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Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 2 /// 419

November 12, 2022 / 50:42

This episode covers the case of Jalique Rainwalker, discussing the involvement of his grandparents, Stephen Kerr, and the ongoing investigation into his disappearance. Key topics include the grandparents' accusations against Stephen, the discovery of Jalique's clothing, and the role of law enforcement and voice analysis in the case.

The episode begins with the grandparents of Jalique, Barbara and Dennis Smith, publicly accusing their son-in-law Stephen Kerr of being responsible for Jalique's disappearance. They express their belief that Stephen harmed Jalique and highlight previous incidents of aggressive behavior towards the children.

In July 2008, Barbara was arrested for unauthorized entry into the home where Stephen and Jocelyn lived. During this incident, she discovered a bright yellow fleece pullover, which was the same item Jalique was reportedly wearing when he went missing. This discovery raises questions about the parents' involvement in the case.

The investigation includes voice analysis conducted on Stephen and Jocelyn's interviews, which indicated possible deception. Despite the lack of cooperation from the parents, law enforcement continues to pursue leads and search areas where Jalique might be found.

As the case progresses, the classification changes from a missing child to a probable child homicide, reflecting the growing belief that Jalique may have been harmed. The episode concludes with a call for public assistance in providing any information that could help solve the case.

TLDR

The episode discusses the unresolved disappearance of Jalique Rainwalker and the involvement of his family and law enforcement in the investigation.

Episode

50:42
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foreign [Music] [Applause] welcome to True crab garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for
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out the recommended reading at truecrime garage.com yeah and that's enough of the
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business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
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crime [Music] jaleek's grandparents Barbara and her husband Dennis Smith well they publicly
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called out their son-in-law Stephen in a capital News nine piece Barbara said quote I believe that Stephen is the
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only one who knows what happened to jalik on November 1st and I do believe he harmed
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him she elaborated that earlier in 2007 Jocelyn asked Stephen to leave the home because she was afraid he would harm the
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children according to Barbara Stephen had anger management issues and had been going to
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counseling for them they were so bad that Jocelyn had made him move out of the family home for
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brief periods this twice in 2007 because of aggressive behavior towards the children
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and after the stream incident that we talked about yesterday Jocelyn forced Stephen to pen a letter
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of apology to jalik for this and made him do the child's chores for one month Barbara and Dennis enthusiastically
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helped Elaine persons found the find jalique task force getting Billboards erected holding vigils and organizing
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volunteer searches those searches continued weekly even after police scaled back their official
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searches for jalik this in May of 2008. and also in May of 2008 Barbara petitioned the court to assign custody
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of jalik over to her so that she could more actively pursue legal Avenues to locating him such as obtaining medical
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records and contacting homeless shelters on his behalf she said she also wanted to ensure that
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the boy had a safe and stable home to come back to in the event that he was still alive
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a Warren County Judge ruled against her in July Jeffrey McMorris he's the attorney for
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the parents said of her request quote the grandmother here was just worried about
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her own publicity and quote this lawyer is as big of a dirt bag as the father is
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at least he's getting paid to do so the the father's just being a dirtbag well no no he was he's getting paid too he's
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getting paid by the state that's true so they're both paid dirt bags continuing with July 2008 here Captain the Albany
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Times Union reported that jaleek's grandmother the one that we were just praising
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was arrested and charged with second-degree burglary this is based on a complaint from Jocelyn and Stephen
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apparently Barbara entered the unlocked Raven Way house this is where they were living and used
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a flashlight to do a little snooping a little poking around if you will remember Stephen and Jocelyn were no
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longer living there at this time they had already moved off to Vermont a neighbor reported that someone was in
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the house you know you can you've seen this in the movies the all the lights are out it's supposed
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to be dark over at the neighbor's home oh no you can see someone walking around with a flashlight in there so the
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neighbor reported someone was in the house and since her entry technically was unauthorized by the owners Barbara
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was facing charges for this she did plea not guilty in court in a court proceeding which took place on July 15th
