Search Captions & Ask AI

Brittany Phillips /// Part 1 /// 732

January 23, 2024 / 01:06:24

This episode covers the unsolved murder of Britney Phillips, who was killed in her apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2004. Key discussions include the timeline of events leading to her death, the investigation led by her mother Dr. Maggie Zigman, and the evidence found at the crime scene.

Britney Phillips, a bright and ambitious college student, moved into her own apartment in August 2004. On September 27, she was last seen alive after attending classes and visiting an urgent care clinic. Her mother, Maggie Zigman, became concerned when Britney did not respond to calls in the following days.

On September 30, a friend conducted a wellness check, leading police to discover Britney's body in her apartment. The autopsy revealed she had been raped and strangled. The investigation faced challenges, including a lack of clear evidence about how the attacker entered the apartment.

Discussion includes the lack of surveillance cameras in the area and the potential for the attacker to have entered through the balcony or by being let in by Britney. The episode highlights the ongoing fight for justice led by Maggie Zigman, who continues to seek answers about her daughter's murder.

The episode emphasizes the emotional impact of the case on Britney's family and the community, as well as the complexities of the investigation that remains unsolved nearly two decades later.

TLDR

Britney Phillips was murdered in 2004; her mother continues to seek justice for her unsolved case.

Episode

1:06:24
00:00:07
[Music] [Music] n [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you doing thanks for
00:00:44
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who can finally afford College just kidding no one can
00:00:50
afford College here is the captain and I'm not smart enough to go anyways it's good to be seen and good to see you
00:00:57
thanks for listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend today we are very excited to
00:01:07
share a drink with all of you today we are drinking cast aign kulch by the hardworking folks over at cabin boys
00:01:16
Brewery this kulch is much like a classic ale with additional flavors of biscuit and lemongrass from the combo of
00:01:24
hops and yeast ABV 4.8% garage grade 3 and 3/4 bottle caps out of five and let's give some toast and cheers to our
00:01:34
friends that helped us fill up the old garage fridge this week first up shout out to Noel in Albuquerque New Mexico
00:01:41
that's a wonderful City and last but certainly not least we have Katie in Irving Illinois everyone we just
00:01:48
mentioned they went to our website true Crim garage.com clicked on the Pint glass and that helped us out with the
00:01:54
beer fund for this week's shows yeah BW R beer run if you need more True Crime garage or you just want more True Crime
00:02:03
garage and you listen on the Apple podcast app all you have to do is hit subscribe and you'll get access to all
00:02:12
of our bonus shows we call that show off the Record and Colonel that's enough of
00:02:17
the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:02:28
cry [Music] a busy and ambitious young college girl moves into her first apartment she is on
00:03:05
her own she is happy she is social and outgoing and she's in school working toward her dreams of becoming a
00:03:14
scientist but then in late September of 2004 someone attacked Britney in her apartment Dr Maggie Zigman Britney's
00:03:25
mother led the charge looking for answers and for Britney's kill in 2007 Maggie began the Caravan To
00:03:34
Catch a killer still to this day almost 20 years later Maggie continues to fight
00:03:43
for her daughter and best friend 18-year-old Britney Phillips this is true crime garage and
00:03:52
this is the still unsolved case of Britney Phillips [Music] Britney yavon Phillips was born to
00:04:15
parents Dr Maggie Zigman and her husband John on October 4th 1985 Britney has an older brother his
00:04:25
name is Josh he's just one year older than Britney now Britney Josh they spent their early years growing up in the
00:04:32
State of Florida and then they moved to Kentucky for a brief period of time followed by settling down in the
00:04:39
wonderful City of Tulsa during this migration period Maggie and John separated so Britney and Josh went to
00:04:48
live with their mom after this divorce Britney was a social kid she was a big Runner and as a teen she even did some
00:04:57
modeling she was also smart and very driven and her mother says this was not just as a young adult but her entire
00:05:05
life she started kindergarten a year earlier than most kids she graduated from Tulsa Union High School in May of
00:05:13
2003 I believe she was only 17 when she graduated from high school and she did her freshman year in college at her
00:05:21
mom's alma mater which was eard college in Florida Britney wanted to become a scientist
00:05:30
she was studying chemistry on a college scholarship so obviously very smart very
00:05:34
driven but after wrapping up her freshman year this would be May of 2004 she decided that she was too far from
00:05:42
home too far from Mom she became homesick and wanted to move back to Tulsa at the same time that Britney's
00:05:49
moving back home her mother is moving to another city which is about an hour away
00:05:55
from Tulsa yes this is the city of Chandler and and this is because Maggie works as a psychologist in a women's
00:06:04
prison so Britney spent a couple of months in the early summer she's couch surfing at the home of a good friend and
00:06:14
then she gets a job as a waitress at an Applebees restaurant she decided it wasn't for her so she decided to get a
00:06:22
another job at a waitressing at another restaurant she decided to start taking classes at Tulsa Community College this
00:06:31
is in July of 2004 Britney enrolled at Tulsa Community College fulltime and in August she moved into an apartment of
00:06:41
her own the Glenn Eagles apartment complex this is just across the street from her old high school so she knows
00:06:48
the area she's familiar with the area it's it's in her comfort zone yeah her new address was
00:06:56
9407 East 65th Street the complex was a cluster of several two-story buildings very commonly rented to students at the
00:07:06
community college it was thought to be a safe neighborhood and Maggie her mother
00:07:12
felt very comfortable with the move and with the location and also we have her brother
00:07:18
Josh he's a student at the community college as well so older brother's still nearby in case of an emergency mom's
00:07:26
about an hour away in Chandler and everything was setting up to be great for Britney for
00:07:33
2004 now researching this case did you get this feeling I got this sense that she was very bright kid
00:07:43
worked very hard on academics then she went away to school again like you said kind of out of her comfort zone so now
00:07:52
she's coming back but but it almost feels like in a sense that maybe she was also just burnt out a little bit and so
00:07:59
this was kind of a reset in Britney's life I think you're exactly right here Captain it does feel like a bit of a
00:08:06
reset it's going back home and realizing that look the academic part of going to
00:08:13
college in Florida that wasn't an issue it's just many of us need to be close to
00:08:18
our families and close to home and close to what we know and that's what it looks
00:08:21
like with Britney here now she is making friends rather easily with other students
00:08:30
at the community college she's making friends with some of the residents at her new apartment
00:08:36
complex and she started casually dating a guy that that she had recently met at this time and it said that she took this
00:08:49
man this young man to meet her mom Maggie over dinner she said that the young man seemed to be very nice very
00:08:57
polite but she didn't get the vibe that the relationship was going to be a serious
00:09:04
one seemed a little casual which is a little strange to me cuz I'm like if it's going to be casual then why have
00:09:10
them meet your family but maybe it was also just like happen stance where it's like well
00:09:17
we're going to hang out but then I made plans with my mom and I kind of double books so hey you want to go with me to
00:09:22
meet my Mom that's the vibe that I get because we have all of her friends saying the same thing like that Britney
00:09:30
did not have a steady boyfriend so nobody seems to think that this was something that was very serious
00:09:36
now to fill in the blanks of the relationship and I think the moving back home is very telling about the
00:09:45
relationship between Britney and her mother but her mother refers to Britney as her best friend so they were they
00:09:53
were very close and now mom's living an hour away I think you're right Captain I
00:09:58
think Mom comes home home to visit with Britney and she brings her date along as kind of a tag along
00:10:07
for for the a nice dinner with Mom right so more of a tag along less hey meet my
00:10:14
mother because this is kid serious around the same time too we also have Britney who is kind of reconnecting with
00:10:21
an old boyfriend from high school this is someone that she dated in either ninth and or 10th grade his name is
00:10:29
Billy so that's what's going on in Britney Phillips world at the time now unfortunately Britney is going to be
00:10:39
killed she's our victim here this week and there's a lot of information that we have on her
00:10:50
case and there but there's a lot of room here that that still needs to be filled
00:10:57
up with information there's still some a good number of questions involved in this case and it's a bet it's a bit of a
00:11:05
messy case and I think everybody will agree with that statement after we get into some of the details now one thing
00:11:13
that is was surprising to Maggie so Maggie says that she found out after her daughter's death that Britney was hiding
00:11:23
something from her which Maggie thought was strange because as said they were very close and this took place about two
00:11:31
weeks before Britney was killed this is when Britney got a call from a close friend who lived in Texas and we are in
00:11:41
Tulsa Oklahoma so it's not terribly far away the friend confided in Britney that
00:11:47
she had been sexually assaulted by an ex of hers and ask Britney to come down to
00:11:54
help her get through this traumatic period so she goes down there and with along with another friend they drive
00:12:02
down to Texas they are going to console their friend and and try to help her get
00:12:09
through this very traumatic situation right this is a surprise to mom because she said hey I'm going down
00:12:19
there on vacation right I'm going to take a little vacation with my friend we're going to go to South Padre Island
00:12:26
now Maggie feels that Britney wasn't on with her because she says if had I known
00:12:32
while why she was going down to Texas I would have not let her go because she says I would have been too concerned
00:12:40
about her safety because the circumstances of the sexual assault are or were unclear at the time right which
00:12:48
is which is understandable but we have to remind the listeners Britney is not a minor so even though her mom could have
00:12:58
suggested I don't want you to go that doesn't mean that Britney wouldn't have gone and I also you know I don't think
00:13:05
she was necessarily keeping secrets from her mother it could be a situation as simply when something like that happens
00:13:14
and somebody confides in you that sometimes they they want you not to tell other people exactly and so so it could
00:13:23
be as simple as her friend said please don't tell anybody yeah I'm telling you this in confidence and
00:13:29
and until I Chang my mind I'd rather not be discussed with others openly now it's
00:13:36
believed captain that this trip took place around September 15th and as we've already covered and as you
00:13:45
just said yes Britney is an adult she's 18 she's she would turn 19 on October 4th so it's we're just weeks before her
00:13:55
19th birthday and yes she's already living in her own apartment so Mom might not have had the ability to completely
00:14:02
stop her from going down there but by September 27th we have Britney she's back in Tulsa and she's fully immersed
00:14:11
in school at this time she's studying chemistry she wanted to go into pharmaceutical
00:14:18
research her course load was 16 credits so a lot of work now the 27th of September that was a Monday she had an
00:14:29
allergy based sinus situation that was brewing and it sounds to me Captain like she had a lot of sinus problems and so
00:14:39
she's not feeling well but she decided to go to class anyway now we know she was in class that day because she bumps
00:14:46
into her brother Josh on the campus they talk very briefly say hello now this is
00:14:54
going to get us to 6:00 p.m. on September 27th she went with a friend friend to an urgent care clinic again
00:15:02
this is because she's not feeling well she toughed it out went to school that day now she's going to go to urgent care
00:15:08
hopefully she can get some relief from this sinus problem right she calls her mother Maggie at
00:15:15
7:15 that night and said that she had been waiting for 75 minutes without being seen she was stressed out because she
00:15:25
had an 800 p.m. class so Maggie told her to leave she didn't get an appointment she she didn't get to see a
00:15:34
doctor but said that she would schedule an appointment for later that week so Britney and her friend they leave the
00:15:41
clinic it is known that Britney then went to an ATM at Bank of America she stopped at her friend's house at 51st in
00:15:50
Memorial Drive and then went to class on the TCC campus do we know how much that
00:15:56
she withdrew from the ATM that I don't know but I'm guessing with it being a college kid I'm guessing with
00:16:05
it being a college kid it's probably not a significant amount of money that was that was my thought when looking into
00:16:11
this case because you hear that she goes to the ATM and I thought well if it was
00:16:16
a large number that law enforcement probably would know this and we'd probably know that information so it's
00:16:22
it's probably really just a very nothing Burger on the on the timeline yeah and it's really just marking all of her
00:16:31
movements when you see an ATM visit your mind goes to okay well could somebody have followed her from the ATM now while
00:16:38
it's not out of the realm of possibility keep in mind she doesn't go from the ATM
00:16:43
to home she goes to the ATM stops at a friend's house then goes to class and then drives a friend home after class
00:16:52
and she does speak to her mom Maggie again on a brief phone call that night they Saidi love you the way that they
00:17:00
always did so nothing's out of the norm as far as Mom Maggie is concerned Britney was actually expected to go to
00:17:10
Maggie's home for the weekend so they were kind of shuring up those plans a little bit right now Britney would be
00:17:18
killed and found in her apartment while we cannot say 100% with 100% certainty that after this phone call after
00:17:28
dropping off her friend that she went home immediately but it's believed by law enforcement and by Britney's family
00:17:37
and everyone that knows her that that would have been exactly what she was doing drop off the friend talk to Mom
00:17:44
briefly and then she then go straight back to her house and there's nothing to suggest that that is not the case and
00:17:51
that's backed up further by the lead detective on the case Jeff Felton who told told the Tulsa World publication
00:18:01
that after leaving her friend's house it is believed Britney got into her car and
00:18:06
drove home quote that is the last time anybody saw her about 9:45 p.m. we know she made it home but she never attended
00:18:16
any of her other classes that week and that's that statement is important I want everybody to make mental note of
00:18:23
that as we go through the timeline that 9:45 pm is about the last time anybody would
00:18:30
have seen her we know that she made it home but she didn't attend any of her other classes that week this is going to
00:18:36
take us to Tuesday the 28th Captain Maggie didn't speak to Britney and this is maybe of a little bit of concern they
00:18:47
didn't talk every day they were very close but but Maggie says that they spoke practically every other day if you
00:18:54
had to break it up now it gets a little tricky on this Tuesday right we have that statement by police but she never
00:19:01
attended any of her other classes that week now to be clear on that it's actually a little bit murky it's I would
00:19:12
say that it's unknown whether Britney went to class on the 28th on Tuesday the 28th so most articles most sources here
00:19:21
say that she missed classes on Tuesday and the detective said that as well but what I want to be clear on here is do we
00:19:32
know for certain that this was actually verified with the college one and two anybody that's attended College knows
00:19:43
that sometimes they take attendance sometimes they don't have attendance records at all because when you're
00:19:50
paying to go to school they don't really care if you show up or not it's not like
00:19:54
it's not like high school where you're truant if you if you didn't attend yeah it all depends on on the teacher some
00:20:01
teachers will tell you right away you miss more than three classes you're you're done but then other teachers will
00:20:10
say as long as you do your homework and long as you take the test you don't have
00:20:15
to show up ever so it's hard to tell what kind of teachers she had and also what types of classes because if you're
00:20:24
in a class of let's say over a hundred people is anybody gonna really notice if you were there or not so even if the so
00:20:33
if the teacher doesn't take attendance yeah you might have a hundred other people in that class but do they
00:20:39
know her well enough to say oh yeah I remember her being there on the Tuesday and with all of that said it seems like
00:20:46
so a quick breakdown the 27th we know she's driving home 9:45 p.m. that's the last time anybody saw her law
00:20:54
enforcement saying she didn't attend any of her other classes that that week Tuesday we're saying could be a question
00:21:01
mark if she attended any classes but it seems like law enforcement is set on the
00:21:05
idea that nope she didn't go to school on the 29th she missed all of her classes and this date seems to be fact
00:21:14
this is this is fact-based we can say with with 100% confidence she did not attend
00:21:21
any classes on the 29th Maggie says that she tried calling Britney that day got no answer she left a message saying hey
00:21:29
I'm calling to check on you can you call me she thought that maybe Britney was just sleeping a lot because remember
00:21:36
last time she spoke with her she wasn't feeling well and feeling so poorly that she had to go to urgent care and never
00:21:43
got to see the doctor right now we do have some of Maggie's words right here she says quote Tuesday the 28th I tried
00:21:51
calling her didn't get an answer I left a voicemail tried calling her on the 29th didn't get answer again and I left
00:21:59
another voicemail Maggie said that she wasn't really surprised she didn't get a hold of Britney as she knew she had late
00:22:06
classes remember we talked about her her course load and had late classes on Tuesday and that Wednesday she just
00:22:14
thought you know my daughter got busy or she doesn't feel well and she's just not
00:22:20
calling me back now this just to be clear on the Monday she goes to class that's the day that she went to
00:22:27
the emergency room that's the day she talked to her mom on the phone talking about how she's
00:22:36
going to spend the weekend with her and then she drops her friend off and then she goes home that's that you I think
00:22:44
you said the 27th that's the Monday correct right so on Tuesday we don't know if she showed up to school we have
00:22:51
no record of her showing up all week okay I just want to make sure I'm I'm clear on that yep and it by the 29th now
00:22:58
Mom is getting concerned now this is going to take us to the 30th which would be the Thursday this is a friend of
00:23:06
Britney who has not been named in any of the research material that I could find
00:23:13
or any of the uh newspaper articles but this is a friend who is now getting concerned saying look I haven't
00:23:23
seen Britney in a while and I've also been attempting to get her on the phone she's not answering my calls and her
00:23:31
friend saying this is very out of character and oh by the way I've not seen her on the college campus either
00:23:38
for a few days so now we have Mom and friend who are concerned together right United in this concern
00:23:48
for Britney Phillips and so the friend goes to the apartment on the 30th decided to call
00:24:00
her father once she got there saying hey I'm at her apartment she's not answering
00:24:06
I have an uneasy feeling she's call Britney's Dad no no she's calling her own father okay and saying dad what do I
00:24:13
do and dad says I'm G to call the police so the friend's dad calls the police and
00:24:20
requests the wellness check best thing you can do correct better better safe than sorry I wish and a lot of these
00:24:29
cases you know we have people that well I went and check the apartment and then I came back a couple days later no best
00:24:35
thing you do best thing you can do is call the police they're there to protect and serve us and this is one of the
00:24:42
services and don't ever feel embarrassed either because police do more of these welfare checks than the general Public's
00:24:50
aware of this is a this is a pretty common thing um especially well also you know if you talk to police officers and
00:24:57
you ask them what they would do if a loved one wasn't responding they would do the same thing and what's the harm
00:25:04
they knock on the door Britney answers oh I'm sorry I've been sick and then you you go hey nothing bad happened good
00:25:12
yeah back to work for the police and to really kind of put the listener into the
00:25:17
driver's seat here uh and fully experience the situation so the friend shows up to the apartment knocks on the
00:25:24
door hoping that her friend's going to answer hoping that Britney opens up the door
00:25:28
oh it's a misunderstanding everything's fine or I'm not feeling well decided to stay in the apartment for a few days
00:25:34
till I feel better that's what she's expecting she knocks on the door gets no answer she checks the the door knob and
00:25:42
she says the door's not locked and so she turns the door knob opens the door just a little bit and
00:25:51
then closes it because she said she got scared so this is young woman too this is some one of Britney's peers one of
00:25:57
her friends so this is a young woman as well she gets scared that's why she calls her dad of course now police are
00:26:04
on the scene they arrived at the apartment and they confirm the door is unlocked they go inside they entered the
00:26:13
apartment on the 30th at 9:59 p.m. according to the police record they find unfortunately find Britney lying on the
00:26:22
floor next to her bed her head is pointing toward the foot of the bed and and she she's deceased at this time do
00:26:31
you have many details on this apartment is it a one-bedroom is it a studio apartment it's a small apartment yes
00:26:38
it's uh so she lives on the second floor from my understanding there's apartments
00:26:44
on the on the ground level and then on the second floor as well and she is in one of the end units so you have 16
00:26:56
apartments in this one building right there's no like shared space or common space there's you walk
00:27:05
up the steps to walk over to the door that you're of the apartment that you need to go to so you have eight on one
00:27:12
side eight on the other side she's on one of the end units so technically she only has one next door neighbor if that
00:27:19
makes sense yeah but the nice thing is because these apartments are so close you possibly will have eyewitnesses or
00:27:27
ear Witnesses yes now they're going to send out a deputy to Maggie's house remember she's living in Chandler an
00:27:37
hour away so it's at 1 a.m. that she finds out that that her daughter's been murdered the deputy tells her after
00:27:47
confirming that she is Maggie Zigman he says you need to call the Tulsa Police your daughter's been murdered she finds
00:27:55
out that Josh her son had already been notified by the Tulsa Police Department of his sister's death Maggie drives
00:28:03
straight to Tulsa but the cops would not let her into the apartment Britney had already been identified by her driver's
00:28:12
license and removed from the apartment and off to the medical examiner's office that is when detective Jeff Felton tells
00:28:22
mom Maggie that her daughter had been raped and murdered [Music] now that you've wrapped up 2023 and are
00:28:45
ushering into the next it's a perfect time to reflect on what truly matters the people you love most this year
00:28:54
resolved to keep them safer than ever with the award-winning Simply Safe system named best home security of
00:29:02
2023 by US News and World Report Simply Safe is comprehensive protection for the
00:29:08
whole home with Advanced sensors that not only detect break-ins but fires floods and other threats to your home
00:29:16
and getting you the help you need with new 247 live guard protection monitoring agents can actually see speak to and
00:29:26
confront Intruders in your home Simply Safe prioritizes your privacy that's why their indoor security cameras are the
00:29:33
only on the market with physical privacy shutters to ensure your privacy 24/7 try
00:29:40
Simply Safe for 60 days risk free if you don't love it return your system for a full refund better security cameras
00:29:50
better monitoring and an awardwinning security system yes please I was lucky I had Simply Safe in 2023 and I did not
00:30:01
need them to save the day but I know going forward in 2024 I have Simply Safe and they've got my back giving me peace
00:30:10
of mind and I recommend that you protect you and yours in 2024 with Simply Safe Keep your loved ones Simply Safe Keep
00:30:20
Your Home and your family safer than ever in the new year as a listener you can save 20% on your new system system
00:30:27
with a fast protect plan by visiting simplysafe docomomo safe like simplysafe have you ever thought about
00:30:44
why your wireless bill is so damn expensive it's all just radio waves how much can a radio wave really cost seems
00:30:53
like big Wireless got together and decided $100 a month I think they'll buy it what choice do they have now thanks
00:31:00
to Mint mobile you do have a choice for limited time all phone plans from mintmobile are $15 a month when you
00:31:08
purchase a three-month plan that's unlimited talk text and data for $15 a month say bye-bye to your overprice
00:31:18
Wireless plans jaw-dropping monthly bills and unexpected overages all plans come with unlimited talk and text plus
00:31:26
High spe data delivered on the nation's largest 5G Network so ditch overpriced Wireless with mmobile limited time deal
00:31:36
and get premium wireless service for just 15 bucks a month mint Mobile's wireless service is hands down better
00:31:45
than my old provider and I'm saving about $100 a month you could be saving too with mintmobile to get this new
00:31:54
customer offer and your new three-month Unlimited Wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month go to mintmobile.com
00:32:04
TCG that's mintmobile.com TCG cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com
00:32:15
tcg additional taxes fees and restrictions apply see mintmobile for details check out
00:32:23
mintmobile.com TCG today if you've been wanting to learn a new language so you can connect with a
00:32:32
partner's family who doesn't speak English or you just want to watch a foreign film without subtitles then
00:32:39
Rosetta Stone is for you Rosetta Stone is the most trusted - tested app out there it will FasTrack your language
00:32:48
acquisition because lessons are immersive they're designed to teach you to pick up languages in a natural way
00:32:55
choose from one of 25 five languages plus with Rosetta Stone's true accent feature you'll get feedback on how well
00:33:03
you're pronouncing words Rosetta Stone is convenient it can be used on a desktop or as an app and lessons are as
00:33:11
short as 10 minutes plus it's incredible value especially compared to pricey tutors here at the garage we love
00:33:19
Rosetta Stone whether it's Nick trying to learn Spanish or me brushing up on my German iben captain it's the most
00:33:25
convenient and affordable and man it's the best tool I've ever used to learn a foreign language don't put off learning
00:33:32
that language there's no better time than right now to get started new year new language for a very limited time
00:33:39
True Crime garage listeners can get Rosetta Stones lifetime membership for 50% off that's 50% off unlimited access
00:33:47
to 25 language courses for the rest of your life redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com
00:33:55
Garay that that's rosettastone.com garage [Music] today all right we are back cheers mates
00:34:19
to the windows to the walls onward and upward cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain we do have the autopsy
00:34:29
report here um so real quick is is it do you think it's a little fast how F how quickly they removed her
00:34:39
body and took it to get examined cuz you you figure like they have to you know do
00:34:45
the photographs they have to start collecting evidence obviously once they remove the body they can continue to
00:34:52
collect evidence but seems a little quick to me it does seem a little a little bit on the quick side it's been
00:34:58
about 3 or 4 hours by the time the body is removed but I think to a lot of that it it has
00:35:07
to do with jurisdiction I mean everything happens differently in every jurisdiction right but in this situation
00:35:13
my belief is the reason why the bodies were moved so quickly from the apartment is how she was killed so here's some of
00:35:21
the information from the autopsy report the the office of the chief medical examiner was notified of Britney's death
00:35:28
at 12:45 a.m. on October 1st so now we're to October 1st we were able to review some of this report and it
00:35:38
reflects the body was found by police and death pronounced at 2200 hours which is 10 p.m. now the narrative on the
00:35:49
autopsy report States the following this is the medical examiner's words I arrived at the the scene which
00:35:57
was an upstairs apartment on October 1st at approximately 1:45 a.m. I was led to
00:36:02
the bedroom the bedroom door leading to an outdoor balcony was open a used dried
00:36:09
tampon was near the body the body was on the floor immediately next to her bed her head was turned to the right and her
00:36:18
face was congested in purple there were numerous towels on the deceased and items of her clothing were a jent to her
00:36:28
one of the towels adjacent to the right side of the bed was soaked with decomposition type fluid she was clothed
00:36:37
only in a shirt I'm pulling from the report here this information because we're going to see how it will
00:36:45
be valuable to the investigation later but also this statement right here is interesting to me because there are a
00:36:53
lot of other source material out there that I found that said that she was wearing more clothing than just a shirt
00:36:59
but from the autopsy report says she's only wearing a shirt riger mortise was minimal and very easily broken in the
00:37:09
extremities it was absent in the jaw early decomposition change included drying of the fingertips focal
00:37:18
marbling focal bloating of the face decomposition fluid exuding from the nose and mouth and Mild decomposition
00:37:26
odor the hands were examined and no specific trace evidence was identified the hands were bagged and the body
00:37:34
packaged it says medical examiner left the premises at 3:15 a.m. now the cause of death was
00:37:44
xixia due to neck compression so strangulation right and of course she's going to show signs of peal hemorrhaging
00:37:53
hemorrhages in the eyes so it makes it sound like what they gather gathered in evidence as far as like her hands are
00:38:01
concerned is that our suspect that we should be looking for is not he wouldn't have had injuries to him it didn't look
00:38:09
like she was able to put up a fight that seems to be correct based off of that statement the other part of this report
00:38:17
is that there's no evidence that a ligature of any type was used right to paint this unsettling picture a little
00:38:26
more in detail here Britney was a petite young woman and So based off of the emy's report
00:38:38
here what it looks like to me is that somebody just overpowered her strangled her the hyoid bone was found to be
00:38:48
intact but the me is basically saying it was obvious just by with his trained eye
00:38:57
that we that he observed these abrasions on her neck that indicates to him this is the result of neck
00:39:07
compression she was unable to breathe and and died because of that obviously if you're law enforcement you're going
00:39:14
to be at her apartment you're going to be looking for what items are there what items aren't there you said that she was
00:39:22
only in a t-shirt but there's mixed reports on that but I'm going to go with the medical examiner report she's in the
00:39:29
T-shirt but what about any jewelry or did she have anything else on her when they removed the body from the crime
00:39:38
scene yeah so the personal effects inventory listed here we have white shirt as you
00:39:46
mentioned and we have white metal hoop earrings now this goes to the manner of how she was killed too she also has a
00:39:58
white metal necklace but it was broken and the as you heard before we went to the
00:40:06
break unfortunately the conclusion here is that she was raped and murdered so we
00:40:11
have a sexual assault that took place as well did did they say if there was any evidence of because sometimes
00:40:20
with these cases you know the killer will make the individual take a sh beforehand or
00:40:28
afterwards do we have any evidence if she did or did not do that well that's an interesting angle here because we do
00:40:38
know that the csis collected 70 70 DNA swabs from Britney's body looking for evidence including under her fingernails
00:40:50
now unfortunately the autopsy report says nothing about what was collected or found with any of
00:40:59
those swaps right so that doesn't mean that nothing was found it just means that it's not in the report that we were
00:41:06
able to see obviously they probably did a rape kit as well we do know that they did the toxicology and that came back
00:41:14
clean Maggie says that she was told that Britney was raped before she was killed
00:41:20
but the autopsy report makes zero mention of conducting a rape kit it does mention some external
00:41:31
examination again no evidence is listed here or no injury is listed here and there was never any mention by police of
00:41:40
DNA from a rape kit now one article does say that evidence at this scene suggested that a sexual assault had
00:41:48
occurred no doubt that was because she's partially unclothed and right Tamp removed the medical examiner didn't
00:41:59
record the core body temperature even though apparently he did measure it so I I don't know why to me unfortunately
00:42:10
Captain what it appears to me is that we have a not so great report here and maybe it's that that everything was
00:42:18
checked I hope but not everything was recorded if that makes sense right so if they did a rape kit well maybe they did
00:42:27
maybe they didn't we don't know because the report is kind of incomplete and look you could have a
00:42:34
great medical examiner you could have a great medical examiner that does a thorough job but part of doing that
00:42:42
thorough job is doing a thorough report yes especially when you have a case that's going to sit in the unsolved pile
00:42:50
for this many years this is something that people are going to need to reference right and you may not Mr
00:42:58
medical examiner you may not always be around to for us to reach out to with questions and we're going to have to
00:43:05
rely on your reports now we've seen this in other cases and we've talked about why this happens and
00:43:14
and how it makes sense but remember the core body temperature part of this report they don't conclude the
00:43:23
medical examiner does not conclude or even give an estimated time slate of death and I'm guessing that's based off
00:43:32
the science or evidence or lack thereof what we're going to have here is we're going to be relying on police to shorten
00:43:43
that window to make that that window of time as precise as it possibly can be to help us look for the person that
00:43:53
did this the the the man that did this based off of the information that police collect is that they narrow down the
00:44:01
time of death to 10 p.m. on the 27th to sometime early the next morning on the 28th again that's based off of nobody
00:44:14
sees her nobody talks to her after that 9:45 p.m. on the 27th and unfortunately Britney was buried on what would have
00:44:23
been her 19th birthday October 4th 2004 now we got to figure out who did this and this usually we have some suspects
00:44:36
that are right there the obvious suspects for you but not so much in this case right who could
00:44:44
have done this as we covered Britney has no steady boyfriend she has no known stalker or
00:44:53
enemies she didn't do drugs she led a very lowrisk lifestyle I'd also say that for the
00:45:01
majority of the time if somebody has somebody in their life that is being overbearing or
00:45:08
stalkerish that normally you tell your mom about it or tell at least some friends about it so it is possible that
00:45:17
she had somebody like that in her life but I would say unlikely because no word to the mother and no word to any of her
00:45:26
friends about it well and keep in mind she's been gone for a year right she's only at this location she's only back in
00:45:34
Tulsa for about three months yeah and then but it doesn't I actually think this makes things more complicated
00:45:41
because if I'm law enforcement I'm looking at this Co okay so we don't have anybody with red flags right away going
00:45:49
well this guy that she dated was a weirdo we need to look into him so you don't have these red flags right away so
00:45:55
you got to go okay well who was she dating and even though they might have been casually dating we need to question
00:46:03
them and then it makes a little bit harder because like you said she was in Florida for like a year okay who was she
00:46:09
talking to down there was there anybody down there that she was dating that maybe if we start looking into we're
00:46:15
going to see some red flags well and when you talk to everybody that knows her you talk to friends and family
00:46:21
everybody in her Social Circle and that doesn't lead you to a suspect then you do
00:46:26
your due diligence you got to go back to the crime scene right that that's where
00:46:30
you're hoping to find something pointing you to the person that did this now do we know how many total units there were
00:46:38
in this apartment complex because you I would I would assume again you got to look at her Inner Circle but
00:46:48
you also have to I think your inner circle becomes your community as well and her community would be a little bit
00:46:55
larger and a lot more people of her peers because like you said a lot of the people living in these apartments were
00:47:02
going to the Community College exactly and so it's a large apartment complex and we'll go through some more of the
00:47:10
details of that I want to get us back to the crime scene and tear through that but so we've already covered that
00:47:17
Britney lived in a second floor apartment at the Glenn Eagles complex her apartment was accessible by climbing
00:47:26
the exterior stairs from the ground level so you walk up the steps and then you can go to her apartment now there's
00:47:33
no exterior common area door or foyer there's no area for people to go into each apartment has its own entrance door
00:47:41
which led directly to the outside of the apartment now the key thing here one of
00:47:48
the interesting aspects of this crime scene is police can't find any sign of for entury so the question was how
00:47:59
did her attacker get into Britney's apartment right the thing that that's going to possibly lead you to your
00:48:07
suspect here is what's found at that crime scene so we have CSI at the scene they uncovered some very important
00:48:14
evidence as they were processing this apartment they find a seamen stain that was on the sheets like
00:48:23
bedding and then and then they a small amount of blood it's listed as a droplet of blood that was on one of the bedroom
00:48:33
walls now I want to be clear here because some reports vary that droplet of blood some reports state that it's on
00:48:41
one of the bedroom walls other Reports say that was it was on a hall a small hallway wall that led to the bedroom but
00:48:51
it shouldn't take too many tests to figure out does that blood match that seen right and that's that's one thing that
00:48:57
they're going to work on and yes it does belong to the same person that deposited those fluids
00:49:06
yeah so like you were saying if I'm law enforcement how did this person get in I
00:49:10
mean obviously you always have the possibility that Britney just didn't lock her doors yes that's correct so the
00:49:18
the other questions that you have here too was she lying in bed when she was attacked was she sleeping or attempting
00:49:25
to go to sleep that night when somebody or she coming in and out of the shower or not well and you know we've also
00:49:32
talked about this where no I so I don't I think we can get rid of the whole shower idea again it's not out of the
00:49:40
realm of possibility but what we do have is remember the friend that she drops off after class right police confirm
00:49:48
with that friend that the shirt that they found when they found Britney the shirt that she was still wearing is the
00:49:55
shirt that she wore to class that night and the shirt that she was wearing when she dropped off her friend and the
00:50:01
reports state that Britney's pants were found lying on the floor next to her so it sounds like to me either somebody
00:50:09
gets into this apartment somehow or is it possible you mentioned the shower idea which I think that's
00:50:17
interesting to examine because I I kind of picture this as she's getting ready for bed right uh or or not or or not had
00:50:27
the ability to get ready for bed completely yet and somehow the attack goes down and you know Captain it could
00:50:34
be as simple as bad guy knocks on the door and young woman opens the door it could it could be just that simple but
00:50:44
so what police are saying here is their exact words is quote it didn't look like
00:50:48
somebody broke in but there were some disruption okay what were the disruptions well the the disruption is
00:50:56
police are saying there was evidence of a struggle in the bedroom and it it appeared to them that
00:51:04
during the struggle the attacker had flung Britany against the wall so this is the wall opposite of
00:51:12
where her body was found so in the bedroom somebody pushed her or threw her into the wall so she's attempting to
00:51:20
fight this guy off this is based off of marks on the wall that I presume line up with marks on her
00:51:29
person right there have also been reports that the apartment was ransacked but Maggie her mom says it
00:51:38
just might have been my messy daughter lived you know this looks to me like my messy daughter lived here not that
00:51:44
somebody was going through the apartment looking for something this is the this is the part of the case that I cannot
00:51:51
make heads or tails of the screens you know the windows screens yeah there were four windows for
00:52:00
that apartment all four of these window screens were found inside the apartment they were removed from the windows and
00:52:08
inside the apartment she could have been trying to clean them that's what I wonder is this a situation where she
00:52:14
took them off and cleaned the windows and just didn't put them back on yet maybe she was going to do that the next
00:52:20
day seems like a weird thing when the mom's saying well look this my d was a little messy but I guess you could be a
00:52:28
little messy and you know you get into this apartment and you want to clean the windows and oh why I'm clean the windows
00:52:33
let me clean these screens as well I just look I'm not trying to take anything away from young people but I
00:52:40
was 18 once cleaning the outside of the windows of an apartment that I'm not going to keep for my the entirety of my
00:52:48
life was way down on the list of to-do items and that's why they call you dirty Grand
00:52:56
well here's the thing Captain the so if this would make sense if somebody were to have used that as a way
00:53:05
to get into the apartment right we've seen plenty of cases where you we have a cut window screen or window screen is
00:53:12
removed and somebody accesses the premises through the window yeah that would make more sense if it was on floor
00:53:21
number one and not floor number two she's on the second floor here the Second Story and all the
00:53:29
reports that I reviewed have said that there would have been no way for somebody to climb up the exterior of the
00:53:35
building and enter one of those windows and here's the other thing if you are accessing the apartment via window
00:53:44
you're removing one screen you're not removing all four to me if I saw that I would just start off with the thought
00:53:51
that this is probably not what the Killer used and more likely it was just that maybe Britney removed them to clean
00:54:01
the windows or maybe she was cleaning the screens herself the other thing too is it's not police removing them and
00:54:09
checking for fingerprints because it's the police that are saying we found the four screens removed and we we can't
00:54:15
sort out why that would be right the other problem here too is the medical examiner report has a weird note in it
00:54:24
that says that the French doors to Britney's balcony were open when he arrived so the problem here we can't
00:54:32
sort out based off of the medical examiner report were they left open by the killer were they left open by
00:54:42
Britney and somehow the killer got up to the second floor balcony and accessed the the apartment through these French
00:54:50
doors that she already had opened the other possibility here too would be that look it appears that she had laid there
00:54:59
in that apartment for some period of time did they open up the doors did police open up those doors to air out
00:55:09
the place a little bit before the medical examiner arrived here's the thing though before we move off of these
00:55:15
French doors Captain we have Maggie Britney's mom who says that when she went to go clean out the apartment that
00:55:24
there was lattice work that's on the outside of the French doors she says that that appeared to her to be messed
00:55:33
up is the way that she described it but she this is a very logical very smart woman Maggie and she clarifies by saying
00:55:43
look I don't know whether that was already like that or not or if it has something to
00:55:49
do with how the attacker accessed the apartment so it's it's wor worth noting here that someone could theoretically
00:55:58
have climbed up into the balcony we say this because we we know of a specific story where okay so Britney gets locked
00:56:08
out of her apartment and she had a friend a tall male resident friend who climbed up to her balcony goes into the
00:56:19
apartment and then unlocks the front door so I'm pointing I'm just pointing that out to show a situation where the
00:56:27
Apartment renter locks himself out of the apartment and doesn't is not locking the balcony
00:56:34
door so if I'm law enforcement like I said I got to start talking to our friends I got to talk to these guys that
00:56:42
she's been seeing even though they're casual these are part of her Inner Circle but because she lives an
00:56:49
apartment complex that has a lot of college age students a lot of people around the same age as her I got to put
00:56:56
them into the Inner Circle then I'm also going well who knew about this story about her getting locked out is that
00:57:05
somebody again in her Inner Circle that would have knew about this and and possibly knew that the balcony could
00:57:12
have been a point of entrance and not to look as if you were breaking and entering but also it makes you
00:57:20
wonder if I'm law enforcement I'm going okay who's your handyman around here how
00:57:28
many do you have because they would have access as well yes the apartment complex they're
00:57:37
going to have access to this apartment and some of their vendors would but you know not in the middle of the night the
00:57:45
the other tricky thing here too is I've seen this several times and this usually
00:57:50
you just find this with uh burglary cases but it's not terribly uncommon so the four apartments on her side that all
00:58:00
face the same direction they shared an attic together so you could if you lived in apartment a let's say it's apartment
00:58:09
a right you could climb up into the hatch through the hatch get into the attic above your apartment and probably
00:58:18
military crawl your way and open up the hatch and drop down into apartment B now
00:58:24
now we know that this is fact because the detective he did just that he went up into one of the hatches crawled
00:58:33
through and could drop down into Britney's apartment the thing is here and the detective he's six foot two he's
00:58:42
not a small guy so it seems like most people would be able to do that most people would be able to fit through
00:58:49
there I want I question who would even know that that's a possibility right it would seem to me like a very
00:58:57
list of people would know that those attics are all connected so like you're saying we handyman maintenance person
00:59:06
cable guys Telephone Company People Electric Company HVAC people who service the apartment complex
00:59:16
those are the people that I think might have some knowledge that that's even a possibility but I do want to be clear
00:59:22
here we do have police saying that we looked up there and we're not finding evidence that someone had been up there
00:59:31
that that was how that they access Britney's apartment well and because there's multiple
00:59:36
crimes again she was murdered but we have a rape then to me it's like what was the
00:59:47
intention was the intention that this person wanted to rape Britney and then after he did so
00:59:57
figured well I'll kill her to cover you know to try to cover my tracks cuz she knew me or got too good of a look at me
01:00:07
you know what what was the motive here here's some the options on how Britney's killer could have accessed the apartment
01:00:14
okay Britney could have let him in he was waiting for her when she got home right now this could be he's either
01:00:24
already in the apartment or forced his way inside with her you know as she's unlocking the door as you covered
01:00:34
Captain maybe he had a key somehow we also know that the killer could have climbed up onto the balcony
01:00:41
and access the apartment through the French doors I'm going to remove the attic hatch in that space from our list
01:00:49
because we have police saying that they found zero evidence that that's the case
01:00:54
we also find unfortunately no useful fingerprints were found in the apartment I do like the fact that you did bring up
01:01:04
this addict angle because if the cops weren't doing their job if they weren't doing their due diligence like we like
01:01:11
to say then they wouldn't even known this was a possibility so just to to hear that the cops seem to be looking at
01:01:20
every angle of how somebody could have got into the apartment makes me feel a little bit better about their
01:01:25
investigation oh exactly I believe that is very thorough investigation that took
01:01:30
place here and and it's fascinating to me that they seem to be looking at this through all angles right they're they're
01:01:39
going outside the box if you will to come up with how did this how did everything go down now unfortunately the
01:01:46
apartment complex did not have surveillance cameras and neither did businesses in the immediate area and I'm
01:01:53
not trying trying to squeeze in a plug here but you hear us and you've heard us on the show before one of our sponsors
01:02:02
has been Simply Safe for several years and you know I was telling someone the other day so I I have cameras on most of
01:02:12
us have the ring doorbell camera or doorbell camera by any number of different companies or
01:02:18
Brands but I have a camera near all of the entrances possible es and exits to my house and so all four sides of the
01:02:28
house have a camera on them and somebody asked me they go well that makes sense it seems a little seems maybe a little
01:02:38
expensive but um you know I I got one on my front porch and I think that's probably good enough and I said you know
01:02:45
maybe it is good enough I said but we cover so many of these stories we cover so many of these cases to me this is
01:02:51
going to sound really dumb to the average Joe but if something happens to me or something bad happens inside my
01:02:59
house even if I'm not around I want the bastard to be caught and those cameras are so valuable and I
01:03:08
we've said this when we talked about the Jennifer kessie case and some of these other apartment cases this took place in
01:03:17
2004 you know this is not 1970 not 1980s 2004 if you are a single individual especially a young
01:03:28
woman that should be at the top of your list when you go to look at these apartments and when you're talking to
01:03:35
the the company that's going to be renting you the apartment what is the security like here yes we know this was
01:03:41
supposed to be a safe area we know that this was supposed to be a it was noted to be a safe apartment complex but that
01:03:49
put that at the top of your list do you have security cameras do you have security measures that have been
01:03:55
taken because here in this situation while we cannot bring this young woman back but if we had those cameras we
01:04:02
might be able to see who or at least how this person gained access to her apartment yeah and like we say all the
01:04:10
time I mean an individual is attacking you assume they're trying to kill you and fight and Claw and try to do enough
01:04:22
damage that they're going to leave behind that DNA that they can test and then again maybe you you lose the
01:04:30
struggle maybe you end up losing your life but if if it was me I would want every possible way for the person to to
01:04:39
get caught and so a lot of these apartment complexes have a common place for people to enter and exit this one
01:04:47
doesn't but a lot of times you see when they don't have a common place that they
01:04:51
at least have cameras on the parking lot but it doesn't seem like we have evidence of that but then it made me
01:04:58
wonder do we have any evidence that we could look you know with the with the school being basically across the street
01:05:05
because we know that they would have some cameras no I mean we don't have any surveillance cameras in the area as the
01:05:13
the we know the apartment complex didn't have them and we know that the nearby businesses didn't have
01:05:23
them [Music] join us back here in the garage for part two and until then be good be kind and
01:05:46
don't litter [Music] [Applause]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 75
    Most shocking
  • 70
    Most emotional
  • 70
    Most intense

Episode Highlights

  • The Fight for Justice
    Maggie Zigman has dedicated her life to finding answers for her daughter Britney Phillips, who was murdered in 2004. "Maggie continues to fight for her daughter and best friend."
    “Maggie continues to fight for her daughter and best friend.”
    @ 03m 43s
    January 23, 2024
  • Britney's Ambitious Dreams
    Britney Phillips was a bright young woman studying chemistry on a scholarship, aiming to become a scientist. "She was studying chemistry on a college scholarship."
    “She was studying chemistry on a college scholarship.”
    @ 05m 28s
    January 23, 2024
  • A Mother's Concern
    Maggie Zigman grows worried when she can't reach her daughter Britney, who has missed classes. "Better safe than sorry."
    “Better safe than sorry.”
    @ 24m 26s
    January 23, 2024
  • The Discovery
    Police find Britney deceased in her apartment, leading to a tragic investigation.
    “Unfortunately find Britney lying on the floor next to her bed.”
    @ 26m 19s
    January 23, 2024
  • Maggie's Heartbreak
    Maggie receives the devastating news of her daughter's murder from the police.
    “You need to call the Tulsa Police, your daughter's been murdered.”
    @ 27m 50s
    January 23, 2024
  • Autopsy Findings
    The autopsy reveals shocking details about Britney's death, including strangulation.
    “The cause of death was asphyxia due to neck compression.”
    @ 37m 44s
    January 23, 2024
  • The Mystery of Access
    Police found four window screens removed from Britney's apartment, raising questions about how the attacker entered.
    “It seems like most people would be able to fit through there.”
    @ 58m 49s
    January 23, 2024
  • Investigation Thoroughness
    The investigation into Britney's murder explores all possible angles of access to her apartment.
    “The cops seem to be looking at this through all angles.”
    @ 01h 01m 36s
    January 23, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • She was studying chemistry on a college scholarship.
    Brittany Phillips /// Part 1 /// 732
  • Maggie found out after her daughter's death that Britney was hiding something.
    Brittany Phillips /// Part 1 /// 732
  • You need to call the Tulsa Police, your daughter's been murdered.
    Brittany Phillips /// Part 1 /// 732
  • She was raped and murdered.
    Brittany Phillips /// Part 1 /// 732
  • It could be as simple as bad guy knocks on the door.
    Brittany Phillips /// Part 1 /// 732
  • If something happens to me, I want the bastard to be caught.
    Brittany Phillips /// Part 1 /// 732

Key Moments

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage00:39
  • Britney's New Life03:01
  • College Dreams05:28
  • Police Arrival26:04
  • Tragic Discovery26:19
  • Maggie's Notification27:50
  • Autopsy Report34:29
  • Locked Out56:08

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown