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Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340

November 16, 2023 / 56:57

This episode covers the case of Heather Church, the investigation led by Detective Lou Smith, and the eventual arrest of Robert Charles Brown. Key topics include the timeline of events, the evidence collected, and the psychological profile of the perpetrator.

Heather Church was last seen in 1993, and her remains were found two years later. The investigation faced challenges, including a lack of leads and suspects. Lou Smith, known for his work on high-profile cases, took over the investigation in 1995 and focused on the fingerprints found at the crime scene.

Robert Charles Brown, a neighbor of the Church family, was arrested after his fingerprints matched those found in Heather's home. Despite his claims of innocence, he ultimately pleaded guilty to murder to avoid the death penalty. The episode discusses the implications of his plea and the evidence against him.

Brown later hinted at being involved in multiple other murders through cryptic letters, raising questions about his potential as a serial killer. The episode highlights the complexities of the case and the ongoing investigation into Brown's past.

Listeners are encouraged to explore the recommended reading on the case for further details. The episode concludes with a reflection on the impact of the investigation and the importance of justice for victims.

TLDR

The episode details the investigation of Heather Church's murder and Robert Charles Brown's eventual arrest and confessions.

Episode

56:57
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music]
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crime it took almost 2 years to find the remains of Heather Church in the crime scene where the remains were found off
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offered no clues as to who the perpetrator of this abduction and murder could be the Daily Sentinel ran an
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article with the headline girls remains found after 2year search this from the Associated Press the article labeled
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Timothy belbeck the man who found her skull and reported his findings as a transient camper and states the death
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was ruled a homicide and the coroner's report indicates Heather suffered blunt force trial trama to the Head this
00:05:01
article has some interesting pieces of information in here as well it goes on to say Heather was last seen wearing
00:05:08
white cotton pajamas and no shoes she had laid out an outfit for school and her bedding was rumbled as if she was
00:05:18
asleep until something had awakened her enter Lou Smith who is Lou Smith Captain he's a
00:05:27
detective that likes to climb in and out of window he's probably best known for his
00:05:33
involvement in The John Bay Ramsey case I think he's on the smaller side too captain that might make give him the the
00:05:41
extra superability of climbing in and out of Windows you think so I don't think he looks small to me but I didn't
00:05:48
either but I read some story where he decided when he first became a police officer he needed to bulk up because he
00:05:56
was like I want to say he was like five 5 6 to maybe 5'7 but like 150 lbs when he first started on the force he got
00:06:06
into some situation where he said a a large woman was attempting to drag him across the street and she was having
00:06:17
some success and that's when he decided I got to start going to the gym I got to
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beef up if I'm going to be yeah I think that was my mother well you know I like to use the
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term super cop loose is certainly a super cop in his career he worked on more than 200 murder cases in which a
00:06:36
suspect had been arrested and tried for their crimes he was a detective with the
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Colorado Springs Police Department he joined the force way back in 1966 and worked his way all the way up
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to the rank of detective Lou helped to get the arrest and conviction of spree killer Freddy Glenn and his accompl
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Michael Corbett Glenn was found guilty of murdering three people in 1975 yeah one of them being uh Karen
00:07:08
Grammer that's correct this included the killing of Karen Grammer younger sister
00:07:13
of actor Kelsey Grammer he was also involved in the arrest and conviction of Michael Corbett
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this was Freddy Glenn's accomplice so together we have Glenn who was found guilty of murdering three
00:07:28
people in 1975 Glenn and Corbett together were responsible for a total of five deaths in and around Colorado
00:07:36
Springs back in 1975 so now I would like to introduce you to another man John Anderson now I'm
00:07:45
not talking about money in the bank and simal wind John Anderson no I'm talking about the John Anderson who I will deem
00:07:52
to be another Super cop Anderson was sworn in in January of 1995 as El Paso County's new sheriff and with him came
00:08:04
Lou SMI Anderson wanted two things one for L smitht to take over as Captain of detectives in El Paso County and two to
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solve Heather Church's case which by this time 1995 was looking like it would never be
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solved in the over three years of the case law enforcement really only developed per evidence and interviews a
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few suspects some of the members of Heather's church at one point turned on one another Heather's Sunday school
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teacher and a family friend were questioned extensively as were Heather's parents
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everyone police in the FBI looked at either had an ironclad Alibi passed a polygraph test or both again this