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I think more interesting than her arrest is what could she have possibly found in
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the house or what was she looking for well and whatever she would have found they would have they probably wouldn't
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have been admissible in the court of law well what we do have is shortly after this burglary and then I don't think
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this is any coincidence at all the police executed a search warrant on the home good well look here's a couple
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things I applaud what she's trying to do I also applaud that she has no problem throwing
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her son-in-law under the bus he doesn't seem to be cooperative he doesn't seem to give a [ __ ]
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you claim that this boy went missing on his own accord and you move none of this
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stuff makes any sense you're ripping down posters of this kid you are not Cooperative with police you are
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caught lying over and over you're still collecting money for a kid that you're not taking care of
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you you basically tried to kill this kid by Drowning him this is not a good dude
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and I applaud the effort by turning on him and throwing him under the bus but at the same time we're not looking for a
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missing person anymore we're we should be looking for a body if the father is responsible which it just makes the most
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sense The Logical connection he's not responsible for the kid going missing he's responsible for the kid's death
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and we need to be looking for a dead body what the police was looking for with their search warrant was one item
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of Interest this was reported to be a piece of clothing that they stated that Barbara saw
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while she was inside that home this was a bright yellow fleece pullover the one jalik was said to have been wearing when
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he disappeared the same one that Searchers were looking for as they scanned the woods fields and waterways
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usually that's one of the things that they're really pointing out here with in regards to the searches when you're
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looking for someone it's very helpful when you're able to tell them tell the Searchers hey he or she was last seen
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wearing this bright red sweater right or this bright yellow fleece pullover something that's easy to spot so you can
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move and clear land and keep going well this fleece that they were told he was last wearing was found by Barbara in
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the home and then later by police after they executed the search warrant turns out obviously this thing was in the
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house this whole time what's this more proof that they're Liars it's odd too that it was even left
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behind when they moved right like it this it seems like an oversight because wouldn't this be
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something you would try to get rid of if you realized after the fact oh this happens to still be here and I told
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everybody this is what he was wearing I don't think these are good people I think these individuals try to use the
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system well if we adopt these kids we're gonna get set fifteen hundred dollars a
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month as a stipend we're not going to really clothe these kids or take care of these kids we're not even going to try
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to pay for electricity or have Heating in the house and so to me it's not an oversight that's just what kind of
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people these people are they're lazy pieces of [ __ ] that don't want to work that don't want you know that don't want
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to care for people that they're going out of their way to take responsibility of these kids but they don't even want
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to take care of those kids they just want the stipend therefore they don't have to work as hard
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it also kind of reminds you of the Dior Coons case where they found an article of clothing in
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their home that he was supposedly wearing when last seen at the campsite yeah the police did submit this fleece
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for testing I don't know what really came of it there's not been much said about it
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since it was located right we did have this weird voice analysis thing and we've seen this in some other cases and
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this was brought in and gone about because remember Steven would not agree to the polygraph test so some people
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said you know you can use data using data to determine whether he was lying or not with this voice analysis stuff
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right so remember there was that strange interview that Stephen and Jocelyn gave
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to news 10. this was almost immediately after jaleek disappeared all right the one where they didn't really answer a
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bunch of questions correct well at the request of this fine julique task force that has been formed Texas equiseearch
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brought in two leading voice analysis experts to use a method called layered voice analysis which measures changes in
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voice frequency to detect truthfulness and analyze the interview audio voice analysis expert and private
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investigator TJ Ward said quote I have dealt with family members and this is not the way family members react to
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someone missing not at all end quote okay but what do you make of this bringing in this expert
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does it doesn't seem like a huge waste of time to you we already have evidence that this guy is a liar so why spend any
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more time on the fact that he's not truthful well you're grasping for straws here is what you're doing it's
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it's you know it's the task force bringing in these experts via Texas equiseearch what do you think it's in
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some way shape or form like well we know he's lying we know we've caught him lying multiple times right is this their
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way of if we bring them these experts and maybe they state that he's lying maybe that puts a little more uh heat on
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the fire a little more flame um a little more pressure on him to possibly come forward it's an
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interesting tactic because it's not the police bringing in these experts right and it probably didn't cost them
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anything to do this work and to publicly state that they are doing this work really you're as you stated turn up the
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heat a little bit shake some trees see what falls out maybe he maybe does feel the pressure
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and he goes and he talks to police I mean at some point in these investigations when you really feel like
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you have the person or know the person to be responsible for whatever act it is or misdeeds that it were done
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if you got nothing on him you got nothing on them right but you still have them there in the spotlight and they can
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react they can make mistakes we've seen this alleged and I want to be clear about that alleged behavior and actions
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of this man that don't seem to be well thought out or well planned and we've seen talk of him flying off
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the handle maybe you turn up the heat and he does something dumb right well he is dumb Barbara and Elaine uh
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angelique's other Advocates prayed that these type of things would bring charges
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against Stephen Curry but we have to keep in mind just like polygraphs this layered voice analysis the results of
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these are not admissible in court articles noting the one year anniversary of jaleek's disappearance stated that
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police were still meeting regularly to discuss the case and share any leads or tips that might have come in but the
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optimism was really fading around this one year anniversary I was just going to say they need to be doing searches
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around his father's cabin where they were at that night and then the cabin that they lived in with cadaver dogs
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and and I don't know if that has been done but those are the searches that need to be done they they were doing
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that early on within within the first hours and days of the boy having gone missing but the problem with all this is
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this is an area where there's a lot of wooded area right so it's a lot of ground cover yeah they did
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a five mile radius search with the assistance of many different agencies including the
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forest rangers the state forest rangers so around this first year anniversary we
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have Chief Bell who states that at this point there was really little that they could do they being the police other
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than investigate leads that were coming in and wait for a break in the case because they've kind of exhausted
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everything by this point the investigation he said had cost a fortune to that date putting the police
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department well over their budget the missing persons flyer issued they issued a new one around the same time
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Forge a leak by the state division of Criminal Justice Services it was updated at this time to reflect
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that jalik had not run away but had disappeared under unknown circumstances as for the parents the lawyer issued a
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statement saying that they continued to quote pray he is safe and will return home soon do
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you think the mother just doesn't know I think that if the mother knows what happened
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the only way she knows what happened is if she was told I don't think she witnessed anything firsthand or was a
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part of anything in regards to the first 24 hours or 48 Hours of the boy being missing right 18 months I agree uh into
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this thing roughly May 13 2009 police and state forest rangers searched the banks of the Baton kill
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River this is an area well it's it's an area that is called the hell hole and it's described as a swirling
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bulge in the river water cadaver dogs hit near this location and police were aware that Steve and kerr was very
