FBI who's stating well we believed by receiving this letter that she was
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probably already dead before we arrived on the scene to help and this dude's probably out looking for another victim
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he might be but he's also busy spending his time communicating with the family I
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wonder what happened to give them that impression that he already killed her I think the letter you know the letter is
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weird enough that it might steer you in that direction that's the same way that it steered us to The Possession
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possessing the victim okay they have become one all of that kooky talk right what I could do but here's one thing I
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do want to point out and I I read a lot of books by retired FBI agents humble brag what what kind of brag his hat that
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that I can read I read a lot of books no that just means there's nothing else to
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do this is after uh did you start reading a lot after you studied computer well the thing that I want to point out
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here that I see Time and Time Again by these retired FBI agents and don't get me wrong I I enjoy them very much that's
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why I purchased their books so I can read them however they're always kind of the smartest guy in the room and I
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wonder a lot of times like after the fact they're telling these stories 20 30 years later and they're like ah we knew
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already that uh this is what was going on and it's you kind of I question it sometimes you couldn't have been right
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every single time you know what I mean it just doesn't work out that way maybe this is why you
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identify with the books right remember he's now telling them that they will receive instructions on where to find us
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that more of the kooky talk right and letting them know that hey I'm going to let Sherry go she will be returned the
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following evening make sure you have an ambulance on standby so to me I go in a different route thinking why is so much
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communication going on if you haven't kept her alive the paranoia though at noon the next day the man called
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again and said follow these instructions listen carefully he said take Highway 378 West to Traffic Circle take
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Prosperity exit and go one and a half miles turn right at the Moose Lodge sign go one quarter mile and then turn left
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at the white building go to the backyard there we will be waiting God chose us and then he hung up
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the phone yeah this God speak is just creepy well it's South Carolina and it's I I
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think you know it's part of that no I don't mind God talk I don't mind that at all you know I'm a spiritual person what
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I do mind is when you kidnap a person possibly have already murdered or you made her write her last will and
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testament and now you're saying that you have became one and then you keep bringing God into this so that's uh
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don't like that much well in given all these instructions pretty detailed instructions it's good for law
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enforcement that this call like the others was recorded So the sheriff's department followed the directions and
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this led them to the body of Sherry Faye Smith the decomposition of the body suggested
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that she had been dead for some time likely since 458 on June 1st like was noted in the letter right they were
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pretty sure of this so she was clothed and they could tell she was once bound with duct tape but the the tape had been
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removed so we have the residue left over from the duct tape and they believed that Sherry's body was likely in this
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location since shortly after her death unfortunately by the time Sherry's body was located due to the advanced d-comp
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the Pathologists could not ascertain either the cause of death or whether or not she had been sexually assaulted the
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pathologist believed however that Sherry either suffocated or died from dehydration this resulting from a rare
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form of diabetes from which Sherry suffered evidence suggested she was killed elsewhere investigators believed
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her killer play placed her there and returned to visit with the corpse and it was only until the body was too far
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decomposed for his liking or decomposed enough to hide slash destroy evidence that he told the family where to find
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her and streams for me with the FBI involved you'd think that they would be able to determine the cause of death
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well using the information that they had the FBI unit put together a profile of the offender they believed that the
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offender was in his late 20s to early 30s probably divorced living alone or with his parents white he has uh yeah
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they actually will update this profile later and they didn't include white as part of the first profile
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but probably divorced living alone or with his parents he has some kind of criminal record this would include
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assaults on women or at least obscene phone calls if he has previously murdered anyone the victims would be
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children or young girls they believed when he was on the phone with Sherry's family he was reading from a script
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they believed the killer was rigid orderly and obsessively neat he would take notes obsessively and keep many
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lists did they say anything about possible military background uh they did not but usually they will include that
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if they believe that he does have some type of military background and the reason why I bring that up is because
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the neat and orderly possibly wants to create lists yeah I would think that would be somebody that you know had some
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regiment schedule at some point in their existence they believed that he owned a
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vehicle likely three years old or newer and the vehicle is clean well maintained
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and cared for outwardly he is arrogant and displays contempt for the world but on the inside he is insecure in Harbor
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strong feelings of inadequacy it possibly goes around telling people he reads a lot of books yes and then and
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then doesn't speak too highly of the author they said that the man is local having lived in the area for most of his
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life he had access to a secluded area where he knew he would have time to spend with Sherry and her body they
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figured that the reason that the caller's voice sounded distorted is because he was using some type of device
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to achieve this they determined the caller was using something called a variable speed device
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they were now in the process of tracking down manufacturers of these types of devices and retailers
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this suggested that the suspect had a background in electronics so it's it's always interesting to me Captain how
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they come up with this some of it more detailed than other profiles that we've reviewed in the past the stuff about the
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books is fascinating right now what gets me is when they say we believe that he has a car that's three years old or
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newer like that's so random man and it's like you don't know do they have any eyewitnesses that would make them lean
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that way or or is this just kind of a random guess according to the information I could
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find there was no eyewitnesses right that's that's why it's so Random to me we believe that he
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has a newer uh three-year-old car newer that's so pinpoint I think they come up with
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this for a couple of reasons one I think they're working off of the idea that this guy is driving a lot that he's
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spending a lot of time driving and they may also believe him to be careful if they believe him to be careful and
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driving all the time they're probably going off of the thought that he would prefer to drive a newer vehicle
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something that's well maintained and well cared for because it would be too risky to spend all that time driving
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and he wouldn't do that because he's careful or possibly the idea that this guy was married divorced so he possibly
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has a career is living with somebody or living with his parents so therefore he has the money where he would have a
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nicer vehicle because that would be his only opportunity to maybe impress a female also that's interesting that you
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picked up on that because with having a background in electronics they're almost
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suggesting that they believe this individual has a job and like you said if they believe he's living with his
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parents he has more money than somebody not living with their parents but the obvious thing here is usually when they
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base off of the situation is this individual local or not and that seems to be pretty quick to come to that
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assumption and I think here really exemplifies that to Perfection you know we have a situation where he gives very
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detailed directions to find her body and I have to believe that law enforcements
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working off of the thought that that's not just a place that this guy stumbled upon that this is an area that he knew
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and knew well and therefore he's a local guy he didn't just drive in and happen to see her at the mailbox and take her
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away [Music] make sure you check our show off the record on Stitcher premium this week
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it's q a part one the easiest way to find off the Record is to go to our website and click on the off the Record
00:23:58
link the day after they found the body of Sherry Smith the killer called the home
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again and this time he called collect he asked to speak with Dawn he told her he would be sending the family the
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photos of Sherry and he asked her for forgiveness and for their prayers he said he was going to commit suicide
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because this thing got out of hand and all he wanted to do in the beginning was to make love to Dawn and that is why he
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was watching her Dawn startled by this interrupted the man and asked the man make love to whom
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then he corrected himself and he said the name Sherry and he hung up the phone later that same day the killer called a
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local TV network and asked for a specific reporter and told that reporter he planned to turn himself in at some
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point and he would give the reporter an exclusive interview yeah this guy's changing his stories I'm going to kill
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myself I'm going to turn myself in he should have just killed himself yeah you wonder if it's just does he need to
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get forgiveness from the family for some reason or is this attention seeking it seems like a lot of work and a lot of
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effort risky behavior for some attention yeah but he's a complete wakadoo and the FBI didn't believe or they say they
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didn't believe the man would turn himself in or kill himself at any point they believe that the calls were in fact
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seeking forgiveness from Sherry's family but also to manipulate and control the situation as much as he possibly could
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and that this guy would eventually kill again yeah well this guy's a giant piece
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of [ __ ] well what would have been nice though is if he would have put himself in a brown paper bag and then bring
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somebody's doorbell and lit himself on fire okay so I do want to touch on this though because we do know from this last
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phone call that he says that in the beginning all he wanted to do is make love to Dawn
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Dawn's 21 years old Sherry Smith is 17. and they actually you can find there's quite a bit of uh
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photos and images of both of them on the Internet and you can see that the two of
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them look very much alike okay so this is when he makes this slip when he says Dawn instead of Sherry when he's on the
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phone with Dawn I was really curious why the FBI didn't update their profile because remember they said at one point
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that if he had killed before his victims would have been children or young girls
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right okay well Sherry yes she's 17 and that's more closer to being an adult but
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Dawn is absolutely an adult so you almost wonder if now at this point if you're going to say if he is killed
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before is there a chance that Dawn was actually the intended victim you know because he's not going to see
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her or see a girl that he perceives to be Dawn at the mailbox and walk up and ask her if that's are you Dawn you know
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right but he did take some pictures before so then you wonder throwing it out there maybe this individual's
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supposed to wear glasses but doesn't and so is it is it that simple of a mistake and then when he gets closer
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it's the wrong girl but it's too late at that point I think it's I think it's very much like that I think it's he the
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intended victim was Dawn he hoped to abduct her and do whatever he did with Sherry with her
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but I think at some point he would accept the substitution or like you said I mean I think it's kind of too
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late look he probably opened up the door for the person and and at that point it's too late in
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his mind well the man called John Smith again and this time he told Don that he gave Sherry a choice of how she would be
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killed and the choices were overdose shooting or Suffocation and Sherry chose Suffocation he told Dawn he killed
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Sherry by placing duct tape over her mouth and nose until she died two weeks after the Abduction of Sherry
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nine-year-old Deborah May helmick was playing with her three-year-old brother at their home in Richland County when
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she was abducted from the front yard of the family's home a neighbor saw a vehicle pull up and a man get out of the
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car the man spoke with Deborah then grabbed her through the screaming girl into his car and drove off now the
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neighbor immediately alerted Deborah's father who was inside their home they called police and after the two of them
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jumped into a vehicle and they went speeding after the abductors car but were unable to track down the vehicle
00:28:52
well this sounds similar so is the FBI immediately thinking this is our guy and Sherry's case yeah yeah they believe
00:29:00
the offender is one in the same and with the addition of the second victim especially a younger victim the FBI
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didn't really change their profile but they did add to the profile they added that the Killer and abductor is a white
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man outwardly shy maybe overweight but it the very least is not attractive to women so he's no Bradley Cooper those
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close to him May notice one or more of the following the offender is experiencing weight loss drinking
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heavily not shaving regularly and he would be eager to talk about the crimes as he is following the
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investigation coverage on the evening news or in the papers he's also a collector of pornography
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that likely focused on bondage and or is of sadomasochistic nature so not good old-fashioned Christian porn and because
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of the young age of the second abducted victim Deborah only being nine years old
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they believe the offender would be too ashamed to call or correspond with Deborah's family
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well this turned out to be true no phone calls and no letters the killer also stopped calling the Smith house
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the FBI believed that the phone calls would be the easiest way to trap the killer yeah I believe it would be as
00:30:22
well and since he's not calling or writing it's almost like they would want to put out a taunt to him like you know
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he already contacted news reporters before have that same news reporter do a report on how this guy has become weak
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and vulnerable because he hasn't reached out to the FBI so knowing that the Unknown Subject Was following the case
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in the news and in the papers the FBI decided to enlist the help of a reporter of a single reporter see they wanted to
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force this man out into the open or at the very least get him to call the Smith's home once again
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they wanted to use Dawn Smith as bait for their trap now the Smiths begrudgingly went along with this
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so they held a memorial service for Sherry Faye Smith they wanted the Smith family and Dawn present at this memorial
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service and during the ceremony they had reporters Snap photos of dawn holding a
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stuffed animal belonging to Sherry and flowers for her Memorial meanwhile undercover agents wrote down license
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plate numbers for all the vehicles that were present in the area now this didn't seem to flush out the
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killer out into the open but he did once again call the Smith home this time calling long distance and
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collect you have a collect call from a giant piece of shot well that's interesting that you say that Captain
00:31:47
because okay so in these collect calls you would if you were calling someone collect you would be given a brief uh
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set of time there where you could announce who you are so it would say you have a collect call from so and so and
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then the person receiving the call who would be paying for it can decide if they're going to accept the call except
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the charges or not so during this portion where the caller can announce their name and who they are
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it's a man's voice but he says that his name is Sherry Faye Smith okay Dawn does accept this call this
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time the man was not using the voice Distortion device he told Don that God wants her to join Sherry Fay saying it's
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just a matter of time this month next month this year next year you can't be protected forever
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then he asked Don if she had heard of Deborah Mae helmick Don said she had to which he tells her listen carefully
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go One Mile West turn left at Bill's Grill go three and a half miles through Gilbert turn right at the last dirt road
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before you come to Two Notch Road go through the no trespassing side go 50 yards Deborah May is waiting God
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forgive us all yeah I don't need this turd stain to be confessing for my sins the FBI is now worried in regretting the
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ploy of using Donna's bait because of the received threat during all of this law enforcement was still submitting the
00:33:20
letter from Sherry titled the last will and testament to every possible test the letter was drafted on yellow lined
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legal paper from a pad so they decided to use an SD machine this device can detect even the slightest indentations
00:33:38
on a piece of paper they wanted to see if they could pull any possible information from indentations that were
00:33:45
made from writing on pieces of paper above the last will in the legal pad and they found some interesting leads they
00:33:54
found a partial grocery list and a sequence of numbers with further testing they could detect
00:34:00
nine numbers of a possible 10 digit sequence the numbers are in this order two zero five eight three seven one
00:34:09
three blank eight this was a phone number in Huntsville Alabama so working with the phone company they
00:34:19
checked all 10 possible phone numbers for a connection to Lexington County South Carolina
00:34:25
where Sherry and the Smith family lived one of the numbers in Huntsville received several calls from a residence
00:34:33
just 15 miles from Sherry Faye's home the home belonged to Ellis and Sharon Shepard
00:34:40
law enforcement went to the home and interviewed Ellis and Sharon the Shepherds told police they had made
00:34:47
phone calls to Huntsville where their son was stationed in the Army but they were out of town when both of the
00:34:53
murders were committed they explained a man who worked for Ellis as an electrician Larry Jean Bell was put in
00:35:01
charge of house sitting for the six weeks that they were away Larry was in his early 30s divorced
00:35:08
lived with his parents he was neat and orderly and when he picked them up from the airport he spoke constantly about
00:35:16
the unsolved murders that occurred while they were away he had noticeably lost weight he was
00:35:21
unshaven and he was irritable the sheriff asked Mr Shepard to show him the room where Larry stayed while watching
00:35:28
the home under the bed they found Mr Shepard's handgun jammed in pornographic magazines
00:35:35
featuring bondage on the cover now regarding the sequence of numbers the couple wrote down the telephone number
00:35:41
for their son and gave it to Larry Jean Bell before they left for their vacation
00:35:46
with instructions that if anything were to come up with the house to call their son
00:35:51
the police played a portion of the last call received by The Smiths this is the one where the killer did not use the
00:35:58
voice Distortion device right and the Shepherds confirmed it sounded just like Larry's voice
00:36:04
armed with this information they did some digging and they found that a vehicle registered to Bell was
00:36:12
seen at the memorial service for Sherry Fay the officer wrote down the plate number and noted that the driver did not
00:36:19
exit the vehicle he simply drove by the vehicle was less than three years old early the next morning police surrounded
00:36:27
Larry's parents home and arrested him as he was leaving their home to go off to work
00:36:33
a quick background check revealed Bell was twice arrested for attempted assaults on women on both of these
00:36:40
occasions he attempted to force a young woman into his car at knifepoint unsuccessfully under questioning Bell
00:36:47
admitted to nothing inside Bell's parents home in his bedroom police found hairs on the bed
00:36:53
matching hairs from Sherry Fay Smith and Larry's desk they found a sheet of stamps from which the stamp used to
00:37:02
marry Sherry's last will and testament originated from the neighbor that witnessed the Abduction of Deborah May
00:37:08
told police after the arrest it was in fact Bell who he saw pulling the screaming child into his car that day
00:37:15
under further questioning Bell still admitted nothing so they played the tape of his voice
00:37:23
from the phone calls for him and still Bell admitted nothing so they brought in the FBI to further
00:37:30
continue the questioning they took a different approach rather than to continue to question him they explained
00:37:36
to him that they had a lot of experience in dealing with these types of crimes and that the perpetrator of these types
00:37:43
of crimes never gets the opportunity to explain themselves and their side of the
00:37:48
story often the offenders too afraid and ashamed to admit what they have done and
00:37:54
once they are in court their attorney will not let them take the stand right so this individual is then trapped in a
00:38:01
nightmare that never goes away and he goes away to a lengthy prison sentence and no one understands him no one knows
00:38:09
what the hell he was going through at that time well I like their tactic here but we could always employ my scary
00:38:17
clowns where we dress up like clowns and we beat the guy to the inch of his life
00:38:21
to get him to start confessing well as they're explaining this to Larry they noticed that Larry Bell is nodding his
00:38:28
head up and down he's he's agreeing with what they have to say uh-huh and seeing
00:38:33
that he's responding they leaned in for the kill and asked him when did you start to feel sorry about the crime
00:38:39
Larry did they whisper this I don't know okay so which is going to be a powerful
00:38:44
move you know come on Larry tell us what you know we gotcha well they asked him when he
00:38:52
started to feel sorry about this crime and to which he says it was when he saw a photograph of the Smith family right
00:39:00
then they asked him if he could have possibly done this sort of thing and Larry told them quote all I know is the
00:39:08
Larry Jean Bell sitting here could not have done this but the bad Larry Jean Bell could have
00:39:16
so that is going to be the closest thing to a confession that Larry Jean Bell would ever give regarding both of these
00:39:24
murders so we do have a confession or a loose confession right implied confession we have some of Sherry's
00:39:32
hairs found in his room on his pillow in his bedroom okay and then we have eyewitness that saw him taking the
00:39:40
nine-year-old girl away and the and and then the car registered yeah so him driving by the memorial is
00:39:49
not really any evidence you know it's stacking pieces on the case right yeah but but there is a lot of evidence like
00:39:57
you said you not only do you have the hairs that match Sherry Fay Smith's hair in his bedroom I mean how the hell is
00:40:03
that going to get there two you have the sheet from which the stamp came from that the last will and testament was
00:40:10
mailed you also have all these little connecting factors to the letter itself you know the indentations that they
00:40:17
found using that SD machine and then you have the uh Shepherds for which he is home you know he's house sitting for and
00:40:27
they say yeah that's his voice on right right on that recording and this is the killer that's calling and taunting the
00:40:33
Smith family and that's not as good as picking him out of a lineup or anything but that's that's something right and
00:40:40
and to which I guess for the lineup purposes you have a bit of less evidence regarding the abduction and murder of
00:40:48
the little girl of Deborah May helmick yeah but you do have that eyewitness who says okay
00:40:55
you know I see this picture of Larry Jean Bell on the news and he calls up police and says that's the same guy that
00:41:02
I saw take that little girl so we have all this evidence mounting up and like you said this real
00:41:09
loosey-goosey somewhat of a confession you know he doesn't say I didn't kill these girls he says the bad Larry Jean
00:41:17
Bell could have done this would have been uh capable I guess of doing it but the good Larry you know he's serving his
00:41:25
community and he's serving God Sherry Faye Smith's older sister Dawn she was super brave and strong during the
00:41:32
investigation into her sister's abduction and murder she went on to be crowned Miss South Carolina in the
00:41:40
following year she was the runner-up in the Miss America contest and February of 1986 Larry Gene Bell was
00:41:48
convicted of murdering and kidnapping Sherry Faye Smith the jury recommended the death sentence
00:41:54
and the trial judge imposed the sentence in accordance with the jury's findings in 1987 in a separate trial Bell was
00:42:03
convicted of murdering and kidnapping Deborah May helmick and again he was given a sentence of death
00:42:11
for nine years Larry Gene Bell filed and played the appeals game trying to work the courts but on October 4th 1996 the
00:42:20
state of South Carolina in accordance with his sentences Larry Gene Bell was strapped into the electric chair and
00:42:27
killed a large crowd cheered as the Hearst carrying Bell's body left the Broad River Correctional Institution
00:42:36
one of his defense lawyers said quote we have executed a sick delusional psychotic man
00:42:45
oh [Music] foreign [Music] fascinating how correct their profile was in this case now Mr
00:42:59
I read a lot of books do we have any recommended reading for this week we do and I'm happy to announce that it's not
00:43:07
a book by a retired FBI agent so you so that's good written on higher than a third grade level you know what though
00:43:14
Captain I feel like I want to punch myself in the face for saying that during the episode because that's like
00:43:21
my favorite reading now you know how I how I feel every episode constantly just fighting the urge to attack your co-host
00:43:29
so this week recommending a book called handsome Johnny the life and death of Johnny roselli gentlemen gangster
00:43:37
Hollywood producer and CIA assassin so take a deep dive into the American underworld Johnny roselli in handsome
00:43:46
Johnny this book I've been looking forward to this one you don't have to write down the title right now though
00:43:51
captain or anybody out there because you can go to our website truecrime garage.com click on the recommended page
00:43:57
we have books and recommendations there for you yeah and head out to the website
00:44:02
click on the store Page because there's tons of shirts left we're running out of
00:44:07
some of the shirts but they should if you order now they'll be shipped in time for Christmas and real quick before we
00:44:13
close out today Captain um last week I got an email from Carly she said she was listening to my
00:44:20
favorite murder and there's an episode I guess where Georgia mentions True Crime
00:44:25
garage did a four-part series on the boys on the tracks case so Carly excited you know she listens to our show she
00:44:34
went and she tried to find the boys on the tracks and she emailed me and said I cannot find these episodes on your feed
00:44:40
So I responded to her get the Stitcher app because all of our old episodes are on there and it's free you can listen to
00:44:48
all of our huge giant catalog that Georgia recommends so much on the Stitcher app and join us tomorrow in the
00:44:56
garage as we cover another case instead of just doing one part this week we decided to do two one parters that's
00:45:04
right we will be right back here in the garage tomorrow we expect to see you here until then be good be kind and
00:45:12
don't litter [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music]