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included Heather's parents Diane and Mike definitely a lot of Suspicion towards the parents I think when you
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have a case like this where you have no leads no clues that's kind of where the direction
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that it just naturally takes on yeah now in 1995 L SMI took over as Captain of detectives and he took over the Heather
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Church investigation Lou is pretty old school and he said that regardless of what
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other people thought that they knew about the case Mike and Diane Church were not suspects he said he knew very
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early on in his investigation that they together nor separate were involved in any way after meeting them both and
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speaking with them separately Smith believed they were truly victims and far too good of people to do something so
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terrible and it's not clear whether or not they took polygraph test and passed or not right the the
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information I have that came from the sheriff's apartment states that they did okay now Smith also offered up after
00:10:07
speaking with the parents he offered up some of his expert opinions on the case to the parents of Heather he told them
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he would catch the man that killed her he said he believed the perpetrator was an intelligent male and that his name
00:10:24
was already in the case File he also believed unlike the FBI that the motive behind why the per entered the church
00:10:32
home may not have been sexual Smith wanted to start his investigation at the very beginning in reviewing the case he
00:10:42
noted the recovery of fingerprints from the crime scene Captain Schmidt recognized that although the prince had
00:10:49
been forwarded to both the FBI and the CBI he was aware that there were in fact 92 separate automated fingerprint
00:10:58
identification systems or aphis for short so here we are once more captain at the Laton fingerprints left on the
00:11:07
master bedroom window screen from inside Heather Church's house yeah it seems like that's the biggest piece of
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evidence we have forensics expert Thomas Carney was the man who educated Smith on
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the trouble with the fingerprint systems in fact Carney he came from Miami he worked in law enfor m in Miami he was
00:11:30
the first person to compile a list of the aphis systems in the United States Canada and Mexico in Short North America
00:11:41
as said this number as of 1995 was 92 of these systems Carney put together 92 sets of black and white
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photographs of the prints that they found on the window screen and this was to be mailed off to all 92 automated
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finger printing identification systems in March of 1995 they got the call they were waiting
00:12:10
on for years so sound the trumpets captain we're we're still working on the trumpets near at the garage that was
00:12:20
good taking lessons that was good but I mean we we need some actual real trumpets uh they got a match in fact
00:12:29
they got two matches one in California and one in Louisiana so 92 of these different places they send off these
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photographs two of them call back and say hey we got a match for you on those fingerprints that you sent us mhm the
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fingerprints were matched to 42-year-old felon Robert Charles Brown who lived at
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16660 eastonville Road and he was one of the church's nearest Neighbors he lived in a double wi about a half a
00:13:01
mile from the Church's home where he lived with his wife Brown worked at Tree Farm located on his property where he
00:13:09
lived Brown was arrested for burglary and vehicle theft in Louisiana where he served 10 months he was also charged
00:13:18
with something in California and I believe he may have served a little bit of time there but his record he has a
00:13:24
record but it's for nothing nearly as heinous as a uction or murder in 1987 his parole was transferred from
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Louisiana to the state of Colorado the fingerprints found inside the crime scene at the church's house
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were submitted and resubmitted over the years to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation but for whatever reason
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when Brown when his parole was transferred his Prince were never entered into the CBI system so even
00:13:57
though they're checking them there's nothing there to match them to 4 days after they got the match they
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arrested Brown outside of a store in town and brought him to the station for questioning the first thing that they
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wanted to know of course did Brown know the churches he said No in fact he said he was a loner and he and his wife did
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not socialize much but we know they're neighbors yeah but he lives a half a mile away right
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so again it's when we talk about these different cases it's important to always kind of keep in mind the lay of the land
00:14:38
they own that big property he owned a decent sized property as well he was what I believe is reported to be their
00:14:45
nearest neighbor but that's half a mile away they really wanted to know had he ever been to the church's house and this
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would be for any reason at all right no he said in fact the closest to to their home that he had ever been was when he
00:15:02