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familiar with the area sounds like a lovely place oh because he's a [ __ ] bag that goes with hell hole right well the
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family would camp in this area and had been known to do so hey kids let's go at the old hell
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nothing was found in this search of the banks uh Chief Bell said we continue to get tips
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uh the interest has not died off we still want to find jalique this is all per news 10. and about a year and four
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months later investigators returned to this area again this time with State Police dive Crews on hand the water
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level of the Battenkill River fluctuated especially in the quote-unquote hell hole and it was often unsafe for divers
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quote it's a dangerous place to dive there is metal and rebar and other stuff down there said Chief Bell this is per
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the Times Union the chief described the site as a Gorge at the bottom of a hydroelectric Dam
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which leads to a Whirlpool a New York State Police spokesperson said that the dive team searched that specific area
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because of its proximity to a hydro electric Dam because of the water pressure created by
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the dam anything in the water there is pushed down into a very small area so I mean this sounded like a perfect spot
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to hide something to hide a body maybe the search unfortunately was fruitless or fortunately was fruitless
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in 2009 a hunter walking in the woods near Lake desolation in Northern Saratoga county
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found skull fragments on the ground it was determined that they were in fact human
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and they were deemed to be the remains of a child estimated to be 10 to possibly 12 years old
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it looks like at the time in 2009 Captain there were six missing persons cases in the area that would meet
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or could meet this criteria right law enforcement officials they jumped all over this of course and jaleek was one
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of the possible six missing persons that they thought it could be fortunately it
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was not him and some of their estimates were wrong with their findings it turned
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out that the skull was the remains of a 18 year old girl from Colorado her name Jennifer Hammond
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who went missing in August of 2003. in March of 2010 police released an aged enhanced
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portrait of jalique they had been prepared by the national Center for missing and exploited children
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police held a press conference announcing the release of this photo to the media Chief Bell said quote
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I'm hoping this might spark some interest in the parents to come forward it's two and a half years later and they
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act like this never happened they need to reach out and be cooperative with law enforcement end quote one thing I will
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really really want to commend Chief Bell and others that do stuff like this again
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we we have a situation where we look at it from afar and we can say it really points to two possible outcomes yeah
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maybe the boy ran away but we have evidence that the father is being less than truthful and is not
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being cooperative with police and by his own admission in everybody else's account as well he's the last one to
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have seen the boy one he has also temper issues and he can be violent so if the boy didn't run away this is your
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responsible person your responsible party right and one thing that I love about Chief Bell is anytime they have
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any reason to go to the media at all he's circling the wagons and saying hey we're putting out this information one
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for the public to help us out but two because we want the parents this is this is in efforts to get the parents to
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cooperate with us to talk with us to help us out now Captain we need to introduce
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somebody named Scott Thorpe age 37 okay and his involvement or non-involvement in this case I don't
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know how you want to look at it but he's certainly in my opinion a big part of the story because in April of 2010 Scott
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Thorpe kidnapped a man who owed him money for drugs he beat the guy up and showed him a
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photo of what appeared to be a dead body along with jaleek's missing persons flyer
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he told the guy that he beat up that he had killed the kid and he would do the same to this guy if he didn't pay up on
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his debts then he and his goons dumped this kidnap victim off in Kingsbury right a body in
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one of the photos is said to have some resemblance to jaleek and the victim was told that it was in
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fact jalik this is all per an investigator this was reported in the Times Union paper
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they said that police recovered all of these photos during a search of Scott Thorpe's house
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apparently this guy he fled the area he went down to Florida and was on the run for a while until the U.S Marshals
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caught up with him and arrested him in late June of 2010. douche On The Run yeah to use on the Run Thorpe was of
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course locked up and charged with the attempted murder and kidnapping and he was extradited back to Washington County
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where at that time he was being held for an eventual trial on the charges now investigators at the center for missing
00:23:25
and exploited children examined these photographs that were found in Thorpe's possession at his home
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and specifically the one that was thought to be jaleek their final ruling Captain was that it was not julique in
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that photo unfortunately any of the information out there to the public does not address who
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it was in the photograph or my thoughts maybe it was a doctored photo that it wasn't anything right like
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what Scott Thorpe was telling us it would be the good news is we know that whatever it was in that photo dead body
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or not it's not our missing boy Julie all right foreign [Music] foreign [Music] we are back cheers everybody thanks for
00:25:01
joining us what a frustrating case frustrating indeed cheers to all the people up front
00:25:10
people in the back come on spend up spend up I think I think you're just getting excited because you're heading
00:25:17
off on your vacation I'm gonna upset everybody before he's been drinking oh heavily all right Captain Captain we
00:25:27
mentioned the national Center for missing and exploited children several times throughout this case we've
00:25:33
mentioned them on the show dozens of times before not because not just because they've been involved in other
00:25:39
cases we've covered but also because we've encouraged people to seek them out and maybe offer up a little bit of
00:25:46
donation be it money or time because they are doing fantastic work they are working they're damnedest to bring
00:25:53
children home now in this case they've continued to support law enforcement and continue to help in the investigation
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in the search for jalique rainwalker we mentioned that the national Center for missing and exploited children created
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an age progression photo of jaleek but in 2012 that organization took on a larger role representatives of the ncmec
00:26:25
or Nick Meck as John Douglas likes to call it came to Washington County to undertake the daunting task of reviewing
00:26:33
the investigation and all of the evidence compiled by four one two three four law enforcement agencies that
00:26:43
investigated this case not not only are you good at computer you're good at counting I can also go 4321 in the
00:26:51
opposite direction the Knick Mac report turned out to be 80 Pages it was an 80 page report that was eventually released
00:27:00
to law enforcement investigators said that it opened up a few leads that would be pursued after working with the ncmec
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in late 2012 the Cambridge Greenwich Police finally changed the classification of jaleek's case
00:27:20
this is something you were pointing out and you've been you've been pounding the
00:27:24
desk and pounding the table and saying this is what we need to be doing here they changed the classification of
00:27:30
Julie's case from a missing child to a probable child homicide yeah at a December 2012 press conference
00:27:39
Chief Bell made the announcement that jalik was the victim of a quote probable child homicide not a runaway State
00:27:49
Police Major Crimes unit backed this up investigators acknowledged that they had
00:27:54
exhausted all leads in the case although they insisted that it was not a Cold Case at the press conference Grandma
00:28:03
Barbara and her husband both spoke about how painful it was to continue to have hope every day that jaleek was still
00:28:11
alive and yet to have no answers for all this time a plea was made to the public to help
00:28:19
find the missing boy authorities also requested that the media stopped disseminating the
00:28:27
old National Center for missing and exploited children's age progressed photos of jalik and the organization
00:28:35
took them off of their website this is weird right because earlier we are condemning the father for tearing down
00:28:44
the posters of the the prayer vigil and saying any publicity is good publicity but here we have law enforcement tearing
00:28:52
down their own photos and telling people to tear up the old age progression photos that we sent out they're doing
00:28:59
this because what they're saying at the time is all they are getting from these age progression photos
00:29:06
are false leads right they're spinning their tires they're out Chasing Ghosts well we see that a lot of times with
00:29:15
missing person cases even people that we know people that were close to authors that have gone up to other countries and
00:29:24
showed people pictures of a girl and and they get these leads and you think oh my
00:29:29
God it's going to be solved it's people misremember people want to see things that they
00:29:36
didn't see they want to help people are mostly good-natured people that want to help and uh they'll try to give you some
00:29:42
information that creates like you said a false lead well and also what you have here too is I I think is it's really
00:29:50
underlining what they believe it's really putting the exclamation mark on hey we no longer believe that we're looking
00:29:59
for a missing child yeah it's sad and although at this press conference there was nobody would
00:30:09
actually come out well Chief Bell did not actually come out and name any suspects but he did say
00:30:17
quote certain people have been eliminated and certain people have not yeah he said flat out that the police
00:30:24
have not received any cooperation from Stephen and Jocelyn and he pleaded with them to come in and sit down with him
00:30:33
the grandparents on the other hand well they did not mince words they said if you did nothing wrong and
00:30:41
you have nothing to hide why don't you cooperate with law enforcement to find your son these were the words of Dennis
00:30:48
Smith in response to the press conference Stephen and Jocelyn released the following statement oh they released
00:30:57
another note yeah well this is their this is the way this is their third note in the case that they're releasing well
00:31:04
their statement they they have a rebuttal or it at least it's not a no comment thing I I don't know what to
00:31:11
make of this you could take it either way either let's hear it either condemn them for dodging the media or
00:31:18
condemn them for releasing a statement I don't know what to make of it but they said despite everything that law
00:31:23
enforcement has had to say we know that he is out there meaning jalik and will return to us someday
00:31:31
we pray that the reclassification of the case will not result in the lessening of
00:31:37
efforts to bring jalik home to his family the statement also expressed objections to the discontinued use of
00:31:46
the age progression photo arguing that people needed to know who to look out for this is a statement one half of the
00:31:55
parties that provided this statement was a man that was tearing down posters for a vigil at one time yeah
00:32:04
I mean I don't know if they know how big of piles of [ __ ] they are of people this Jocelyn
00:32:14
that's the key to it all right is Jocelyn is what I think I think she now knows I think she might not have known before
00:32:25
but I think it may be a temper tantrum and one of his little rages that he slipped up
00:32:35
or maybe there was some evidence that he left behind because he's a lazy pile of
00:32:39
[ __ ] and he slipped up now she knows and now she's either scared and she feels like she has to protect
00:32:48
her children and other adopted child or or she's also afraid if she goes to police that they're not going to be able
00:32:55
to protect her possibly or what is he going to do because we know he's a known liar how much is he
00:33:03
going to throw her under the bus will he try to blame her for everything that has happened
00:33:13
these are are individuals that the kid goes missing and they've done nothing everything they've done every step that
00:33:23
they've taken is to muddy the waters and to me that's all that's all the proof we need
00:33:34
we're not you're not going to get anywhere unless you find his body but again I think in these circumstances
00:33:43
it's like you know that that's finding a needle on the haystack unless somebody comes
00:33:48
forward and says I know what happened and I know some details and I could lead you to an area that could be easier
00:33:56
searched I think but this this son of a [ __ ] ain't going to come forward and say [ __ ]
00:34:02
so maybe one day it's going to wear on her more and more because these are her parents that are coming
00:34:11
out saying you guys are awful people right and if you had nothing to do with this be cooperative with the police the
00:34:19
these are her her parents that is going to wear on her and grind on her and it should
00:34:28
it should wear on you and whatever God or whatever you think you pray to that [ __ ] ain't gonna help you and when you
00:34:36
get to the other side you're just going to burn in hell for all your sins that's
00:34:40
what I think I don't I don't know that they're trying to muddy the waters it their actions to me look more like
00:34:50
pretend the water doesn't exist I mean it's right from the get-go right from Jump Street Grandma's over at the house
00:34:58
and she's saying they're acting like nothing happened they're like they're more concerned about a doctor's
00:35:05
appointment and going to a birthday party and should they feed me some breakfast it's it's like as soon as he
00:35:12
was gone regardless of how he was gone right even if the kid ran away there was no there
00:35:19
was no almost even no mention of it to her like like they they called her and told her this is what's going on she
00:35:27
shows up wants to help and they're they're concerned with other things and it's been that way since the the minute
00:35:33
that it happened yeah but hold on that's that's what I'm saying though it's kind
00:35:37
of weird because it is both happening at the same time it's back to Forrest Gump
00:35:41
it's both happening at the same time yes acting like nothing happened completely but also oh by the way we
00:35:48
found this note that suggests that he ran away now I might have gave him that as a
00:35:53
homework assignment but I I can't remember that but he probably ran away now let's act like nothing happened and
00:35:59
let's do that for a time period okay now things are getting a little hot in the kitchen here's some other random note
00:36:06
that is typed saying that he's alive or he's fine I I believe wholehearted or wholeheartedly that they're responsible
00:36:16
for that note and so yes I agree with you there's there's a definitely there's these
00:36:21
moments of let's just act like this kid never existed right but I think there are these times where they're they're
00:36:28
throwing wrenches in you know into the keys to muddy the water in regards to the anonymous letter
00:36:36
that shows up to Media I don't know man that's just a weird thing it's it you could see it being the
00:36:44
parents because they chose to send it to the media I could also see it being just
00:36:48
a complete hoax yeah I mean we have the attorney saying hey there's there's stuff in there that only jaleek
00:36:55
would know that doesn't mean anything that's that man's opportunity in uh and the parents opportunity to say see
00:37:05
we told you so even even if they didn't mail it they go oh we got lucky some some weirdo decided to mail in an
00:37:12
anonymous letter to the newspaper I would like to talk to a major newspaper and ask him how many Anonymous weirdo
00:37:19
letters do they get on the rag right like is what's what do you put the what do you put the Mark at the quota is is
00:37:26
it somewhere a couple a couple a week yeah one once a week I would imagine back in the day that was it was more
00:37:32
often but in late 2013 what was interesting here is that rumors started to swirl that there was an arrest in
00:37:40
this case that was going to be happening and soon but Chief Bell said that there
00:37:47
was no truth to these reports so we got all excited and worked up for nothing yeah half chub you know what seemed to
00:37:54
spawn these rumors was the current Washington County D.A announced on the anniversary of jaleek's disappearance
00:38:02
they he believed a prosecution for jalik's murder could go forward he didn't name anyone but reading
00:38:11
between the lines here this likely meant that he believed that there was sufficient evidence evidence to bring
00:38:17
charges against Stephen Kerr now it's important to note that this public statement was issued in the middle of a
00:38:25
bid for re-election which the D.A did not win the current one did not win so when the new D.A took
00:38:32
over his office reviewed the police investigative file for the case but did not proceed with any prosecution citing
00:38:41
Double Jeopardy as the reason that the no body murder case should be put on hold until the evidence was Rock Solid
00:38:49
in the case then in 2018 the case well received a terrible blow we had uh the man who had headed up the
00:38:59
investigation from the beginning the man who refused to let the case die the man
00:39:04
who never gave up on finding jalik Chief George Bell very sadly he passed away suddenly in March of
00:39:13
2018. according to the Times Union in his 39-year law enforcement career Chief Bill had never missed a day of work
00:39:26
39 years work in law enforcement Chief Bell never missed a day of work he had been having flu-like symptoms
00:39:35
leading up to this and he died of a heart attack after leaving a hospital in Bennington Vermont
00:39:43
in 2019 an article in The Post Star says jaleek's disappearance spawned one of the most in-depth investigations by a
00:39:54
local state and federal officials in Washington County in decades and even after 13 years a group of investigators
00:40:03
continued to work on the case according to the same publication Washington County district attorney Tony Jordan's
00:40:11
office has been reviewing the evidence police amassed which was turned over to his office in the spring of 2018 shortly
00:40:20
before Belle's death they are cautiously assessing the material in the file with an eye toward
00:40:27
possible prosecution this here is another bizarre thing in this case here Captain you gotta wonder
00:40:35
how strong is any of this evidence how strong is any of this case what do they have what could they
00:40:42
possibly have is it a case where it's just minus the body right and once we find that boom we're
00:40:50
moving forward with charges so this guy should be on the edge of his seat at all
00:40:54
times he should be very afraid because we are one piece away from convicting this guy and putting him away for a very
00:41:01
long time or is this posturing to try to get this dude to make a mistake but again he's pretending as nothing has
00:41:09
happened I think there's a lot of stuff out there in the open against the son of
00:41:15
a [ __ ] so what do they have behind closed doors let's say it's equal to now we got a pretty strong case but that we
00:41:23
always know that they're weak cases if you don't have a body so let's focus on that
00:41:29
find the body once you find the body then you can bring this bastard to trial and you can spend the rest of his life
00:41:36
Behind Bars and once you figure out that his wife knew about it she could spend the rest of her life behind bars as well
00:41:45
see I don't know that I share that same opinion I don't know that I believe that
00:41:49
Jocelyn is convinced that Stephen did something and I say that because her actions
00:41:57
before the boy went missing were to protect the children in the house she even complained to others her
00:42:06
mom and other people that Stephen wasn't behaving or parenting the way that she wished that he would right so for me I
00:42:16
kind of look at it and go I I really wonder if she truly felt that he had done something that all the other
00:42:24
children are potentially in danger as well now we would know based off of the ages
00:42:31
that we listed earlier that here in 2020 all of these kids would be adults now they would be young adults but they
00:42:40
would be adults but still you would have a period of over 10 years to be concerned that he
00:42:48
could do something to one of these other children and I always like to to rely on the
00:42:55
previous actions of of an individual will usually lead you to what their future future actions and behavior will
00:43:02
be and that's what we saw on the outside looking in before in regards to Jocelyn
00:43:09
I'm not so naive to believe that she doesn't maybe at some level suspect something
00:43:15
but what I truly think is going on here is one of two situations well I shouldn't say that because here I
00:43:23
go here I go narrowing myself to two situations when immediately a third popped into mine let's say and you've
00:43:30
been hinting at this a little bit along the way and I can can agree with this a little bit there is a chance that
00:43:37
there's something so much more horrible under the surface going on that that never reached any of
00:43:46
the public never reached anybody that knew these people that there's just some really bad horrible stuff going on and
00:43:52
it had been going on for a very long time there is always that small possibility
00:43:58
that that is a truth however where I lean with this case and I'm going to go a little glass half full
00:44:05
and a little glass half empty at the same time okay why are we laughing I don't even
00:44:14
know what that means well you will when I finish my thought so where I'm going with this is one of two things I think
00:44:20
is probably likely here either a jalique did run away and his adoptive father was
00:44:32
kind enough and concerned enough please hear the sarcasm in my voice to give him
00:44:38
enough time and opportunity to get as far away as possible so that he could not find the boy and nobody else could
00:44:46
find him and return him to the household if that did not happen I feel like he's convinced his wife that
00:44:54
that's what happened all right so do you want to know what I think sure I think we all know what I think so we don't
00:45:03
have to go over it right well this the you know that I I think he's responsible I think she knows or or like you said
00:45:13
there's something maybe it's it's the way he told the story one time maybe it's her finding the jacket that he
00:45:21
claimed that that he would he would have been in when they're looking for the kid
00:45:26
I think there's something in her deep down and her gut that's telling her this guy murdered a child
00:45:37
and I've been supporting him again maybe also in a sense if I'm here that I can protect my
00:45:45
children but um but it might not be a confirmed knowledge but I think I'd be really interested to see what
00:45:55
they have behind closed doors what evidence that they have that hasn't been shown to the public
00:46:01
and but I think it's really going to take finding a body in order to bring the charges against this individual that
00:46:10
need to be brought against him yeah and I think you're hitting on something really interesting there Captain because
00:46:15
there's a lot of gray area and there's a lot of what we do not know about Steven's cell phone that they were
00:46:24
tracking that night we know that they were tracking it okay we know that they believe he was out driving that gold
00:46:31
minivan around that night I have to believe with all these swirling rumor rumors that they keep
00:46:40
going back to time and time again every so often that we have evidence to prosecute we might an arrest might be
00:46:49
happening soon I wonder if they have more information that's based around that cell phone and
00:46:56
based around activity that they know took place with that gold van that night and here is a statement from a former
00:47:04
State Police investigator who's now retired and he was involved in this investigation for six years or so and he
00:47:16
said that there was significant he used the word significant significant evidence in the case that has not been
00:47:23
revealed publicly and he went on to say that the national Center for missing and
00:47:29
exploited children when they reviewed the case years earlier that we reported on uh in this episode he said they
00:47:36
deemed it to be quote prosecution ready so you have to wonder yes are they just looking for that one final piece now
00:47:46
this is a case that that more than just as much as any case out there but more so than than a lot of them needs
00:47:56
the Public's help we need information from the public and if anybody knows anything at all in
00:48:05
regards to their suspicions about Stephen their suspicions about where Julie could be or what could have
00:48:11
happened to this young boy then they need to come forward it's been too long and report this and point law
00:48:20
enforcement in the right direction please again anybody with information they're asking that you contact either
00:48:28
the New York State Major Crimes unit or the national Center for missing and exploited children and we'll have those
00:48:36
numbers posted for you on our website at truecrime garage.com on the blog for jalique rainwalker's case
00:48:48
foreign [Music] off the record check us out on Stitcher premium also if you would like to check
00:49:04
out our old episodes they're all for free on the Stitcher app just go to the iTunes Store download the Stitcher app
00:49:10
and listen to all the old catalog for free and before we wrap up we have a little recommended reading this week we
00:49:17
have a really good one as always it's called Hellhound On His Trail the stalking of Martin Luther King Jr and
00:49:25
the International Hunt for his assassin this is by Hampton sides he's a best-selling author Hellhound On His
00:49:34
Trail is an intense narrative about the assassination of a great man and great leader Martin Luther King Jr and one of
00:49:42
the largest man hunts in American history that led investigators to Canada Portugal and England so check out
00:49:50
Hellhound On His Trail by Hampton sides and you can find that title and many more at True Crime garage dot com on the
00:49:59
recommended page and until next week be good be kind and don't litter thank you foreign

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 65
    Most intense
  • 60
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • Blame It on Jerry Gergich
    A light-hearted moment where blame is humorously shifted to a character named Jerry.
    “Blame it on Jerry Gergich!”
    @ 00m 51s
    November 12, 2022
  • A Grandmother's Concern
    Barbara Smith publicly calls out her son-in-law, believing he knows what happened to Jaleek.
    “I believe that Stephen is the only one who knows what happened to Jaleek.”
    @ 02m 52s
    November 12, 2022
  • Voice Analysis Expert's Insight
    A voice analysis expert comments on the unusual behavior of family members in missing persons cases.
    “This is not the way family members react to someone missing.”
    @ 11m 38s
    November 12, 2022
  • Search for Jaleek Continues
    Despite fading optimism, police continue to investigate leads in Jaleek's case.
    “The interest has not died off; we still want to find Jaleek.”
    @ 17m 22s
    November 12, 2022
  • Scott Thorpe's Disturbing Actions
    Scott Thorpe kidnaps a man and shows him a photo of a body resembling Jaleek.
    “He told the guy he killed the kid and would do the same to him.”
    @ 22m 02s
    November 12, 2022
  • National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
    They are working tirelessly to support law enforcement and help find Jaleek Rainwalker.
    “They are doing fantastic work to bring children home.”
    @ 25m 48s
    November 12, 2022
  • Change in Case Classification
    In December 2012, Jaleek's case was reclassified from missing child to probable child homicide.
    “They changed the classification of Jaleek's case from a missing child to a probable child homicide.”
    @ 27m 30s
    November 12, 2022
  • Grandparents' Plea
    At a press conference, Jaleek's grandparents urged Stephen and Jocelyn to cooperate with law enforcement.
    “If you did nothing wrong and you have nothing to hide, why not cooperate?”
    @ 30m 48s
    November 12, 2022
  • Significant Evidence Exists
    A retired investigator revealed that significant evidence in the case has not been publicly disclosed.
    “The national Center for Missing and Exploited Children deemed it to be quote prosecution ready.”
    @ 47m 36s
    November 12, 2022
  • Hellhound On His Trail
    A gripping narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the manhunt that followed.
    “Hellhound On His Trail is an intense narrative about the assassination of a great man.”
    @ 49m 34s
    November 12, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • This is not a good dude.
    Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 2 /// 419
  • This is all per news 10.
    Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 2 /// 419
  • I'm hoping this might spark some interest.
    Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 2 /// 419
  • If you did nothing wrong and you have nothing to hide, why not cooperate?
    Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 2 /// 419
  • These are her parents that are coming out saying you guys are awful people.
    Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 2 /// 419
  • Finding a body is the key to bringing charges against this individual.
    Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 2 /// 419

Key Moments

  • Welcome00:40
  • Family's Plea02:52
  • Search Efforts03:58
  • Frustrating Case25:05
  • Support for Missing Children25:48
  • Grandparents' Plea30:48
  • Missing Person Appeal48:22
  • Book Recommendation49:34

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown