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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
00:01:48
as always is a man that really wants to make you a mixtape here is the captain yeah and I'll only put asleep by the
00:01:56
Smiths a few times on the mixtape it's good to be seen and good to to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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a friend today we are featuring high heat summer IPA by the good folks over at the
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garage grade three and 3/4 bottle caps out of five and here's some friends that helped fill up the old fridge for this
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week first up a big cheers to our friend John H in Mississippi and a big we like
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your JB to Lindsay and Fargo North Dakota and last but certainly not least we have Sonia in Parts Unknown everyone
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Donate button and make sure you leave your wonderful F City that you're from in the notes so we can shout you out all
00:03:03
right Captain that's enough of the business yeah if you don't leave your location we don't know how to shout you
00:03:09
out but thanks for the support thanks for listening grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:20
crime [Music] hold we just hold on Emma Compton Lane first was missing and then things
00:03:45
got worse Emma has a couple of sisters two that from my understanding don't get along very well but yet they are
00:03:56
fighting for Emma seeking just Justice for their sister that passed away too soon at the hands of a very bad man A
00:04:07
man that picks on and threatens women because he is weak insecure and cowardly but because Emma's sisters
00:04:17
Winona and Shauna don't speak they are fighting the same battle but separately I don't know that true crime
00:04:27
garage covering Emma's case will actually get Justice for Emma but I know our coverage today can't
00:04:35
hurt her case you see Emma's case is very solvable but because Emma lived in a Tiny Town her case lacks
00:04:47
awareness well that ends today something else that I wish would end today is this bad blood between Emma's
00:04:58
sisters now I would think after losing your sister and one of your best friends you each would need a sister to
00:05:07
help you with your hurt to help you with your battle and your fight for justice for
00:05:15
Emma you need a sister and you both still have one so pick up a phone and say something
00:05:25
nice no one has to say that they are sorry just say I miss Emma and I want to fight for our sister together because
00:05:35
nothing else matters because as it stands now you've both lost two sisters and all you have gained is heartache and
00:05:44
a Facebook page the justice for Emma Compton Lane Facebook page but you both have the power to
00:05:53
change that the following is from that Facebook page Justice for Emma Compton Lane which
00:06:02
I encourage our listeners to go to show your support by visiting the page to let the sisters know that people
00:06:12
care now this is a post from one of Emma's sisters and it reads 5 years ago on Tuesday June 20th
00:06:24
we filed a missing person's report for Emma we know now that she was murdered after midnight on the
00:06:31
18th but I've wondered if we had filed on Monday would Helifax County Sheriff's Department have taken us more
00:06:41
seriously would they have worked Emma's case harder five long sad years and we still
00:06:50
are waiting for justice for Emma we are still waiting for an arrest a trial for the person who murdered her to be held
00:06:58
accountable no one except the person who killed her knew she was missing until that Monday
00:07:05
the 19th that person had the time to remove evidence and clean up the crime scene I
00:07:13
also believe that person had help covering the crime over this 5 years we have been
00:07:21
told by Halifax County Sheriff's department and Commonwealth Attorney Martin her case is a priority at first I
00:07:31
believe them with their assurances but after 5 years I have to wonder just how truthful they've
00:07:39
been when something is a priority things get done things happen and results are seen I pray that next year I will have a
00:07:53
reason to believe that they really have been working Emma's case and that we will see Justice for
00:08:01
Emma before another year passes thank you to those who remember and love Emma thank you for your
00:08:10
continued support still waiting for and Seeking Justice for Emma I love and miss
00:08:19
you every day Emma Jean this is true crime garage we just hold on [Music] Emma Jean Compton Lane loved
00:08:42
hummingbirds Christmas and more importantly helping other people she was 52 years old when she went missing Emma
00:08:51
was married to a man named Russell Lane Russell was a truck driver and may still
00:08:56
be Emma was a store owner Cody is a small community this is where they lived it's a small community in Helifax
00:09:05
County Virginia it's one of those small unincorporated towns kind of a tiny dot on the map Emma owned the Cody store
00:09:15
listen to this Captain to give a better idea of what kind of store we are talking about this is from one of the
00:09:23
old signs on the Cody store and it reads full service deli op 6: a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Pizza grocery beer ice dog food
00:09:34
hunting and fishing supplies slab bacon and fatback meat sore hours 6:00 a.m. to
00:09:41
900 p.m. Monday through Saturday closed on Sunday excepting all major credit cards sounds like my kind of store has
00:09:48
about everything that one could think of I I couldn't imagine needing anything else and I know you are like me Captain
00:09:56
when given the option we pref for a mom and pop typee operation and that's very much what this was I'm assuming that
00:10:04
there was a larger grocery store in this Tiny Town that people could go and spend
00:10:09
their hard- ear money at but a lot of people prefer to go to the Cody store because of the friendly service you know
00:10:17
you're getting the you're getting that kind of personal service when you walk in and somebody goes hi captain or good
00:10:23
to see you Colonel how about some slab bacon or fatback meat say it's good to be seen it's good to be
00:10:31
seen yep I like my grocery stores like I like my podcast homegrown independently
00:10:37
owned no network the troubling thing about this case well there's many troubling things but the first that
00:10:44
stands out is that often on the materials that we see that talk about Emma going missing they will say that
00:10:52
she was last seen at the Cody store which is not really true but it goes along with the story or some people's
00:11:02
Narrative of the story so keep in mind the store is very important to our timeline and it's also very important to
00:11:10
this case because I think that it also includes and gives us a good idea of Emma's personality can't you kind of
00:11:17
picture her 52 years old owner operated store very friendly person always a smile on her face when you come in the
00:11:26
door but the store itself remember we read the hours of operation there they're closed on Sunday the last that
00:11:35
she has seen on some of these materials states that it was at the store on Saturday night right however we have
00:11:43
some information of locals that say yes we saw as we drove by the store we could
00:11:49
still see her vehicle there remember this is the kind of town the small little town where everybody kind of
00:11:54
knows everybody and everybody knows what kind of vehicle you drive and of course
00:11:58
people that frequent the store are going to know Emma they're going to know what
00:12:02
kind of vehicle that she drives so we have several people who are saying yes after the store closed on that Saturday
00:12:09
I saw her vehicle in the parking lot which is not uncommon right you have closing duties you have to count the
00:12:15
till you have paperwork to do everything that you have to do before you officially leave the business for that
00:12:23
night that's enough the business now the troubling thing to me is when I see these materials my mind instantly makes
00:12:31
the leap of oh no I pooped myself somebody must have went to the store attempted a robbery or abducted her for
00:12:39
any number of reasons right and that's what went down and that's what we're looking for here however that's not the
00:12:46
case M even though the materials read that way she made it home that night and so she would have left the store at
00:12:54
approximately 9:30 maybe 10: at the latest but she closed the store she closed the shop on that Saturday she
00:13:02
went home the other problem for our timeline though becomes the fact that the store is closed on Sunday now this
00:13:11
store was I was about to say that it's her life but there was other things going on in her life as we mentioned she
00:13:18
was married to Russell Lane but also a very important thing that's going on at this time and a very stressful thing
00:13:27
that's going on for Emma at this time is her mother was recently put in the hospital and I believe it was only about
00:13:36
two or three days before that Sunday on our timeline her mom's having some health problems health issues she's in
00:13:45
the hospital so her sister wona and Emma are taking turns visiting Mom in the hospital making sure that she's has
00:13:54
somebody to talk with somebody to visit with her someone to help her past the time while she hopefully heals or
00:14:02
recovers from whatever issues that she's facing the first red flag on our timeline goes
00:14:08
up Sunday when Emma fails to go to the hospital to visit her mother all and everyone has agreed
00:14:18
this completely out of character for Emma if she says I'm visiting Mom on Sunday at the hospital she would be
00:14:27
there visiting her mother and we know that she was supposed to be there on Sunday because of a phone call and some
00:14:33
conversation that took place the day before with her sister Winona well we know that she doesn't work on Sundays so
00:14:40
she shouldn't have anything conflicting to stop her from going to see her mother
00:14:45
and I don't know if both were going every single day to visit mom or if they were rotating days going to visit mom
00:14:52
but we know that she was going to go on Sunday because the conversation with Winona went something like this Emma is
00:14:59
saying I can't make it there on Saturday to see Mom don't worry I will be there 100% on Sunday right she doesn't show up
00:15:08
on Sunday well again red flags go up mom is worried sister is worried they're trying
00:15:17
to call Emma and this is late Sunday by the time they start calling her because the way that I think that this works is
00:15:25
it's not immediately known to all that Emma didn't show up there right it's it's a conversation that is had between
00:15:32
her other sisters and Mom and Mom saying you know Emma never showed up today I didn't see her I know you guys said she
00:15:38
was coming or she said she was coming but I never saw her today and so it's not until about Sunday night that the
00:15:45
sisters are aware that Emma did not arrive that Sunday so on Monday one of her sisters is shaa and she lives in another
00:15:56
state so any communication that is going on any interaction between shaa wona and
00:16:02
their mother the three that are all very concerned that Emma didn't show up at the hospital that conversations are
00:16:10
happening over the phone so Shauna convinces the other sister Winona you know what why don't you go by and check
00:16:19
on Emma I can't get a hold of her on the phone she didn't go see Mom so on Monday
00:16:26
her sister goes to her home and Russell her husband lets her in and Winona looks at the property and looks
00:16:35
inside the home and nothing seems really out of place but there in lies the real problem
00:16:44
right she says that everything seems to be there except for Emma her car's there
00:16:53
her purse is there her cell phone is there yeah it just doesn't really add up her dog is there everything that you
00:16:58
would expect to see but no Emma this is when we start to get some kind of weird story Russell has some
00:17:10
explanations as for where Emma is and he says oh I think she ran off with somebody with some other man well if she
00:17:21
did run off she didn't take anything with her it's not until Tuesday the following day that the family actually
00:17:28
report her missing to the authorities well the authorities in this case are the Halifax County Sheriff's Office one
00:17:38
concern that the sheriff's office has is they question why would Emma's family delay reporting her missing well the
00:17:47
family does have a good explanation for this they tell the sheriff our mom is not in great shape she's in the hospital
00:17:56
we were worried that us reporting her missing and mom finding out about this that it might be unnecessary stress for
00:18:05
her at her time when she she cannot handle anything else right and so they delayed this but mind you they only
00:18:12
delayed it about a day and I think that they were wanting or hoping like does happen in so many other situations that
00:18:23
oh Emma will come home or she'll pop up no reason to scare mom while she's in the hospital well
00:18:31
that would make sense to me if the only if people saw her on Saturday and she had nothing to do on Sunday and then
00:18:38
boom Monday she doesn't go to work but because she had this obligation on Sunday that she missed and then she
00:18:45
misses work on Monday I'm calling Monday I think I would too I can't fault you know I'm not going to look back and say
00:18:53
oh you should have done this you should have done that you know that these sisters are second guessing everything
00:18:58
that took place within that first 24 48 hours but yeah you're right here Captain
00:19:04
cause for deep concern right didn't visit mom on Sunday but let's let's compound that with the issue that she
00:19:12
doesn't show up to her owner operated store on Monday we went over the hour she should have been there prior to
00:19:19
opening at 6:00 a.m. on Monday right and then by the time she's reported missing
00:19:23
on Tuesday she should have arrived at the store prior to 6:00 am. to open the store on Tuesday those three things none
00:19:31
of that happened and in the course of that 48 hours or so she's not responding to any calls or texts that's coming from
00:19:40
anybody that knows her so you got to be fearing the worst at this point well do we have any details of what people were
00:19:50
doing to find her yes there was an effort put together to try to locate Emma the best description I have reads
00:19:59
as follows the Cody Community is a buzz with concern over popular store owner Emma Compton Lane
00:20:06
being missing for a number of days now the owner of Cody store on Highway 40 which is located on Stage Coach Road was
00:20:15
last seen Saturday around 7 p.m. again this is one of those things that kind of troubles me and bothers me the store is
00:20:23
open till 900 p.m. there's no reason to believe that she went in at this 700 p.m. hour or anytime shortly afterwards
00:20:33
right her car didn't drive itself home from the store that night are you sure I well I can't be sure I mean maybe she
00:20:41
had one of those night rider cars but my guess you know I am a betting man I would wager a $100 bill that it did not
00:20:48
drive itself home on that night and I also have some information in our timeline that indicates that she made it
00:20:57
home that night night because she had interaction with other people after leaving the store that night but
00:21:04
continuing on on this report Sheriff Fred Clark said a Virginia State Police search team Virginia Department of
00:21:12
Emergency Management search personnel and a local search and rescue team and EMS have been searching the perimeter of
00:21:21
Lan's Cody residence so again they're starting their search at her residence and Fanning out from there
00:21:31
so they have something telling them something indicating to them that the residence is the place to start your
00:21:38
search not necessarily the store a dive team checked two pawns near her residence but found nothing during
00:21:48
the search of her premises a local search and rescue team member suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced
00:21:56
dead shortly after arrival Lane is described as a white female 5T tall and approximately 135 lbs
00:22:06
she has short brown hair brown eyes pierced ears and may wear glasses the sheriff asked if anyone has any
00:22:15
information on the whereabouts of Emma Compton Lane to please contact the Helifax County Sheriff's office now some
00:22:22
of the later reports that I've read Captain was that unfortunately this man who's trying to help out who suffers the
00:22:29
heart attack during the search effort that that may have triggered them calling off the search a
00:22:40
little prematurely yeah um obviously they didn't find Emma during the course of their search but we should also note
00:22:49
that there was what appears to be based off of this report a good effort put forth to try to locate her and what what
00:22:58
would have been a rather well-managed search right they they made the determination to start off at her
00:23:05
residence and work their way out from there we know that they're searching uh the some of the water in the area
00:23:13
they're not finding Emma they're also not finding any clues as to where she may be now at this time you have several
00:23:23
stories that are coming out from people that know Emma the old Rumor Mill or know her husband Russell and keep in
00:23:31
mind I say that but this is a small town you can make the assumption that whoever
00:23:35
knows Russell knows Emma the stories start to pop up that there's a couple of different theories here one that she
00:23:45
left with some man that she was having an affair with and was in a hotel in Danville well that's pretty easy to
00:23:51
figure out if that's true or not you go to the hotel in Danville and if you don't find them you can figure one of
00:23:58
two things either the two of them moved on to another location or this is not a plausible Theory yeah and you don't even
00:24:05
have to go knocking door to door you just stand out front and start yelling Show
00:24:10
Yourself show yourself you cowards there were some other theories that are somewhat similar but one that she had
00:24:19
gone to New York and one that she had gone to the State of Florida and and possibly for an affair she was having
00:24:29
possibly there was also a theory that she was some type of drug dealer and that drugs were involved either in her
00:24:35
disappearance or were the reason for her to leave willingly was she selling drugs
00:24:42
out of her store no she wasn't selling drugs at all um it's interesting how sometimes these rumors come out of
00:24:52
nothing well and that's the other thing too keep in mind the Danville story has her having an affair well the
00:25:01
overwhelming majority of people spoken to and and asked these questions they don't believe she's
00:25:09
having an affair they've never seen anything any indication right that she's having an affair but it doesn't seem
00:25:16
like a lot of times in these small towns when these crimes take place the rumor mill seems to ramp up a lot faster yeah
00:25:26
I think when you had these small towns a lot not only a lot faster but I almost feel like some of the rumors are more of
00:25:34
the wild variety yeah they become a little more redonkulous but we've seen crimes and cases that we've looked at
00:25:41
here in the garage where often when a case first breaks that there are some early rumors going on and sometimes even
00:25:51
if it takes years to solve them you find out that one of these early rumors well
00:25:56
it must have been based Bas off of a lot of Truth or fact because in the end when
00:26:02
they get the result when they get Justice for the victim they find that a lot of the information in one particular
00:26:09
rumor turned out to be true now here in this case I think that all of these rumors are completely
00:26:19
false 100% false but I also think that these rumors are what will help you ultimately
00:26:28
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just all right we are back trying to sift through the rumors cheers mates cheers captain now in this
00:30:27
case we have a woman who is missing and as said there are some rumors that are being bandied about that maybe she is
00:30:35
taken off and left on her own here's a follow-up report on Emma's status of still missing and this says that on
00:30:47
Saturday June 17th Emma closed her store as she did every Saturday and finished with closing duties and she left for the
00:30:57
day day so now keep in mind this report is coming out quite a bit later from the
00:31:02
previous one we've already noticed the shift in the narrative right that they have figured out she finished her
00:31:09
closing duties she left the store for the day the store is always closed on Sunday so Emma told her family she'd
00:31:17
spend that Sunday with her mom Sylvia in the hospital Emma had admitted her mom just 2 days earlier but Emma never
00:31:26
showed up to the hospital Hospital the next morning Monday Sylvia her mother called her sister shaa to see where Emma
00:31:33
was shaa lives in Mississippi wasn't able to get a hold of Emma either so she sent their other sister Winona to Emma's
00:31:42
house since Winona lived nearby quote everything was there Emma's credit card clothes car keys cell phone her dog
00:31:54
everything was in the basement except Emma shaa said the family knew something was
00:31:59
wrong the next morning Winona called the police when I first got the call on Tuesday June 20th around 10 or 11 a.m.
00:32:08
investigator Burton of the Helifax County Sheriff's Office said some of the family had been looking for her prior to
00:32:16
the call we keep going back and forth with why they waited so long to call us the family told police they waited until
00:32:24
Tuesday to call because they didn't want to panic their mom who was in the hospital at the time unless it was
00:32:30
absolutely necessary and then we have the sheriff's office that goes on to say I got in contact with Emma's husband
00:32:37
Russell Lane who gave us permission to go into the house and look for whatever we needed investigator Burton said
00:32:44
Emma's husband has cooperated with police since the beginning of the investigation so a little bit more
00:32:52
information coming out later as to the timeline itself and pointing out that police were suspicious for the delay in
00:33:00
reporting the family member as missing and now we have the statement from the detective saying well the husband said
00:33:07
yeah go ahead and search the property search my home you can look for whatever you need to help your investigation
00:33:15
which doesn't always mean anything because we've seen that in the past where the husband says come on in take a
00:33:23
look around and we know that son of a [ __ ] is guilty so but it it does let us know where
00:33:30
they're at in the investigation and then you have to again like you were saying start from the inner circle and start
00:33:37
moving your way out well there's a little bit of information in there that I think we need to dissect and put it
00:33:46
right under the microscope let me grab my lab coat listen to this statement from the sister who searched the home or
00:33:52
went to the home shortly after Emma was missing everything was there Emma's credit card clothes car keys cell phone
00:34:00
her dog everything was in the basement except Emma strange everything was in the basement except Emma so I was
00:34:10
curious about that statement that to me makes me want to know why would you expect to find Emma
00:34:17
in the basement and I was able to track down a few people that are very close to
00:34:23
this case and they told me the following information that her and Russell had not been
00:34:29
getting along for quite some time in fact there was reason to believe that Russell may have been
00:34:39
aggressive or even violent toward his wife in the past dou now the information that I have here Captain is not exact so
00:34:49
we need to we need to point that out to be perfectly clear to everybody out there in listener land the information
00:34:55
that I have found was saying that Emma was living in the basement of the home and Russell was living in the
00:35:03
ground level or the upstairs of the home and this Arrangement had been going on for quite some time some sources say as
00:35:11
long as 3 years and some say as little as 2 years but regardless of that information whether it's 2 years or 3
00:35:21
years that's a long time for husband and wife to be basically living almost like
00:35:26
roommates separate lives in the same dwelling well so then the rumors of her having possibly a affair is not really
00:35:35
out of the question not out of the question but let's examine this a little bit further
00:35:42
so the the basement itself was actually set up to be like a living quarters almost so that once she was home and
00:35:51
once she's in the basement there's little if no need at all to go upstairs right to have any interaction with her
00:35:59
husband let's back up the bus a little bit more where yeah you can look at this and go okay well maybe these Affair
00:36:07
rumors have some truth to them but let's also examine the idea that there is information out there that her husband
00:36:18
has been violent towards her in the past now where are these rumors of being a drug dealer and the affair and all of
00:36:28
that coming from well she put out a mixtape and she did she was rapping about her drug dealings there is nothing
00:36:36
that I have found to make me believe that either of these rumors have any validity at all they have any truth to
00:36:47
them at all so the thing here is we have to start really wondering where these rumors are coming from and based off of
00:36:56
these rumors think about the other thing that's a big part of those stories right
00:37:02
the story is that she left town with another man or she left town because of some Mis dealings that she was doing
00:37:12
that's all going to become a very big problem for everybody five months later yeah so what you're saying is we have
00:37:20
these rumors that she's a drug dealer and she left town with a bunch of money or to go sell drugs somewhere else uh
00:37:28
expand or that drugs was the cause of her leaving town it doesn't necessarily have to mean that she's dealing drugs
00:37:33
that's just one of of several rumors that were going on one was that that she left town because of drugs right and
00:37:42
then there's other rumors that she left town to go live with somebody or she left town with somebody which if
00:37:50
somebody else locally left town at the same time wouldn't we know who that person was or it could have been a man
00:37:56
from out of town again these These are rumors these aren't things that we have direct statements from these local
00:38:02
people that are giving us detailed statements right I'm sure they gave detailed statements to the
00:38:09
authorities but we the public don't have access to that information right but the
00:38:15
problem becomes this whole idea of her leaving town is that her body is found in the county yeah so here's the report
00:38:23
we have here Captain authorities are awaiting the identification of human remains found in a wooded Cody area keep
00:38:31
in mind Cody's a pretty small town remains found in a wooded Cody area after a Hunting Party came across the
00:38:38
find Wednesday November 22nd 2017 around 1:30 p.m. Helifax County Sheriff Fred Clark said Foul Play is
00:38:49
expected in the death but Clark declined to comment further including whether there is any indication of how long long
00:38:56
the body may have been left in the woods The Remains were sent to the State medical examiner's office in Richmond to
00:39:04
assist with the identification on Wednesday a member of a Hunting Party came across the remains in a heavily
00:39:11
wooded area approximately 700 yard from Sandy Ridge Road at the 4,000 block of the northern Helifax County roadway the
00:39:21
location is a short distance from the Cody store the discovery comes as police continue to investigate The
00:39:30
Disappearance of 52-year-old Emma Compton Lane of Cody who has gone missing since mid June she was last seen
00:39:38
at the Cody store where she worked on the evening of June 17th since that time police have conducted multiple searches
00:39:45
for Lane including in the vicinity of her home nearby the searches produced no evidence of her whereabouts other
00:39:53
missing person cases have gone unsolved and alifax County and it goes on to reference some of these other cases now
00:40:03
the thing here Captain it will take a little bit of time but ultimately the body that is recovered is identified as
00:40:11
that of Emma Compton Lane right the other items that they find and some of the information that we learn here is
00:40:21
that the ruling from the medical examiner is that the cause of death is homicidal violence with traumatic neck
00:40:31
injuries there was also a sleeping bag that was found in the way that it's described to me it sounds like she may
00:40:40
have been inside of the sleeping bag there was also reports that someone had tried to burn the body or that there was
00:40:47
indications that someone had tried to burn the body the reports also state that she was in a very shallow grave
00:40:56
there's a whole bunch of things here that we need to kind of consider Russell Lane and Emma Compton Lane husband and
00:41:04
wife living separately in the same home they owned some property throughout this
00:41:10
Helifax County the place the wooded area of Cody Virginia that her body is located is really like a Stones throw
00:41:22
away from the property line of one of their other properties that's suspicious and I've also seen it
00:41:31
reported that the property that she was located on now this is an area where we're talking like Farmland there's not
00:41:38
a bunch of people out there this is an area where you would put something that you hope and wish will never be
00:41:46
found but the property that she has found on there are reports out there belong to one of Emma's husband's
00:41:55
friends now again it's a small town this could be all coincidence we're not talking about a whole lot of people
00:42:01
we're talking about a lot of land and not a whole lot of people so it could be complete coincidence but it's still
00:42:09
suspicious huge red flags MH well on top of that on top of that we have a lot of
00:42:15
rumors happening right and you'd think for three years if if it's true that their friends are saying look they just
00:42:25
really were kind of separated for 3 years there's going to be a lot of rumors happening between their friends
00:42:32
in in the town does that make sense there are some people in this story that have said they were
00:42:40
unaware that they were living separately in the same home right now it sounds like the people closest to them were
00:42:47
well aware of this like the family and friends the direct friends that you're talking about they were well aware
00:42:54
that's where this information comes from but it's it's all a very weird situation because some of the reports
00:43:02
are that Russell almost had Emma in a situation where it appears like she works for him like runs errands for him
00:43:12
she's not really allowed to go too many places on her own she's not allowed to have a lot of friends she we know that
00:43:19
she works a lot of hours based off of the store hours that we covered at the top of the story
00:43:26
but this to me when you have a situation where she goes missing why do they find all of her
00:43:36
things there you know people I do understand it people do have affairs people do have
00:43:42
Mis dealings people do leave town on their own free will rarely do they do it without taking a single thing with them
00:43:51
and so of course that's the cause for concern for the people that know her best early on on in the missing person's
00:43:59
investigation they all believed that something terrible had happened right then and there they none of them were
00:44:06
convinced that she was missing and then we learned 5 months later that she wasn't missing yeah somebody killed her
00:44:14
and somebody placed her body in this area not terribly far from the Cody store if Russ is being physically
00:44:23
abusive he's probably being mentally abusive and so he's also seems to be controlling
00:44:29
her so he should know about if there's a affair happening cuz he's controlling exactly now in Russ's
00:44:38
defense I couldn't find any report online or otherwise that states that there was any type of police report
00:44:50
based off of that previous violence this all seems to come from people that knew
00:44:56
the two of them best the the but it only takes one right so it's like she so maybe she was beat up thousands of times
00:45:06
and she never called the cops or once or twice right but or or none that doesn't
00:45:14
rule him out bastards like that are very capable of if if she came home and said
00:45:20
you know what I'm just so tired of all this stuff my mother's sick she might be dying I need a do something with my life
00:45:27
I need to change I'm tired of this situation I'm I'm living in a basement this is not this is not the
00:45:34
life that I wanted if if they got an argument and she said you know what I'm leaving and he's this
00:45:41
controlling it just seems like there's a lot of signs pointing to you know the the typical the husband did it well and
00:45:49
we cannot say the name of the person but this is where it gets a little I feel like the picture gets a little
00:45:58
clearer of what may have happened yeah there was a friend a close friend of Emma's who was texting with her that
00:46:05
night after she got home she's in her basement watching TV and they are trading text back and
00:46:14
forth there was a text from the friend that came in at approximately 15 minutes after
00:46:20
midnight that Emma never responded to that later when her phone was looked at by family
00:46:29
members Emma had never opened up that text now that does not mean that 100% of what I'm about to say is accurate but it
00:46:42
makes it makes me think that very likely this is what happened okay lay lay it down well they're trading text back and
00:46:50
forth mhm something happened before she opened and responded to that 12 15 text that's where the timeline I would be
00:47:01
concerned with with what's going on with Emma at that timeline yeah very good point because she's talking with
00:47:08
somebody back and forth and she has this husband that is going who are you talking to give me that phone I want to
00:47:15
see what's happening her phone's found at her residence along with all of her other
00:47:22
belongings and what I'm pointing out is this is one of those things one of the the rare occasions in these types of
00:47:30
cases where we may have the exact marker the exact minute marker of when all things stopped for Emma right because we
00:47:40
know that she all of the activity she was supposed to be a part of on Sunday she did not she didn't go to the
00:47:47
hospital she was unheard of she was unreachable she doesn't show up to work on Monday doesn't show up to work on
00:47:53
Tuesday well you can backtrack that all all the way to that 12:15 15 minutes after midnight text that does not get
00:48:01
responded to well look her her and look her family not reporting her missing till Tuesday okay
00:48:11
fine but if you care about your wife even if you're separated or you're kind of living this roommate
00:48:22
lifestyle you're calling the police right away she gets she got home from work we know that much she's missing the
00:48:30
next morning you're calling the police that didn't happen that didn't happen and so it it seems like there was
00:48:39
this text message conversation maybe there's an argument happening at the same time like you said it gives us
00:48:46
almost to the minute of when this confrontation took place and where was she at her house where's her phone at
00:48:53
her house this reminds this is very similar to me like the Chris Watts case where he had her phone and
00:49:04
had all her stuff and and it's just like oh well she must have just went missing don't know
00:49:10
where she's at well and I don't want to question or call to fault the hellofax county sheriff's office but isn't it one
00:49:21
of these cases Captain we've seen bigger mysteries in other murder cases we' seen bigger Mysteries you have
00:49:29
to sit here and wonder okay guys what's the hangup here what what's the problem with the investigation well hold on
00:49:36
here's what we do know right we we can surmise this right we're not that dumb I mean we are two dumb guys in a garage
00:49:44
and we stand by that to the end of the time to the end of our days see but we're not that dumb we know
00:49:52
that law enforcement at least has a short list of suspects especially where the body was
00:49:58
found her items still being at home and I think there's a lot more motive too not just the separation not just the
00:50:05
rumors of possibly Affair but also Financial if we get a divorce and we have all these properties we have to
00:50:15
split this up this also could be something that's not planned good point let's pretend for a moment that these
00:50:22
previous acts of violence from her husband are are in fact true if they are true this seems to me like somebody with
00:50:31
a temper with somebody that can fly off the handle this is a guy that's been married and divorc before his
00:50:38
relationship with Emma what I'm getting to here Captain is I wonder what the hang-up is in this investigation now we
00:50:47
do have the Sheriff's Office on record early in the investigation especially when she was still missing saying say
00:50:55
you know Russell's been cooperative and they even go as far to say that he's not
00:51:01
a person of interest well wow we know that he was a truck driver is there a chance I would love to know this
00:51:09
information I don't believe that this is true at all but is there a chance that he was not home or they have reason to
00:51:16
believe that he was not at The Residence at any time that night now let's fast forward a little bit mm keep in what the
00:51:25
Sheriff's Office was saying he's Cooperative he's not a person of interest well that does change that
00:51:31
blows my mind at some point it's stated that Russell is no longer cooperating with the investigation that he lawyered
00:51:38
up which is his right and I recommend everybody does have an attorney however he stops communicating
00:51:46
and stops cooperating with the investigation there are some reports out there that state that he failed a
00:51:53
polygraph test and that's when boom communication and cooperation ended yeah Shame Shame know your name I just I want
00:52:01
to point out that those are reports I've not seen 100% Stone Cold evidence of the
00:52:09
fact that he failed a polygraph test well let's just assume I'm the detective right let's hypothetically I'm the
00:52:17
detective I go I'm giving statements if I'm a detective I start talking like this right I'm giving statements to to
00:52:25
the public and I'm saying this guy Russ man he's a he's a standup guy it's it's her husband they own a bunch of property
00:52:35
together he's been Cooperative seems to have an alibi of some kind he's not a person of interest
00:52:42
at this time no he's not he's been Cooperative you're going to say that anyways even if he's being a little bit
00:52:48
of a scumbag cuz you kind of you you want him to soften up right you don't want him to be guarded with everything
00:52:55
he's saying but also when you talk about that she's found in a shallow grave there's a lot of individuals a lot of
00:53:03
victims that we've talked about where they're just dumped on the side of the road this is somebody that put her in an
00:53:09
area and tried to conceal her so she wasn't found maybe I can get behind the idea that maybe this wasn't planned out
00:53:21
but the disposal of the body definitely was to some degree and oh I think to a big
00:53:28
time degree there was evidence that someone had tried to burn the body there was a sleeping bag that was recovered
00:53:36
from the scene there was an attempt to bury the body yeah that was was I don't know if it was well thought out or not
00:53:44
but somebody went to a great deal of effort to try to conceal the body and the other thing too there's no reason at
00:53:52
all for anyone to believe that she was killed where she was found so she was moved and
00:53:57
transported as well now here's here's the problem this this is where I'm going to go okay I understand that there are
00:54:06
complications every murder investigation is complicated for any number of different reasons but I'm sitting here 5
00:54:16
years after the fact 4 and a/2 years after her body's found and I'm going what is wrong with this case what is
00:54:24
wrong with your sus ECT what is wrong with the investigation why haven't we charged
00:54:30
anybody in this case and here's where my mind goes and these are things that I hope and pray that the sheriff's office
00:54:38
has already done the cell phone we know that she was actively using the cell phone and I believe right up into the
00:54:47
point where something happened to her or she was abducted or attacked and killed Ina those cell phone records if
00:54:57
you could could you find out where that phone was located we know it was later found at her home in the basement where
00:55:06
anybody would expect to find it right subpoena those phone records let's find out where that phone was during the
00:55:13
course of that text activity let's subpoena somebody else's cell phone records and see who was in that same
00:55:20
area at the same time we know that she shared the home with another person there's reason to believe his
00:55:28
phone may indicate that he was home at the same time that that text exchange ended here's some other things that I
00:55:36
would be doing I think that in this case in this murder investigation that the Sheriff's Office
00:55:43
actually has a very powerful weapon in their Arsenal and that would be their missing person's investigation
00:55:55
I would be using the information that they gained and learned during the course of their missing person's
00:56:02
investigation to drive and spearhead my murder investigation and what I mean by that is every person that told me that
00:56:12
Emma left town I want to know why did you think that she left town who told you that is
00:56:21
that something you came up with on your own because we know that her body was found in town
00:56:29
so she didn't leave town we know that so why would anybody be telling law enforcement that she did leave town if
00:56:38
you told me that you're a suspect if you told me that you better tell me who gave you
00:56:46
that information because then they are my suspect and the other thing that I think
00:56:52
happened here too Captain I think that they there's plenty of reason to believe that whoever transported the
00:57:04
body had help I almost feel like the the finding of the sleeping bag screams to me at
00:57:12
least two people moving the body yeah know I was actually going to bring that up as a question to you earlier was
00:57:21
doesn't this seem like because one thing was tried then another thing was tried and and then the distance that she would
00:57:29
have been found in this property kind of leans more towards two people than one so I'm glad that you brought that up
00:57:38
but I I know that they said he was being cooperative and I and and I know he um I
00:57:45
know that they said the husband was being cooperative and and and maybe there was some
00:57:51
Alibi that didn't check out and that's that's why he lawyered up and he stopped being cooperative but once he lawyered
00:57:59
up and and stopped being cooperative is one thing if you want to lawyer up and have the questions go through your
00:58:05
lawyer and you answer what you can and and you protect your client that's fine but my list of suspects would be a
00:58:14
list of one my list of suspects would be rather short because I want to know again we're
00:58:21
both sitting here believing that two people and minimum transported the body well and and that's more likely the
00:58:28
person that will come forward is look I was told the story uh that she was uh cheating on him or that she was stealing
00:58:38
money from him or whatever and it was an accidental death and so I helped move the body but that person is more likely
00:58:47
to come forward come forward we all sit here too believing that more than one person likely told law enforcement that
00:58:54
Emma had left the area of her own free will again those are the tools that the the the phone activity the phone
00:59:04
activity of others inside that residence or on that property at that same time 15
00:59:09
minutes after midnight on the night that she air quotes went missing I'm looking at that I'm looking
00:59:16
at the people that told me that she left town of her own free will and I'm also looking for the point of origin of that
00:59:22
sleeping bag because guess what if I can figure out and prove and have reason to
00:59:28
believe that person a owns that sleeping bag or own that sleeping bag at one point and he was one
00:59:35
of the people that told me that he was with a certain person on that night and that is that person's Alibi well guess
00:59:43
what that alibi don't mean jack [ __ ] anymore because we have your sleeping bag found at our crime scene well no and
00:59:52
I think one of the things that they could possibly do is you know obviously test the sleeping bag for for DNA but I
01:00:01
would also test it for fibers like carpet fibers because that that could have been a sleeping bag in her house
01:00:11
that they use just like when Chris Watts went to transport his W wife didn't he use the bed
01:00:19
sheets so I I just feel like it's so similar and we don't always agree mainly because
01:00:27
you're normally right and I'm wrong but I think in this case we at least agree that the suspect list is very small it's
01:00:35
very small and again anyone that told law enforcement that Emma left town for any number of
01:00:43
reasons they should be people that you really want to question and you want to get to the truth because they obviously
01:00:50
told you a lie at some point and anybody willing to lie is somebody that is either directly involved or is helping
01:00:59
to cover up what actually happened so those nasty rumors about an affair or drug dealing or being involved with
01:01:07
drugs boom none of them are true somebody murdered this woman and didn't take her body very far from where she
01:01:15
was killed Emma Compton Lane was last seen alive on June 17 2017 and C Virginia on November 22nd 2017 her
01:01:28
remains were found by a hunter in the woods near her home on Sandy Ridge Road she was buried in a shallow grave the
01:01:37
person responsible or persons responsible for her murder have never been identified if you have any
01:01:44
information regarding the murder of Emma Compton Lane or recall seeing any suspicious Vehicles along Sandy Ridge
01:01:53
Road between June and November of 2017 please contact the Helifax County Sheriff's Office at 434
01:02:04
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