assisted a delivery truck that broke down on the side of the road near the church's long driveway out to the road
00:15:09
that is exactly what they wanted to hear got him got him Captain right got him yeah because if if this guy was known if
00:15:17
Robert Brown was known to do like handywork in the area and they go hey were you ever in their house oh yeah
00:15:25
well I was wasn't friends with them but I I did some painting for them oh where did you do the painting at oh master
00:15:33
bedroom the other bed you know what I mean right like then it put it gives you a gives a reason why the fingerprint
00:15:40
should be there or could be there yeah and really that that is so key to this case as you just stated he has given no
00:15:50
reason at all for his fingerprints to be there let alone be inside of the home well mind you that's cuz he's a dumbass
00:15:57
where where the prince were found were found technically inside the home yeah cuz the here's the thing is they ask you
00:16:05
about your neighbors you you know that this girl was abducted right so if you just start lying and saying well yeah
00:16:15
you know I went over there a couple times mhm and and I'm sure they asked the the family and and I'm sure they
00:16:22
didn't but I don't know that'd be covering your ass a little bit let's get into that a
00:16:28
bit because th this part of the story is quite interesting I think really when they arrested him at
00:16:35
this store that was not their intention they actually wanted to set up um they wanted to catch him meaning they wanted
00:16:45
to get him in a conversation asking him questions about the church homicide and and catch him that way but
00:16:54
catch him off guard meaning that that he doesn't know that they are looking specifically at him right so once they
00:17:01
get the match on the fingerprints their idea is okay let's send a handful of officers and detectives out into the
00:17:10
area and let's knock on everybody's door again and let's ask these sets of questions that way he thinks it's all
00:17:17
this is just all routine you know we're we're doing a r routine questioning of everybody in the area we're not
00:17:25
specifically looking at you right this this is where they were hoping that he would say I've never been to their house
00:17:33
and the problem was when they sent all the officers out into the area he was already under surveillance at that
00:17:40
point he left to go shopping and at some point they got nervous the law enforcement got nervous and said we have
00:17:48
to arrest this guy they were really worried that when they Place him in cuffs and say look you're being arrested
00:17:55
for the murder of Heather Dawn Church right that as you said he's a dumbass that he would wise up and go oh yeah I I
00:18:03
was there to do yard work or whatever yeah babysit him yeah because even even if the church has said no that's not the
00:18:10
truth now she said she said you yeah you have his word against theirs yeah now the reason why police believe that
00:18:19
he wasn't smart enough to come up with with something like that yeah no actually they think that that he was so
00:18:29
convinced that he never left his fingerprints there meaning they believed that he was wearing gloves during the
00:18:36
abduction and he may have taken them off very briefly to replace the the screen right and very likely he's being
00:18:43
questioned about this 3 years later he remembers that he wore gloves to the crime scene but doesn't remember taking
00:18:50
them off for a very brief time yeah that makes a lot of sense so he's so surprised by this whole deal of him
00:18:56
leaving fingerprints there that he tells them straight up he's he's without a lawyer at this point in the questioning
00:19:03
and he's telling them there's no way possible that those are my fingerprints he said I don't doubt that you found
00:19:10
fingerprints there I doubt that they're mine and they say well we have your fingerprints back from when you were
00:19:16
arrested in Louisiana and we we checked them they got a match in Louisiana we got a match with your old fingerprints
00:19:22
in California he goes well that's well and good but people make mistakes my fingerprints could have been mixed up
00:19:29
with somebody else's you know what what you're testing are pictures he's saying take my fingerprints right now and test
00:19:36
them again because I'm telling you my fingerprints were not there that's how adamant he was and they did so and they
00:19:42
checked it again right so now you have that in your back pocket as the detectives are questioning uh Robert
00:19:48
Charles Brown yeah and during all of this remember he's he's asking for everything to be tested again take new
00:19:56
fingerprints they're doing all this stuff test it again and while they're doing this they talk him into a
00:20:04
polygraph test yeah and later he's told he failed the test and he's told again doesn't matter how many times we
00:20:12
fingerprint you and run the test they are still matching the set that we found on the window screen at the Church's
00:20:18
home right the other thing too Captain is during these interviews while they're being conducted the police were at
00:20:25
Brown's home they're search ing the place they already had a search warrant before they arrested it there they found
00:20:32
girls clothing and girls jewelry stuffed into a pillowcase he has no children this is a bit unexplained what
00:20:43
this stuff was or where it came from what is explained is that none of it belonged to
00:20:48
Heather they also probably it's probably trophies of some kind yeah so they found stolen items
00:20:57
from another another home that was another residence that was kind of nearby MH so these could have just been
00:21:05
things that they don't have to be from another murder victim they could be things that he stole from somebody's
00:21:10
home they found this is just straight up bizarre I've never heard of this before but I do know
00:21:17
people steal these types of things I've just never found one in any of the cases
00:21:21
we've covered they found a stolen Bobcat earth mover machine worth $188,000 now Captain you and I both know
00:21:29
that is not a small machine mhm that's a large thing to have stolen from someone
00:21:39
apparently I don't know why he stole it he must have used it for some kind of work keep in mind he had that tree farm
00:21:45
he had a big plot of land there's some suspicions as to what he could have used it for but his his
00:21:52
wife was aware that he stole this large machine she said he used it the only thing that she knew that he
00:22:00
used it for was he dug a big hole with it drove the machine into the hole and then attempted to cover it
00:22:08
up attempted to bury it or just cover it up bury the machine uh as said he they found stolen
00:22:16
items from another house or other residences in the area this is you know some of the more alarming stuff they
00:22:24
found newspaper clippings a lot of them regarding Heather Church's case MH he was in fact arrested that day and
00:22:31
charged with murder he would be offered eventually actually pretty quickly after
00:22:37
the arrest he was offered a deal an offer to his public defender this would be so he could avoid
00:22:46
the death penalty and this likely may have been the best case scenario for the investigators seeing that at this point
00:22:56
when they make this offer all they have as far as evidence goes is his fingerprints right later on they did get
00:23:05
Brown's wife to admit that he was not home the night Heather vanished so we have a fingerprint and we have no solid
00:23:13
Alibi correct now he Brown maintained his innocence when he spoke with the police but he did ultimately end up
00:23:23
pleading guilty to murder this so he could avoid the death penalty and trade he got life in
00:23:30
prison this move was quite interesting the prosecutor they didn't really think that
00:23:41
that brown or his attorney would take the bait take the plea deal right because again such little evidence they
00:23:49
really made a strong push and what they did was they were vetting this guy they were calling where they knew he was from
00:23:57
this guy had moved around a lot they called his hometown where he lived for a long period of time and realized that
00:24:05
former neighbors of his one of them had gone missing and one of them was murdered oh great both of those cases
00:24:14
unsolved in fact the missing woman on top of on top of Heather Church's case correct yeah and so what their threat
00:24:23
was we'll call it a threat their threat to the the defense attorney was he he should probably hurry up and plead
00:24:31
guilty to this before we find another body right so ultimately that's what took place the prosecutor did check with
00:24:40
Heather's parents first to make sure that they were okay with them making an offer Heather's mother Diane said if he
00:24:49
is willing to plead guilty she is willing to let him sit in prison for the rest of his
00:24:56
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00:27:16
glass the crispiest they've separated us I feel like I'm in solitary confinement
00:27:21
well that's where you belong all I I can't see you all I do is hear voices mhm so while Robert Brown never conf
00:27:27
confessed to the detectives and never confessed in court it's believed that he confessed to Susan Lawrence this was his
00:27:35
placement counselor and what he told her she passed along to authorities so let's
00:27:42
go through this what what she told the authorities he said to her she said that he Brown enjoyed roaming his
00:27:52
neighborhood at night looking for houses to burglarize sometimes he would take things sometimes he wouldn't when he
00:28:01
went to the church's residence there were two lights on inside the house and no cars in the
00:28:08
driveway and he did not think that anyone was home he was surprised by Heather Church inside the house and
00:28:16
killing her he says was unintentional Brown said that he did Kill Heather inside the home he placed
00:28:25
one hand over her mouth and one hand on her neck he demonstrated this to Miss Lawrence when he's telling her this
00:28:34
story and said he recalled doing this for only a couple of seconds he thought but now believes it must have been for a
00:28:43
longer period of time he assumed that he had strangled her because she was dead when it was
00:28:52
over now Mrs Lawrence asked Brown if it was possible that that he had broke her neck and to which he replied that that
00:29:02
was a possibility yeah cuz I mean Brown's a pretty big guy he's like 63 roughly yeah yeah Robert Brown said
00:29:11
he placed Heather Church's body in the back of his pickup truck and drove to the mountains where he disposed of the
00:29:17
body he denied having any sexual contact with Heather Church all right so bam boom
00:29:25
bang case closed yep get my coat time to tip my hat and ride nope you're you're locked up you're
00:29:35
right captain that is not it because there's much more to the story in 1996 Robert Charles Brown who is supposed to
00:29:43
be rotting away in his cell in Colorado State Corrections he receives a letter this is
00:29:51
an anonymous letter the letter says you got screwed and here's why there was something wrong with Colorado
00:30:00
state law and from July 9th to September 20th of 1999 [ __ ] let's keep going I was good
00:30:10
up to September 20th of 1991 Colorado was without a death penalty this is truly bizarre we've
00:30:20
never come across anything like this in any of our cases mhm so what that means is when the night when she was abducted
00:30:31
when Heather was removed from the home technically the state of Colorado for that very brief time period less than 90
00:30:40
days didn't have the death penalty does not have the death penalty so the offer then of hey plead guilty and we take the
00:30:48
death penalty off the table it was never on the table because it didn't exist during the the time frame in which she
00:30:55
disappeared [ __ ] offer yeah so this gets pointed out to him and now we have the appeals process but who
00:31:02
whoever's pointing it out to this scumbag yeah is also a scumbag Let It Be man you got screwed well good right
00:31:11
unless it was one of those things where um the guy was trying to rub it in his face you know like you're so stupid you
00:31:18
didn't know this oh you know what I mean but you know what you got screwed because the case took so many years to
00:31:25
apprehend somebody right I don't think that the prosecutors did anything malicious here I don't think
00:31:32
they were aware either no like you said it was a small window like 90-day window
00:31:36
yeah it's just one of these weird inconsistencies one of these weird little glitches that was that was going on
00:31:43
they're unaware of it so any anyway now we have the appeals process he's got a pretty damn good appeal when you think
00:31:49
about it hey I played guilty to something that only because the death penalty was being thrown in my face
00:31:58
in the face in the face well the current prosecutor the the one that now has to face these
00:32:07
appeals comes up with a great plan he says to the court system look she was abducted on the 17th this whole
00:32:18
thing with with the no death penalty expired on the 20th that's just a couple days later mhm he's also saying it took
00:32:26
us all this time who solved the case she was found over 20 mi away from her home
00:32:32
where she was abducted we the prosecutor's office believed that the crime was sexual in
00:32:38
nature that the motive was sexual nature and based off of all of that evidence and theory and thought it is our
00:32:47
argument that we cannot say for certain that her murder occurred on the 17th that it's very likely he may have kept
00:32:55
her for a couple of days and the murder occurred on the 20th or even later to this the appeals Courts at
00:33:03
least two of them that I could find they agreed with that they said look you can't prove the date of when she was
00:33:11
killed and if you do you know he's in all kinds of trouble and all kinds of mess here because now if you go back to
00:33:19
um he proves what day she was killed then he proves that he killed her and he boom he still ends up with life in
00:33:25
prison right so I I think that's just truly fascinating and the prosecutor later came out
00:33:32
said look I thought my argument was a good one but a weak one it was intelligent argument but it was a very
00:33:38
weak one he thought that they would lose turns out that they win this thing got all the way up to I believe the Colorado
00:33:47
Supreme Court state supreme court to which I think they tossed it out and said we don't even want to look at this
00:33:53
thing truly when you you have a child killer nobody wants this guy to get out on some
00:34:02
kind of tech technicality well yeah and on top of that you think he's possibly linked to other crimes that's
00:34:10
correct and that's still not the end of our story Captain because on March 30th 2000 Robert Brown sent an unsolicited
00:34:19
letter to the Fourth Judicial District Attorney's Office in Colorado Springs the letter was addressed to whom
00:34:27
it may concern inside this letter and I don't have the full letter itself I don't know
00:34:33
if the full letter has ever been released to the public but there is within this letter a statement from
00:34:41
Brown that says this is very cryptic seven sacred virgins entombed side by side those less worthy are
00:34:51
scattered wide the letter taunted investigators claiming the the score is you1 the other team
00:35:02
48 the obvious reference here being that he was arrested tried and convicted of the murder of Heather Dawn church right
00:35:13
they scored one the other team must be him Robert Brown he's got a score of 48 so
00:35:20
obviously he's implying that he's involved in other crimes possibly other murders
00:35:27
another statement included in this letter says if you were to drive to the end zone in a white Trans Am the score
00:35:35
could be 9 to 48 that would complete your homec court sphere ah let go a real dumbass Brown closed the letter by
00:35:45
demanding that he not be contacted now there was a second letter that was sent so he sent a letter and then at the
00:35:55
end he said don't contact me and here's another letter they sent another letter yeah the second letter for my
00:36:02
understanding I believe even less of that letter has been uh reported over the years maybe maybe
00:36:10
even some of the statements I just read could have been from the second letter itself it's all very cryptic his
00:36:16
writings and what has been released is it's not clear if it's if some of the letters are just
00:36:22
short and they were released in their entirety and then other letters were longer and only bits and pieces were
00:36:28
actually released but what we do know with the second letter there that one included a map and
00:36:37
we would later learn that the map was he took a piece of paper put it over over a
00:36:41
map like in an atlas and made the outlines of several different states and so he outlined the state of
00:36:51
Washington California Colorado New Mexico Oklahoma Texas Arkansas Mississippi and
00:37:01
Louisiana and inside each one of those states that he outlined he put a number this number totaling up to 48 so
00:37:11
almost indicating that with inside this state for instance state of Washington he wrote the number
00:37:18
one I've killed one person in the state of Colorado he put the number nine in Louisiana the number being the highest
00:37:27
of all the numbers was 17 mhm this Captain I believe probably would have went nowhere because he's writing to the
00:37:37
District Attorney's Office in Colorado Springs they don't seem to have any interest in corresponding with inmate
00:37:46
Robert Brown turns out that about two years later A Man Named Charlie Hess is going
00:37:55
to send a letter to Robert Brown he doesn't know that Robert Brown has in fact sent these letters already to the
00:38:02
district attorney's office Charlie Hess is a former CIA agent and he was working
00:38:09
with a guy and I say working they were kind of doing this as as a hobby but Charlie hes along with some other
00:38:16
individuals were working with Lou SMI all these guys were pretty much retired by this time what they would do is they
00:38:24
would get together about once a week they would hang out they would eat pastries drink coffee smoke cigarettes
00:38:30
and they would talk about old cases mhm and really what they were focusing on was they were wanting to take on some
00:38:39
cold cases all of these individuals were involved in law enforcement or the CIA at some time this would be a good group
00:38:46
of people to volunteer to take on a cold case now during some of their discussions it comes up that one of the
00:38:57
individuals wants to know hey Lou or anybody here in our group has anybody worked in putting away a
00:39:07
murderer that they believe was truly a very dangerous person that was was a serial killer was one of these uh people
00:39:15
that had numbers you know multiple murders that they had committed L Smith says to his group I always felt Robert
00:39:26
Charles Brown was a serial killer and so much so that when we were working to put
00:39:30
him away we were aware that way back in Louisiana a neighbor of his one went missing and another neighbor was found
00:39:39
dead was found murdered so there's already a bit of a connection I I've seen a lot of people
00:39:46
cover this portion of the story and a lot of people have done a good job in doing so but what is usually
00:39:56
Lo lost in this Heather Church's case is usually kind of a a by the way or a way
00:40:02
to Kickstart the whole story of Robert Brown in his Communications with these Cold Case volunteer investigators right
00:40:11
and often it's reported that Lou Smith just had some kind of six sense that he was uh it was a gut feeling that he had
00:40:19
been working the these types of cases so long that he just had a sick sense that
00:40:23
Robert Brown was a serial killer he had he had a sense that Robert Brown was a serial killer because they were aware of
00:40:31
a missing former neighbor of his and a murdered former neighbor of his doesn't take much to you know you don't have to
00:40:39
have a a six sense to come up with that Heather Dawn church was a neighbor of his as well so you see a similar type of
00:40:48
Mo it's really a bit of a shame that when we talk about these cases from Louisiana I find it strange that within
00:40:58
just a handful of months these two cases take place we have a murder somebody goes missing both of these
00:41:05
individuals were neighbors of his but they were neighbors within the same apartment complex as him and further
00:41:14
Robert Brown worked as the maintenance man for this apartment complex his brother I believe was the owner or the
00:41:22
landlord of these uh Apartments it's really strange to me that they weren't able to make any type
00:41:29
of connection I think with the missing woman with her case that the husband was Under Suspicion and that would make an
00:41:38
obvious reason why you wouldn't connect them but with with the missing woman she apparently had the doors had
00:41:49
the locks on her doors changed the day before by the maintenance man of the apartment complex who in fact was Robert
00:41:57
Brown it seems like there would have been a connection to some of these individuals yeah and even though Robert
00:42:04
Brown claimed that he didn't want to be contacted there would be a bunch of corresponding emails for
00:42:10
years yeah well letters right and so it it's almost like Charlie H kind of befriended Robert Charles Brown and got
00:42:21
him to open up we have a man who says he doesn't want to talk it is in Charlie's
00:42:27
Arsenal though that he is aware that look this is the guy that opened up the dialogue he started the dialogue on some
00:42:35
psychological level he does want to talk and so I'm going to work that angle and
00:42:40
see what I can get from him it's interesting that you have a guy a serial killer locked up and I will I will say
00:42:47
serial killer because I believe him to be just that but we have someone like we've seen so many times before now he's
00:42:55
coming out playing this game of I know more than you know and here's all the other bad things that I've done but oh
00:43:02
I'm not going to tell you all the bad things that I've done I'm going to hint and nudge and wink you through it and
00:43:09
you got to figure it out on your own it's all really truly I mean it's a lot of it I feel is
00:43:19
[ __ ] and I don't really want to waste anybody's time here by going through all of the correspondence cuz as
00:43:24
you said this goes on for quite some time and really all Charles Hess wants to do is he wants to sit down and speak
00:43:36
with Robert Brown face to face that's what Charlie Hess did in the CIA back in the day of Vietnam War he was somebody
00:43:45
that interviewed people during wartime he gave lie detector tests during wartime he is extremely good at
00:43:53
communicating with people getting people to open up getting people to tell the story tell the truth and figuring out
00:44:00
what are the truths and what are the lies with inside their story he eventually through befriending
00:44:07
or at least letting Robert Charles Brown believe that the two are friends got brown to allow him to speak with him
00:44:15
face to face and this all it did was open up correspondant because Brown was giving little hints and winks and nudges
00:44:25
saying I've killed roughly like you said Captain I've killed 48 people 47 of them
00:44:31
you don't know about and some of their talks and correspondence he had the number as high as
00:44:38
51 but he was really giving them nothing to go off of he's like look I um they keep telling them you got to tell us
00:44:45
more if you want us to clear any of these cases we can't do anything with this and if you don't give us more
00:44:50
information we don't think you're serious we think that either you're making this [ __ ] up or you've lost it
00:44:58
and you believe it to be true and it's not true at all mhm eventually they get him to talk and
00:45:06
give more details on some of these cases where he will go you know maybe give a nickname of an individual maybe give a
00:45:13
spot where he uh dumped the body so on and so forth and this leads them to throughout months and years of
00:45:23
working on this this leads them to starting to complete some of the story now mind you all of the states that he
00:45:30
listed that he drew on that map he did live in those States and they could find evidence that he in fact lived in those
00:45:37
States at one point and the three states that he listed as having the highest number of kills interestingly enough are
00:45:45
the three states where he spent the most time so there was some stuff there was some meat on the bone in the beginning
00:45:51
for these investigators to believe that there could be some truth to Robert Brown's story now we know with these
00:46:01
Psychopaths and these narcissists none of this would come without him getting something in return for offering up this
00:46:10
information he was unhappy with the way that he was being treated he did not like where he was being housed and he
00:46:16
also didn't feel that he was receiving proper medical treatment basically he wanted to transfer and again Charlie H
00:46:25
pushed him and said we can't help you unless you help us eventually through a lot of back and forth and through a lot
00:46:33
of working and a lot of hard work what we end up getting is we get another solved case because in July of
00:46:42
2006 Brown pled guilty to the murder of Rosio sper this he was sentenced to life
00:46:51
without the possibility of parole for 40 years now unfortunately this did not come without brown getting something in
00:47:00
return Brown was then transferred to the state of Minnesota to serve out his time
00:47:07
there what's very weird here Captain is I found an interview with Heather Church's father Mike and I
00:47:17
believe it was from 2015 or 16 where he had a complaint and a very valid complaint he saying because of
00:47:26
Brown's manipulation of the system because he's working these deals to get moved and and plead guilty to an
00:47:35
unsolved case that he did not know where the killer of his daughter was being housed
00:47:44
and he felt that that was unfair and I agree 100% because at some point Brown was
00:47:51
moved and it wasn't public knowledge to know where he was located I found a letter that is believed I have
00:48:00
plenty of reason to believe that it was written by Robert Brown where he states that at that time he was housed in
00:48:09
Florida in the State of Florida and there he is complaining that they riged on the plea agreement that he
00:48:18
was supposed to be in Minnesota and after being in Minnesota for 4 years they transferred him to Florida where he
00:48:25
does not want to be and I hope he stays where he does not want to be welcome to Florida the thing captain that we have
00:48:36
here and I do want to say I am very um the thing that I want to say here Captain is that I think that is great
00:48:45
the work that Charlie H Lou Smith and all of their little Cold Case volunteer work that they did is fantastic yeah I
00:48:53
don't want to say it's all [ __ ] and it's all or not because they did get a conviction in the Rosio SP case and that
00:49:00
was so important not just to get another case off the books not just to get some
00:49:04
answers but for so many years her husband was thought to be the one that was guilty of her disappearance and we
00:49:12
now know that that's not true MH and that guy was a victim himself not just from being the husband of a of murder
00:49:21
victim but he was a victim of being thought of as being guilty of her disappearance and
00:49:28
her murder for so many years so I'm very glad and very happy that they got that one off the books I do think that a lot
00:49:37
of Brown's communication and a lot of what he hints at we talk about a number of 48 possible victims I think that
00:49:45
that's total bogus bogus I think it's a bogus number that he came up with we're talking about he's saying this in the
00:49:53
early 2000s and at the time I believe a number of 48 would put him at the highest number for
00:50:01
a serial killer that's who he wants to be he's never been anybody important he wants to be somebody important and he
00:50:09
does not mind the attention why because he is so guilty of Heather Don Church's murder and now he's locked up in a place
00:50:17
he does not want to be for life and he has nothing to do he is to put it quite frankly he is bored everything that he
00:50:26
did when he was on the outside a lot of it being illegal a lot of of it being perverted deviate Behavior he cannot do
00:50:34
now and so he's come up with some kind of game to pass the time he's come up with a number that makes him important
00:50:41
when he is not I also think that part of this game is he feels screwed by the prosecutor by
00:50:52
the District Attorney's Office of Colorado that because he as you said was dumb enough to one not give a good
00:51:01
reason why he would have been at the church's house MH two didn't lawyer up three agreed to a polygraph test in
00:51:09
which he failed and then four pleas guilty so he can avoid the death penalty yet there
00:51:16
was no death penalty yeah so welcome to Florida dumbass I think he feels tricked
00:51:21
because he was he was an idiot he was stupid he was a [ __ ] he feels tricked and now his way of
00:51:30
retaliating is to send them on this wild goose chase keep in mind who did he direct his letter to he didn't send it
00:51:38
to the media he didn't send it to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office he sent it
00:51:43
to the district attorney's office the same district attorney's office that was able to put him in prison for life for
00:51:51
the death for the murder of Heather Dawn Church now I do believe with inside this
00:51:58
48 this magical number of 48 Captain I do believe that there are some other victims in there of note of of of note
00:52:08
of ones that he actually provided some detailed information this would be the uh murder
00:52:15
of Katherine Hayes from Louisiana Wanda Hudson and F self also of Louisiana Melody bush
00:52:26
and Nidia Mendoza both from Texas and then Lisa low who was killed in Arkansas so while I do feel that a lot of his
00:52:37
stuff is probably [ __ ] I would love to see some further movement on some of these other cases where there was some
00:52:45
detailed information provided by Robert Brown unfortunately L Smith has passed away he passed away he had the cancer
00:52:55
and by the time the cancer was founded it spread to his entire body yeah but I agree a lot of good work here and uh
00:53:02
Robert Charles Brown deserves any bad thing that's coming his way the other thing about his if you want to try to
00:53:12
call them confessions regarding these murders even the ones where he offers detailed information what you will see
00:53:22
is him minimizing his involvement him minimizing his role in the murder of these individuals I personally believe
00:53:32
that most of his murders if not all of them were sexual in nature they they seem to be that that was the motive the
00:53:41
driving force for his actions I don't know about when he set out to enter the home to Heather Dawn
00:53:50
Church's house but what I will say here regarding his bullsh [ __ ] confession that he offered up to his placement
00:53:58
counselor what do you see there straight up minimizes his involvement in the whole situation it makes it it's all so
00:54:07
confusing to him he killed her he didn't even really know why he killed her he didn't he didn't intend to kill her and
00:54:14
I think that is absolute BS I think that there's a lot of evidence that will show
00:54:20
that there was no reason for him to remove her from that house his confession somewhat makes it sound
00:54:27
like she surprised him and he reacted and before he could realize what was going on she was dead there's evidence
00:54:36
to suggest that she may have been sleeping when he came upon her that night right and if he was afraid or got
00:54:44
scared all of a sudden because he entered a home that he thought was empty and he reacted and that was the
00:54:50
result you just can't believe that because if she was sleeping he had the opportunity to be afraid and then leave
00:54:57
the home after he was in the home and when he left there the only thing that was missing from that home was that
00:55:05
little [Music] girl a lot of really good sources for this case here Captain one of the better
00:55:20
ones is the newspaper The Gazette they covered this case pretty extensive Ely over the years and did a very good job
00:55:27
one of the best sources is this week's recommended reading it's a book titled the devil's right-hand man the true
00:55:36
story of serial killer Robert Charles Brown you can write that title down now so you can pick that up and find out
00:55:43
more if you're busy just go to our website later go to our recommended page go to truecrime garage.com we will have
00:55:51
that title there for you so you can make that selection and add that to your library we want to thank everybody for
00:55:58
listening we want to thank everybody for the wonderful festar reviews we want to
00:56:04
thank you all for telling your friends about True Crime garage until next time be good be kind and don't
00:56:11
[Music] let [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
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tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
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projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 60
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Best overall
  • 60
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • Gift of Better Sleep
    Your mattress purchase helps give the gift of better sleep to children in need.
    “Your mattress purchase helps give the gift of better sleep to children in need.”
    @ 00m 11s
    November 16, 2023
  • Language Learning GameChanger
    Rosetta Stone offers a lasting impact with 50% off lifetime membership for language learning.
    “It's a GameChanger!”
    @ 00m 58s
    November 16, 2023
  • Detective's Determination
    Detective Lou Smith promised Heather's parents he would catch her killer.
    “I will catch the man that killed her.”
    @ 10m 16s
    November 16, 2023
  • Fingerprint Match
    Fingerprints found at the crime scene matched Robert Charles Brown, a nearby neighbor.
    “They got a match!”
    @ 12m 29s
    November 16, 2023
  • Plea Deal for Life
    Robert Charles Brown pleaded guilty to murder to avoid the death penalty, receiving life in prison.
    “He got life in prison.”
    @ 23m 30s
    November 16, 2023
  • Heather's Mother's Decision
    Diane Church agrees to a plea deal if it means justice for her daughter.
    “If he is willing to plead guilty, she is willing to let him sit in prison.”
    @ 24m 49s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Unintentional Murder
    Robert Brown claims that killing Heather Church was unintentional, raising questions about his guilt.
    “He said killing her was unintentional.”
    @ 28m 19s
    November 16, 2023
  • Legal Loophole Discovery
    An anonymous letter reveals a bizarre legal loophole that could affect Brown's case.
    “You got screwed, and here's why.”
    @ 29m 51s
    November 16, 2023
  • Lou Smith's Instinct
    Lou Smith expresses his belief that Robert Brown is a serial killer based on past cases.
    “I always felt Robert Charles Brown was a serial killer.”
    @ 39m 26s
    November 16, 2023
  • Unfair Treatment of Victims' Families
    Heather Church's father felt unfairly treated by the system, and many agree.
    “He felt that that was unfair and I agree 100%.”
    @ 47m 44s
    November 16, 2023
  • Robert Brown's Guilt
    Robert Brown is accused of being guilty of Heather Don Church's murder.
    “He is so guilty of Heather Don Church's murder.”
    @ 50m 12s
    November 16, 2023
  • Confessions and Manipulation
    Robert Brown's confessions are viewed as minimizing his involvement in the murders.
    “I think that is absolute BS.”
    @ 54m 17s
    November 16, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • Normal is weird!
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • He was a loner and did not socialize much.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • I can't see you all, I do is hear voices.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • You got screwed, and here's why.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • I always felt Robert Charles Brown was a serial killer.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • He feels tricked because he was an idiot.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340

Key Moments

  • Language Learning00:32
  • True Crime Podcast01:40
  • Detective's Promise10:16
  • Plea Deal24:49
  • Unintentional Death28:19
  • Unfair Treatment47:44
  • Guilt of Brown50:12
  • Minimizing Confessions54:17

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown