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delicious recipes [Music] [Music] n [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
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as always is a man that's got a curse that he cannot lift here is the captain it's time to buckle up buttercup it's
00:01:53
good to be seing and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling my [Music]
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friend this week we are drinking old scout straight bourbon whiskey that's right
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we're really stepping it up here in the garage this is a very Ry forward spicy and somewhat intense bourbon check out
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old scout straight bourbon whiskey I love the color and I love the taste garage grade let's go ahead and go with
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five bottle caps out of five and let's give some praise and thanks to our good friends right here in the helping us out
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first up a big thanks to Molly Wood for sending us some old scout straight bourbon whiskey I think she may have
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00:04:04
business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:04:12
[Music] crime don't feel the [Music] same don't [Music] feel [Music] this week's True Crime case takes us to
00:04:44
the Tiny Town of wam Pennsylvania Our Story begins on the morning of Friday February 20th
00:04:51
2009 tree workers are busy working at a cattle farm on wam New Galilee Road they
00:04:58
are on day two of a a job that consists primarily of cutting down trees and splitting and stacking for
00:05:05
firewood around 9:40 a.m. one of the workers spotted a little girl maybe 4 years old standing in the doorway of The
00:05:13
Farmhouse the screen door was open and the girl was crying then the little girl shouted to
00:05:21
the worker my mother is dead the worker stopped what he was doing and told the girl to stay right
00:05:29
where she was was he picked up his cell phone and called 911 he reported to Emergency Services
00:05:37
exactly what the child had told him that her mother was dead minutes later he and the men
00:05:44
working with him were assisting by flagging down the responding state police officers troopers were on the scene at
00:05:52
10:13 a.m. two Troopers entered the home they tried to calm the girl as they started
00:05:59
Ed to search the home almost immediately they saw what the little girl was talking about in a
00:06:07
downstairs front bedroom they found a woman lying lifeless on a bed under her there was a large pull of blood she was
00:06:16
clearly dead and even more horrific the dead woman appeared to be pregnant the Troopers cleared the scene
00:06:25
and quickly ushered in paramedics they confirmed the officer suspicions the woman on the bed had been
00:06:32
shot in the back of the head right where the head and the neck meet she and her baby were both
00:06:40
deceased this is true crime garage and this is the case of Kenzie Hal and Jordan
00:06:53
Brown [Music] feel [Music] this week we go to the tiny rural town of wam in Lawrence County this is
00:07:11
Western Pennsylvania about 40 or so miles Northwest of Pittsburgh on the morning of Friday February 20th Chris
00:07:20
Brown is at work he works in the shipping Department of a local table wear company called steel light while at
00:07:28
work that morning he received a phone call from the police this is around 11:00 a.m. an officer told Chris come
00:07:35
home something happened Chris Brown rushed home when he gets there he's greeted by a State Trooper in the front
00:07:44
yard of the property officer Jeffrey Martin told Chris that his fiance 26-year-old Kenzie Hal was dead from a
00:07:53
shotgun blast and the News got much worse Chris and keny's son who was to be born in just a matter of weeks did not
00:08:03
survive the fetus a 34 or 35 weak old boy died within minutes due to oxygen deprivation after his mother was killed
00:08:15
Chris collapsed on the ground in the yard obviously he was devastated at this horrific news he was then taken to the
00:08:23
state police barracks where he could be interviewed by police he told them that Kenzie had been alive and well when he
00:08:30
left for work that morning police are going to need to find out everything that went on at that house on this
00:08:38
morning they are going to have to figure out who shot this 26-year-old mother callously cutting short her life and in
00:08:45
the process ending the life of her unborn baby and why was she collateral damage maybe a victim of a house burgary
00:08:53
gone wrong or was she the target all along before we go through the events of the murder let's give a little
00:09:00
background information on the family yes a little background information is in order and we need to introduce the
00:09:07
members of this household as we said Chris Brown is the man of the house he and his former partner Mildred Krauss
00:09:15
were the parents of 11-year-old Jordan Brown when Chris and Mildred split Chris got custody of Jordan Chris dated
00:09:24
another woman for 7 years from 2000 to 2007 and after that relationship Chris started dating a friend he met years ago
00:09:33
in middle school and this is Kenzie Hal when they reconnected Kenzie was working
00:09:38
as a hairdresser Kenzie already had two young daughters of her own this is four-year-old Adeline and 7-year-old
00:09:46
Janessa Chris and Kenzie got engaged and rented the wam Farmhouse together 4 months before Kenzie was shot Chris
00:09:55
Brown's son Jordan lives at the house as does Kenzie's two daughters Adeline and
00:10:01
Janessa Jordan the son would be 11 at the time because of the emminent arrival of the baby there is going to be some
00:10:10
bedroom shuffling that's going on at this house Jordan's upstairs bedroom was being taken over by the parents Chris
00:10:18
and Kenzie because it had a smaller room off of it that would serve as a nursery
00:10:23
you want to be close to the baby Jordan was moving into the downstairs front room bedroom currently being used by
00:10:30
Kenzie and Chris so we have five people living in the house there Captain two little girls Jordan Brown who's 11 and
00:10:38
then we have Kenzie and Chris who are now engaged they're going to join forces join families here and they're moving
00:10:45
upstairs when the baby comes along and Jordan Brown's going to be switching bedrooms with his father and soon to be
00:10:53
stepmother on the day of the shooting Jordan's clothing and some of his personal items had already been Reloaded
00:10:59
located into this downstairs room although Chris and Kenzie were still using it and Jordan was still sleeping
00:11:06
upstairs at this time remember Kenzie unfortunately was killed lying in her bed in the downstairs bedroom the front
00:11:14
bedroom located on the ground level or main level of the home and Chris said that Kinsey was alive and well when he
00:11:22
left for work that morning Christopher Brown said he left for work at 6:45 a.m. he backed his vehicle out of its parking
00:11:31
spot which is behind the two-story Farmhouse Chris recalled that there was fresh snow on the ground his vehicle
00:11:39
made the only tire tracks down the long driveway to the main road Chris got to work around 700 a.m. and was there and
00:11:47
accounted for all morning until receiving that terrible phone call from the state police at 11:00 a.m. seems as
00:11:54
though Chris has a solid Alibi but obviously law enforcement will have to check him out
00:11:59
and then the tree workers were at their property that day yes we know that the tree workers were there and they were
00:12:05
there the day before as well the six workers arrived on this morning at 9:15 a.m. to gather and stack firewood even
00:12:14
though there was a fresh coating of snow on the ground which was about a/4 inch deep now they parked their three trucks
00:12:22
near the woods line in front of the house and got to work when arriving the workers weren't there too long because
00:12:30
one of them spots the crying girl which was 4-year-old Adeline around 9:40 a.m. this is when the workers called the
00:12:40
police and during this time Captain they actually discussed the two sets of small
00:12:46
footprints that they could see in the snow dotting the driveway between the house and the road Troopers Guston and
00:12:55
Trooper Bowser arrived on scene at 10:13 a.m. they entered the house through the
00:13:01
front door after searching the home the officers noted that the house had four entrances and that none of them were
00:13:08
locked when the police arrived while the Troopers and paramedics were still working on Kenzie to see if they could
00:13:17
possibly save her baby Kenzie's cell phone rang Trooper guson answered the phone and it was the school nurse from
00:13:27
Mohawk Elementary the nurse told him that 11-year-old Jordan Brown who's a fifth grader at
00:13:34
this time was in her office with a stomach ache and he wanted to go home the trooper told the nurse that you need
00:13:41
to keep Jordan there until we can make some kind of arrangements for him right not telling the nurse exactly what has
00:13:49
gone down four-year-old Adeline the youngest daughter and the only other person in the home other than the
00:13:56
deceased when the police arrive was questioned at the house that morning by Trooper Janice Wilson but she was deemed
00:14:04
to be in a State of Shock and not able to provide coherent answers Wilson said in her report that she was able to make
00:14:12
out that Adeline woke up that morning went downstairs watched cartoons for a while and ate some food in the kitchen
00:14:20
she said she was up for a while and heard her mom's phone ring and went into her mom's room to look for her when she
00:14:28
saw her mother she started crying and went to the screen door seeing the wood cutters working outside and that's when
00:14:36
she shouted at one of the workers that she believed her mother was dead she also told the officer that she did not
00:14:44
see anyone else in the home that morning and I think it's important to point out
00:14:49
that Jordan and Janessa are not there that morning cuz they took the school bus to school yes and one thing I want
00:14:56
to hit on here too Captain before before we move on too far is for those of you out there that are familiar with this
00:15:04
case many years after the events of that day this case was on it was featured on
00:15:13
2020 and Adeline gave a different version of the events of that morning on 2020 than what we just reported here now
00:15:25
I want to be completely clear about something I don't I'm not trying to to accuse Adeline of changing her story we
00:15:31
need to keep in mind she was 4 years old when this happened she finds her mother
00:15:36
dead she's got to be in a State of Shock we know that based off of what Trooper Wilson's report says I want to point out
00:15:45
here that we don't have any incorrect information what we are reporting here is what was in Trooper Wilson's report
00:15:53
from that day and then later we have Adeline giving giving a more simple different version in her statement on
00:16:03
2020 so that out of the way before we move along now after Trooper Janice Wilson finished questioning Adeline now
00:16:10
she's going to go to Mohawk Elementary to talk to the two older kids Jordan Brown and Janessa H during his interview
00:16:19
Chris Brown told investigators that the family never used the front door but the
00:16:25
state police Corporal Andrew panel noted that blood was on the front door frame the Corporal also found a blue blanket
00:16:34
on the floor near the front door of the home he entered it into evidence when he
00:16:39
noticed it had a hole in it which appeared to be consistent with a shotgun blast now consistent with the shotgun
00:16:47
blast is very important to our case as later Dr James Smith a forensic pathologist determined that Kenzie was
00:16:55
killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of of her neck and he found the presence of shotgun pellets in and
00:17:03
around the entry wound which was the shape of a large slanted oval the size and shape of the wound told him that
00:17:11
Kinsey was asleep in bed lying on her left side when she was shot in the back of the head and neck to make sure that
00:17:18
we don't leave anything out here the following is a statement from Dr Smith quote hot gas from the shotgun blast
00:17:27
entered the wound through the skin and muscle of the victim's neck and caused the skin to bulge out and rupture near
00:17:35
the point of entry this phenomenon known as blowback formed a tract or laceration
00:17:42
in the skin the nature of this type of damage indicated that the gas from the shotgun blast was mostly contained
00:17:49
within the entry wound and did not have time to dissipate this Factor coupled with the presence of powder in the wound
00:17:57
and suit around the surface of the skin near the point at which the pellets entered the skin caused me to conclude
00:18:06
that the shotgun was very very close to or maybe even touching the back of the neck when it was fired Dr Smith
00:18:15
estimated that the shot was fired from a distance of closer than 2 in from Kenzie's neck Chris Brown remember told
00:18:24
police that Kenzie was alive and well when he left for work that morning the cops very quickly confirmed Chris's
00:18:30
Presence at work all morning and a swab of his hands detected zero gunshot residue Chris was basically cleared very
00:18:39
early on in this investigation so our key window of time is getting small and more manageable right the shooting took
00:18:47
place sometime after Chris Brown left for work at 6:45 a.m. and sometime before Adeline found her and 911 was
00:18:55
called around 9:40 a.m. so less than 3 hours time to work with here now the tree guys arrived at
00:19:03
9:15 and they said that they had not seen or heard anything to further narrow down the window of time cops needed to
00:19:10
talk to the two older kids Janessa and Jordan who were at school that morning Trooper Janice Wilson arrived at Mohawk
00:19:17
Elementary around noon she found Jordan asleep in the nurse's office so she started by questioning Janessa and when
00:19:24
they call Janessa to the office she assumes at first like most kids would that she's in trouble yeah the dreaded
00:19:31
call remember when we were young I don't know how they do it nowadays but they would announce your name over the the
00:19:37
louds speaker Captain to the office yeah Captain to the office and you're like oh
00:19:42
no what did I do well she gets to the office and very quickly she's realizes that she's not in trouble of course and
00:19:51
the officer is going to inform her of that now Janessa calmed down and upon questioning quote didn't have much to
00:19:59
offer about what happened that morning end quote that's from Trooper Wilson Trooper Wilson at that time did
00:20:06
not tell Janessa that her mother was dead we do need to point out something here too that is really kind of
00:20:14
disappointing I understand why it didn't happen but again it's still disappointing looking back on this case
00:20:21
these interviews so far that we've discussed have not been recorded there's not a recording of them anywhere it's
00:20:29
simply we have an officer writing down statements and taking notes based off of a meeting the nurse then took Jordan to
00:20:38
meet Trooper Wilson in a conference room a school guidance counselor was present
00:20:43
for this interview as was for Janessa Trooper Wilson later acknowledged and this is kind of key here when we get
00:20:52
into technicalities and the law and and witness statements and things like that Trooper Wilson later acknowledged that
00:20:59
she had not contacted the father Chris Brown for permission to for permission to
00:21:05
interview or at least to inform him that he that she was speaking with the children now Trooper Wilson said quote
00:21:13
at that time Mr Chris Brown was possibly a suspect in the incident and that's why
00:21:20
that phone call or notification wasn't made so while the state claims that the children were free to leave and not
00:21:27
answer questions well we all know that no seven or 11year old is going to stand up and March out
00:21:32
of a meeting with a police officer and a guidance counselor it doesn't seem reasonable right anyway Jordan told
00:21:41
Trooper Wilson that he was awakened that morning at 8 a.m. by Janessa yelling at
00:21:46
him after she in turn had been awakened by Kenzie just a minute or two before that Jordan said he went downstairs and
00:21:55
got some clothing from the room Kenzie was sleeping in in which of course would soon be his room one day and got dressed
00:22:02
in the bathroom he said Kenzie was awake at this time but in bed then he watched
00:22:10
TV with Janessa in the family room which is adjacent to Ken's room on the first floor he said the only people in the
00:22:19
house at that time to his knowledge were the three kids in Kenzie whom he was calling Mom by this time but
00:22:27
that he never saw Adeline the little girl as she was still asleep his father had already left for work by this point
00:22:35
at some point he and Janessa heard Kenzie yell to them that they needed to leave or they would miss the bus this
00:22:43
from Trooper Wilson's report quote when I asked what time it was Jordan Brown stated that they usually leave the house
00:22:52
at 8:12 but since his mom was telling them they needed to go or they were going to be late he stated that it was
00:23:00
probably 88:13 or 8:14 end quote the older kid's bus would come between 8:12 and 8:15 every morning according to
00:23:10
Jordan Kenzie was awake when they walked out the door Trooper Wilson asked if he
00:23:17
had seen any vehicles at or near the home and Jordan said that as they left the house through the side door which is
00:23:25
important remember the father saying earlier that they never used the family never used the front door Jordan said
00:23:31
that as they left the house through the side door he noted a large black pickup truck parked by the garage of the home
00:23:40
and he said it was the same kind of truck that was driven by the guy who would come to the farm to feed the
00:23:46
cattle not the same truck but the same kind of truck right then Jordan and Janessa got on the bus and they went to
00:23:54
school I'll just back up a little bit Kinsey is a mother of two soon to be a mother of three one on the way she's
00:24:01
laying down I would assume that she was asleep it's almost like she was executed
00:24:07
in her sleep that's what the pathologist would tell us in his report and basically what I see here Captain is a
00:24:16
situation where the timeline is very crucial to this case more so than a lot of other cases out there and we are
00:24:24
really talking about a short window of time here when this murder occurred and then you try to piece well who could
00:24:31
have been there at that time when the murder took place that's got to be your suspect or your suspects right and so
00:24:38
what we have here is a very simple time frame and timeline of Chris Brown leaving for work at 6:45 a.m. if we are
00:24:48
to believe Chris Brown his his soon Tobe wife is alive and well at that time it seems like that's probably the situation
00:24:56
because later we have the the kids saying that she was alive and well later before they leave for school right now
00:25:03
they're getting on the bus about 8:15 at the very latest We have tree workers arriving at 9:15 and then by 9:40 we
00:25:12
have the littlest kid 4-year-old Adeline who's at the door crying and she shouts
00:25:17
at one of the workers my mother is dead we're talking about a window of 3 hours when this execution style murder took
00:25:25
place we also have this unidentified vehicle so this case has a lot of moving pieces and parts and every minute
00:25:36
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when you Angie that [Music] feel [Music] don't all right we are back Shear to everybody in the front
00:28:08
back to the sides to the windows to the walls and all the unfortunate people in the middle yeah of it all smelling the
00:28:16
goodness Cheers Cheers meanwhile Captain back at the house around midday on Friday investigators are still
00:28:23
processing the murder scene Corporal panel searched the upstairs of the home and went into Jordan's bedroom in the
00:28:32
front left corner between a dresser and the wall stood six long guns partially covered by an orange blanket Parnell
00:28:41
began to remove individual guns from this group one at a time and he handed them to Sergeant Mark Linsky for him to
00:28:49
examine and determine if they were loaded the first gun removed by Corporal panel was a flint lock rifle which which
00:28:57
sergeant melinsky examined and noted nothing unusual about it the second weapon Corporal panel handed to Sergeant
00:29:06
marinsky was a Harrington and Richardson youth model 20 gauge shotgun Sergeant marlinski opened the breach of the
00:29:16
shotgun and smelled burnt gunpowder in the breach which he pointed out to the Corporal who also smelled the odor the
00:29:25
sergeant also observed gun powder residue in the breach and in the barrel So based off of their personal
00:29:33
experience with Firearms they both believe that the shotgun was recently fired however they could not opine with
00:29:41
any degree of scientific certainty exactly when the shotgun had been fired just that it had been fired recently
00:29:49
yeah meaning it could have been fired that morning or sometime within that week now in the first floor bedroom
00:29:56
where the victim body was found Corporal panel noted that the television which sat on top of an armoire located in the
00:30:04
right hand side of the room was still turned on observing the doors to the arm wire were closed he opened them now
00:30:14
inside the armoire he saw a locked gun safe on the bottom shelf which was later determined to contain two handguns and
00:30:22
ammunition on the top shelf Corporal panel saw a work helmet and two boxes of shotgun shells one
00:30:31
opened and one closed the open box contained 16 unfired Federal Premium brand 20 gauge shotgun shells okay so
00:30:42
people are trying to figure out why so many guns in this home we already pointed out this is a a small tiny rural
00:30:49
town this was it was common in this area for people to be gun owners and not uncommon for people to be Avid hunters
00:31:00
and in fact we know that Chris Brown and his son Jordan Brown they would go hunting together so Chris Brown owned
00:31:08
several guns and one gun was actually owned by his son Jordan Brown well again going back to the footprints in the snow
00:31:17
we only have two Footprints leaving we don't have other Footprints coming into this house so makes you almost want to
00:31:26
rule out and intrud Theory yeah you're starting to see where this case is going here everyone we have a situation where
00:31:33
as the captain pointed out we don't have any signs or evidence that someone came
00:31:37
into the home and then killed this young woman what we do have though is potentially underline that word
00:31:45
potentially signs that maybe someone inside of the home shot and killed this poor young woman right but at this
00:31:53
moment they can't scientifically prove that no all we have is a bunch of guns and ammo and we have guns that are also
00:32:01
consistent with the the weapon that was used to kill her we have ammo in keny's room and we have guns in Jordan's room
00:32:14
the shells that were found in keny's room well these shells fit into the so-called Smoking Gun that was found in
00:32:22
Jordan's room the one that the officers both smelled and said hey this thing was
00:32:27
L fired right and we also need to remember too that panel had already found a blue blanket which had burn
00:32:34
marks on it and a hole the size of a quarter remember he found that near the front door they also found Blood on the
00:32:42
door frame Chris Brown acknowledged that the gun found in Jordan's bedroom belonged to Jordan he
00:32:51
said it was a Christmas gift from Chris Chris said the two enjoyed hunting together and in fact Jordan won a turkey
00:32:58
shoot competition just 6 days earlier on Valentine's Day even beating out some of
00:33:03
the adults Chris adamantly denied that there was any way that Jordan would have shot Kenzie he said and told the police
00:33:12
the boy was excited about the upcoming wedding and he was excited about the new baby brother well basically what that
00:33:19
statement to me the the way my brain reads that statement is that that Jordan wouldn't kill her but that doesn't mean
00:33:28
that he didn't kill her by accident well and of course after finding these guns and finding the ammunition we're going
00:33:36
to have to have a second round of interviews with everybody that was in that household specifically they wanted
00:33:43
to reinter Jordan so they went to the home of his grandmother this is where he was staying since she had picked him up
00:33:51
from school that day Chris Brown was there as well this is about 1 p.m. at this point Jordan has yet to be told
00:33:59
that Kenzie was murdered so Chris sat down with him at this point and broke the news that something bad had happened
00:34:07
and she was in heaven right Jordan became emotional and started crying at this news according to him he cried
00:34:14
throughout this short interview uh the interview again with Trooper Wilson now from the record quote
00:34:22
Trooper Wilson asked Jordan for more details about the black truck and when he had first seen it Jordan recalled
00:34:30
that he first saw the truck as he exited the house when he reached in his pocket
00:34:35
to see if he had ice cream money for school and in the process he dislodged a mass of fuzz from his pocket which fell
00:34:44
to the ground he said he bent over to pick it up and that is when he noticed the truck parked by the garage Trooper
00:34:52
Wilson asked Jordan if Janessa had possibly seen the the truck as well to which Jordan replies that he mentioned
00:35:01
it to her but she didn't respond and he believed that she was at this point too far ahead of him to hear Jordan also
00:35:09
informed Trooper Wilson that he had seen a person in a white hat ducking over inside of the truck Trooper Wilson
00:35:18
inquired of Jordan why he had not mentioned that when she talked with him that morning he then explained well he
00:35:26
first glanced at the truck he didn't see anybody Jordan also recounted his observation that the lights were on
00:35:32
inside of the truck and when Trooper Wilson stated that he did not tell her that during their first interview Jordan
00:35:39
after hesitating these are her words after he hesitated then described the lights as being sort of halfon which I'm
00:35:47
not certain what that means right after acknowledging that he owned a 20 gauge shotgun Trooper Wilson asked Jordan if
00:35:55
he had fired the gun that morning to which he answered no so let's unpack that a little bit basically in this
00:36:03
report and in this second interview we have one major thing that has changed right yeah he saw a person well we got
00:36:11
to frame this with Jordan's 11 years old and that's what I want to really hone in
00:36:17
on because when I said that one major thing has changed here I didn't mean that Jordan's story has changed what I'm
00:36:24
pointing out is according to the adults in the room at this point we're being told that Jordan was just
00:36:33
told seconds before this interview that his soon to be stepmother was killed that day murdered that day and she's now
00:36:43
in heaven that's the major thing that has changed between when he was first interviewed earlier that day around noon
00:36:50
at school and now at 10: p.m. at his grandparents house that's a major change right when you're asking me about my
00:36:59
morning well the events of my morning don't seem so important and then you tell me oh my soon to be stepmother was
00:37:07
murdered inside of our home guess what now the events of my morning seem to be much more important and maybe I'm
00:37:14
telling you some more details because you've now told me something different right you're questioning me why I'm
00:37:21
telling you something different you just told me something majorly different from
00:37:25
the first time we sat down yeah again if he was 30 years old and he mentioned the
00:37:30
truck before and then started adding details you would question if he's misremembering or if he's lying to
00:37:38
protect himself or maybe maybe to protect somebody else but he's 11 years old so then you have to start
00:37:45
questioning the detectives not saying that they're bad but what questions did you ask differently exactly the second
00:37:54
time around yeah they may not be bad I actually think they're probably pretty good at their job the problem here is
00:38:00
they seem to lack a certain thoroughness to the job right this is where I really
00:38:06
am disappointed that the interviews are not recorded because by this point it is
00:38:12
clear to me that Trooper Wilson along with the other Troopers have already decided that 11-year-old Jordan Brown is
00:38:21
on their suspect list this is why we're having this second interview and this is
00:38:26
why in the course of that interview she is asking him specifically if he had fired the gun that we now know that he
00:38:34
owns that morning right but you have zero evidence so far that has been presented that day that we know of of an
00:38:45
intruder so you you you start going through the reasonable suspects and I think you start with the the husband
00:38:53
right mhm and then you go well there that Alibi is solid my issue is with this time frame and and when when was it
00:39:03
that Jordan got to school and could they narrow down when she was murdered is it
00:39:09
possible that it was an accidental shooting before he took off to the bus I mean I guess it's possible but we don't
00:39:17
have him admitting to anything and we're only talking about a a window of look at at the at the greatest amount
00:39:26
of time possible according to all of these stories if we are to believe these stories they're on the bus by 8:15 and
00:39:33
by 9:40 somebody's calling the police because a little girl said her mother's dead so we have less than an hour and a
00:39:40
half that take takes place and then if we're to back that up on the shorter side of it the tree
00:39:47
workers say that they arrive at 9:15 that morning or around 9:15 that morning and they don't see or hear anything
00:39:55
strange while they are they're working so now we are down to an hour a window of of Simply an hour so either something
00:40:03
happened before Jordan Brown left for school that day or if it happened afterward he's he's not responsible
00:40:11
because we know he was on the bus and we know he was at school another thing that
00:40:15
I find interesting and perplexing of this case is when you say tree workers what kind of equipment are they working
00:40:23
with that day because if I have my headphones Ling some music and then I have my my noise canting headphones on
00:40:30
top of that and I'm just using my like leaf blower if the neighbor shot his wife I probably wouldn't hear it yeah
00:40:37
that's a good point and that's something that's difficult to wrap our heads around here because just because they
00:40:43
say they didn't see or hear anything strange or unusual doesn't mean that something strange and unusual didn't
00:40:49
happen during that time frame right and they were just unaware of it for whatever reason but here's the other
00:40:55
thing I want to point out now again I'm going to go back to I'm curious why we're not recording this interview right
00:41:02
again you are going to this scene you're now going to the grandparents house with
00:41:08
the knowledge that a suspect one of your suspects is an 11-year-old boy and you're going to interview him there it
00:41:17
seems to me like you would want to record that interview and here's the reasons why right it's it's some of the
00:41:23
reasons that you already pointed out captain why are my answers different why is my story different well are your
00:41:30
questions the same as they were earlier today because if you're now asking me different questions and I wasn't
00:41:36
questioned on certain things I may not have just brought them up magically on my own especially if I didn't know that
00:41:42
anybody was dead and that my mour had any importance on the loss of life so it's all very confusing to me and then
00:41:51
here we have the trooper giving her opinion when she says that well well I asked him this question and after he
00:41:59
hesitated when I asked him why you didn't tell me earlier in the first interview that the light was on inside
00:42:05
of the truck Jordan hesitated and then described the lights as being sort of halfon well that's her opinion and that
00:42:13
might go a long way to Leading someone to believe that this guy this kid might be guilty of something where if it were
00:42:21
recorded we could all view it and give our opinion on it and go well yeah he did hesitate or maybe she's completely
00:42:27
wrong again there's a lot of different things here what's interesting to me is the things that have changed in his
00:42:35
story are not just the I might have tried to tell my soon to be steps sister about the truck oh I did see somebody in
00:42:45
the truck and the lights were on not only did that change but also we have the added detail of well I checked to
00:42:52
see if I had ice cream money and I this big piece of fuzz fell out of my pocket and I bent down to pick it up there's
00:43:01
multiple things that are changing here and we say changing but to me it could also just be the same story with
00:43:08
additional details that were left out for whatever reason the first time is there anybody else other than Jordan
00:43:16
other than the 11-year-old son that that claims to see this black truck no there is not and when Trooper
00:43:24
Wilson asked Jordan if he had fired a gun his gun that morning and Jordan answered no at that point is when Chris
00:43:32
Brown the father stopped the interview Troopers Wilson and McGraw who was also there informed him that they believed
00:43:39
that Jordan was the one who had murdered Kenzie well obviously if your 11-year-old son did this you want to
00:43:47
protect him because he he obviously has some mental issues going on it's interesting to me that law enforcement
00:43:53
jumps to the conclusion right away that if it is Jordan that it's as simple as he didn't like his stepmom and he
00:44:01
murdered her I think there's another possibility where you have 11-year-old kid maybe walking around the house with
00:44:08
a loaded gun and maybe just goes to Poker and then somehow the gun goes off I think there's an angle here where
00:44:19
where you have firearms in the possession of a of a child where you could argue you accidental death well
00:44:28
we're getting ahead of ourselves here a bit because currently they're not looking for technically a murderer
00:44:34
they're just trying to figure out who shot this woman regardless of how it went down right and we can get into
00:44:41
those details as we go so accident or no accident murder or no murder that's not
00:44:48
their concern at this point as an investigator you were simply trying to figure out how why and who shot and
00:44:55
killed this woman Jordan won't be the only person that is interviewed again for the second time that night that same
00:45:02
night Troopers reinterviewed Janessa as well now she tells them the same story that she told before about getting up
00:45:10
for school around 8 watching TV in the living room and then leaving for the bus with Jordan according to Jordan at
00:45:18
police request Janessa was taken by her grandparents to the police barracks for a third interview that same night this
00:45:28
is at 11:30 p.m. now keep in mind the ages I'm I'm glad that you pointed out the ages a second ago Captain with
00:45:37
Jordan let's remind everybody the age of Janessa this is a 7-year-old girl whose
00:45:43
mother was just killed that day she's been up by her own admission by 8:00 a.m. that morning this is now 11:30 p.m.
00:45:51
and she's being interviewed for the third time by police according to to the Pennsylvania State Police in the third
00:45:58
interview Janessa started to tell a very different story she said that she still
00:46:03
did not see who shot her mom she didn't see anyone at all that morning other than Jordan Jordan she said was carrying
00:46:13
two guns down the stairs she asked him what he was doing and he told her his father asked him to move the guns this
00:46:23
would make some sense to a 7-year-old girl because remember they are in the process of switching
00:46:28
rooms and these guns were stored in his room and he's switching rooms with Kenzie and his father so she says
00:46:37
according to the story she asked him why he's carrying the guns down the stairs he says my father asked me to move them
00:46:43
a few minutes later she said that she heard a very loud boom and then Jordan went back upstairs and then came back
00:46:53
down empty-handed she later asked Jordan about the noise but he would not answer
00:46:58
her then they walked out to the bus and she saw Jordan Chuck something into the snow next to the driveway these
00:47:06
detectives aren't stupid but it seems on some level that they're acting stupid because Janessa changes her story Jordan
00:47:14
changes his story and we're completely suspect of him Janessa changes her story and we don't bat an ey if I were to have
00:47:22
to make an argument for these children and I guess I don't have to but I will right here my argument would be
00:47:28
completely different than that Janessa's story absolutely changes to me there's a
00:47:34
chance that Jordan story is the same story just with additional details I agree so it's it's very bizarre to me
00:47:42
that they're treating two children very differently again I cannot emphasize enough and I know everybody in their
00:47:49
cars listening or are sick of hearing me say this but I really wish all sick of hearing you talk these interviews with
00:47:57
children should be recorded yes now Pur several of the officers statements regarding Janessa's statements about
00:48:05
seeing Jordan carrying the guns and possibly a gun covered by a blanket and then hearing a loud boom and then seeing
00:48:14
Jordan later throwing something onto the ground chucking something as they're running out to the bus these statements
00:48:22
absolutely led to what happened next and that was was 11-year-old Jordan Brown being arrested for the death of Kenzie
00:48:31
Hal Jordan's inconsistent statements to police about the truck he saw that morning of course were problematic for
00:48:39
Jordan whether or not the lights were on in the truck and the changing his story
00:48:44
to seeing a man inside wearing a hat in the second interview these are of course
00:48:50
Nails in the coffin I wonder something here Captain about what the boy Bo said about the lights being sort of halfon
00:48:59
and this just occurred to me you know in in your vehicle you have the ability to
00:49:02
turn the overhead lights on and you can hit one or two I wonder if that's what he meant by that statement that it was
00:49:11
kind of a dim light and he suspected that only one light was on in the truck if in fact he did even see a truck now
00:49:20
the gun in his room that quote smelled as though it had been fired recently this and Janessa's statements basically
00:49:29
give police what they were looking for and that is probable cause Jordan Brown was arrested at 3:00 a.m. Saturday
00:49:36
morning for the murder of Kenzie Hal and his unborn half brother he was taken to
00:49:41
Lawrence County Jail where he was kept in isolation away from the other inmates for obvious reasons they are adult men
00:49:48
and this is a little boy guards checked on him every 15 minutes at dawn on Saturday morning State Police resumed
00:49:57
their investigation at the wam Farmhouse this time their focus was on the exterior of the home they performed grid
00:50:05
searches of the property during these searches they found a shotgun shell that was clearly weathered it was rusted and
00:50:11
had evidently been outside for quite a long time so this won't be of any use to them in this investigation but then the
00:50:19
officers walked further down the driveway in the direction of the road to where they discovered a second spent
00:50:26
shell this shell a federal number six brand 20 gauge was found approximately 100 ft away from the house on the left
00:50:35
hand side of the driveway at the beginning of a fence line that ran the entire length of the left side of the
00:50:42
driveway The Spence shell was located near the base of the wire fence a few feet from the middle of the driveway and
00:50:50
it was lying underneath leaves which were frozen and covered by ice and snow this shell was not rusted like the other
00:50:58
one they recovered when asked a state police Sergeant characterized this shell as quote prestine I can tell you why
00:51:07
they did the grid search because of Janessa's story when you when you when she says that she saw Jordan throw
00:51:16
something that's what they were looking for that's something now is this bullet casing
00:51:23
that possibly you're exactly right Captain this shell casing was consistent with the open box
00:51:31
of ammo that was found in the armoire in Kinsey's room and was suitable for use in Jordan's youth model 20 gaug shotgun
00:51:42
lot of little pieces stacking up against Jordan now the burning question here Captain is Jordan is a little boy so why
00:51:53
wasn't he sent to a juvenile facility Well the answer is that in Pennsylvania the law required that any child aged 10
00:52:01
and older accused of a homicide to be charged as an adult because the criminal courts handled homicide cases in the
00:52:10
Commonwealth since he was technically a juvenile he was not eligible for the death penalty but if found guilty by the
00:52:18
criminal tribunal he would receive a mandatory sentence of life without parole and at just 11 years old he would
00:52:26
be the youngest American ever to receive that sentence this reminds me a little bit of our Eddie O'Brien case that we
00:52:36
covered not terribly long ago the trail of Blood episodes number 46 and 417 on your true crime garage radio dial Chris
00:52:46
Brown reeling over the murder of his fiance and unborn child now needed help for his son so at 6:30 a.m. on February
00:52:56
21st he was recommended to two local attorneys this is Dennis alesco and Dave Aker who immediately went to work trying
00:53:05
to get the case transferred to juvenile court and to possibly arrang for a bond so that Jordan could return home to his
00:53:13
father rather than staying in the adult County jail but in Pennsylvania most homicide defendants are not allowed out
00:53:22
on bond pending trial and so Jordan wasn't either but keeping Jordan at the adult jail wasn't going to work Lawrence
00:53:32
County District Attorney John bong Veo was in charge of Prosecuting the case and had three young boys of his own and
00:53:43
he told the Post Gazette newspaper quote Yeah it's enough to make me throw up I'm
00:53:48
not necessarily sure I want him sitting in jail while we figure all this out end
00:53:54
quote the Lawrence County Jail Warden agreed he told the Post Gazette that he stands ready to go on record as saying
00:54:01
the 10ft x 10 foot jail cell is definitely not the right place for Jordan quote I've got to keep him in
00:54:09
isolation he has to be checked on constantly but he's also got the right to be able to get out for a bit he's got
00:54:17
the right to a shower it's really tough the warden said the price tag for the constant security needed to ensure
00:54:23
Jordan's safety at the jail was estimated to be about $4,500 a week Jordan was eventually
00:54:32
moved to a juvenile facility on February 27th and then to the Edmund L Thomas adolescent Detention Center in Erie
00:54:41
Pennsylvania on March 2nd where he stayed for the next several [Music] years don't feel the
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