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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
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with me as always is the least attractive guy on the podcast. He is the captain.
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I failed to see your humor, my friend. It's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks
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for telling a friend. Tonight we are drinking Metal by Trillium Brewing Company in beautiful
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Boston, Massachusetts. Garage Grade, four and a half bottle caps out of five. This is a great beer for all you hop
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heads out there. With 8.4 ABV, this is a very hoppy and dry Imperial double with
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hints of tangerine, white wine, and all wrapped up with a smooth dry finish. And
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Metal was brought to us by these smooth criminals. First up, a big shout out and
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thank you to Nicole and Adam who sent some love to us via airmail. I'm friends with them on Untappd. So, thank you to
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Nicole and Adam. And a big shout out to Kristen from Centreville, Virginia. Next up we have
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Nicole. Oh, this is another Nicole from Groton, Connecticut. And a big shout out to legendary, the
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legendary, Joel and Jimmy. Uh, no shout out to Jimmy because uh he didn't want to donate with
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Joel. So, big shout out big like your jib to the legendary Joel. Also, a shout out to Windy in Wasola, Arkansas. I'm
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not going to read her note, but basically Captain, she is inviting you on a crime spree. Which
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which is funny, but it's also very much the opposite of what we are doing here. Well, I read the note. It's very very
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inappropriate. We also have Rebecca in Cornelius, Oregon. And last but not least, a big thank you to Joanne from
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Casey, Australia. So, thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge this week. And if you want to buy us a round
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for next week's show, go to truecrimegarage.com and click on the donate button. Full on,
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man. I can't thank you guys enough for retweeting, reposting, uh just spreading the word about the
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show on social media. It means a lot and it does help a lot. So, thank you so much. We like your jib.
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All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
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The family of a teenager murdered 34 years ago is making a new plea to solve that crime. They are frustrated now with
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the progress on the case and demanding answers from investigators. 10TV's Chuck Strickler has more on their new push for
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justice. Well, it is one of the oldest unsolved murders in Franklin County. We talked to
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the family of Bill Cammins a month ago on the 34th anniversary of his death. And today, Bill's sister continues to
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post tweets like these as if Bill were talking from beyond the grave. And she has only one goal, to never let Bill's
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voice go silent. I never wanted to be a best-kept secret for 34 years. I don't have a clue then
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or now. Kathleen Commins speaking for her brother Bill, a battle she says is going nowhere. He's not just a box of
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files sitting on a shelf gathering dust. You know, he had a future. He's 14 years
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old. He had his whole life ahead of him. Somebody decided to end it. Phil Commins
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was found just down the street from his house on January 7th, 1980. Years have passed, the case has grown cold, and she
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feels even today her family has been left out in the cold. It's frustrating trying to get answers, trying to get
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somebody to return phone calls, return emails, to get some kind of information. Here's one
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to the Franklin County Sheriff's Department. Says, "Please don't give up on me now." The Commins family says
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there were certain pieces of evidence found here at the murder scene. A knife, a beer bottle, and what could be the
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most significant, Bill's scarf that was used to strangle him. Now, a body fluid was found on that scarf, and the family
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says it was supposed to be tested for DNA last year, but they are still waiting for answers. There's got to be
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somebody that can do something. There's no reason to stop. There's always going to be some hope.
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And she will continue to pressure and publicize her plight in whatever way she can as the battle for answers goes on to
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find Bill's killer. If my murder has tormented you for decades, and deep down you know what happened to me, share.
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Now, Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott tells me that the DNA sample in question
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is so small that if they use it once to test, it may be gone forever. And that's
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why they are taking extra time to review it. He says his detectives will continue
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to work the case. Kathleen says an email from a detective promises a follow-up meeting with the family. She says she
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hopes that happens. In the meantime, these tweets, she says, will continue. On the evening of January 7th, 1980,
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14-year-old Bill CoMeans is helping his father work on the family car. He went two doors down to get his sister
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to walk home from a birthday party. This is Bill's little sister, Kathleen, who is only 9 years old. However, the party
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was not over. Kathleen does not want to come home yet and ask Bill to come back and get her later. Right. So, a good
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like a good older brother, he's going to come home and then he's going to tell his parents, "Hey, I'll go back and get
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her later. No big deal." And I think the way that this thing went down, Captain,
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is that Bill's father, Robert, and his mother, they the three of them were supposed to go to the mall that evening
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while Kathleen was at this birthday party. Now, they didn't go to the mall because the family car was not running
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properly. Uh and at this discovery, his father, Robert, and Bill decide that they're going to stay in the garage and
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work on the car. Mhm. Now, throughout this night, Bill will be helping his father and he even his father a cup of
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coffee. Um his two brothers, he has two older brothers. They're at home at this time
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along with their mother. All are presumably in the house. Now, after bringing his father a cup a cup of
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coffee for the second time, Bill goes out to the goes out of the garage and goes to the front porch front yard area
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of the property. Well, let's talk a little bit about this neighborhood. I mean, so this is Columbus, Ohio. So, we're
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pretty familiar with this, but those of you that aren't, uh if you've ever seen the show The Wonder Years,
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Mhm. um now, that show was set back in time a little bit, but similar, uh neighborhood.
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Yeah, I actually lived in this neighborhood at one point one time for about a year or so, and you've been out
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there to visit me during this time, and it's a small neighborhood. Mhm. Uh and to describe it to everyone,
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the the best way I would describe it is there's very few what I would call like straight roads. It's a lot of winding
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roads through this neighborhood, and all the houses are they're smaller homes, um and probably were built in the '60s
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and late '60s, I would guess. Um but, that gives you a picture of this neighborhood. Small homes, windy roads,
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the homes are pretty close together. Yeah, and when I was first looking into this case, I I thought there would
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probably be some confusion cuz, you know, this happened on a Monday, Mhm. but there was a birthday party.
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Yeah, well, So, what's up with that? Yeah, it's a strange evening to have a birthday party in my mind, but uh take
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note of this, people. I'm I'm being honest, shooting from the hip here, Mhm. cuz there are some parents out there
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that are like, you know what? My kid was born on January 7th, we have the party on January 7th. You know what? Take into
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consideration all your guests and do this thing on the weekend, please. Yeah, I don't know if that happens as much
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anymore. But, okay, so it's it's Monday night, working on the car. Last time they see Bill as he delivers this cup of
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coffee, and they're probably trying to settle in for the night. Mhm. And you they have work and school
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the next day, so uh where's Bill? Well, exactly, because Robert is done, Bill's father Robert is done working on
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the car at some point. He comes inside, he talks to his wife, he expects to see Bill inside the house, Bill's not there.
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Mhm. You know, she says the obvious thing, oh, I thought he was out in the garage
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with you. No, he must have went back to collect Kathleen from this birthday party. Right.
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They go down to the birthday party, Kathleen's there. Bill is nowhere to be found.
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They call this in to the local police department. Now, we said this was we said this is Columbus, Ohio, but this is
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outside of 270. So, 270 is the outer belt freeway that goes around Columbus, Ohio. Mhm. This is what would be called
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the west side. Um and it's typical back in these days that a small police department called
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New Rome uh might have actually been the police officers that would have responded to this call. Right, so we
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have a 14-year-old boy missing. And it's believed his father would later report that they believe that Bill was
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probably last seen about 20 minutes or so before they realized he was not at the house.
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Right, so not long after they report him missing, the police are there. They're going to surveillance the whole area for
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I I believe 9:45 or so. Yeah, around 9:45 the police are on the scene looking through the neighborhood. Billy's father
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and a neighbor and Billy's two brothers would end up finding Bill near train tracks at the end of a dead end street.
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Uh Bill is lying face down in a snowy ditch. His winter scarf is knotted tightly around his neck and he is
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unconscious. Uh this spot, strange enough Captain, is only about two blocks away from the family's home.
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And as we said, this is near train tracks. So, he's lying face down amongst, you know, trash, beer bottles,
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rusty car parts, that sort of thing. Uh Bill's brother Mike, using a pocketknife, cuts the scarf from Bill's
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neck. Uh Bill's father and older brother Bob perform CPR on the young man until the ambulance arrived. Bill was
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transported to a nearby hospital. Uh the hospital, this is called Doctors West. Uh it's maybe just two or three miles
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away, so a very quick drive to the hospital. But unfortunately, at the hospital, Bill is pronounced dead.
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Uh this would be around 11:00 p.m. at night. The cause of death was listed as strangulation. Law enforcement says
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other than the strangulation, there were no other signs of violence or a struggle, nor was Bill robbed. Upon
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arriving at the hospital, law law enforcement was working with two theories. Either Bill was murdered or
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this was some kind of suicide. Mhm. Now, it wasn't until April 22nd that they I don't even think they even said suicide,
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too. I mean, wasn't at some point they thought it was possibly an accident? Yes, you are exactly right. But but upon
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arriving at the hospital, these are the two theories that they're working with. Uh it wasn't until April 22nd that they
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released the coroner's report. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. Uh the cause of death was actually, you
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know, I said strangulation earlier, but the cause of death was actually cardiac arrest due to compression of the neck by
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ligature. Mhm. Um You know, I What does that mean? Okay, so basically, he has a heart attack
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because there's extreme trauma to the body. You know, you're cutting off the airway, he's unable to breathe, and this
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this brought upon this heart attack that ultimately killed him. Right, but that's probably by more force
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than if he accidentally, you know, tightened the scarf around his neck too tight.
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Mhm. It would probably because, you know, a lot more force on the neck might cause
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that heart attack as Yes. Is that correct? Yes. Well, I but I also want to touch upon something real quick
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here. Um you know, we said that this he went missing and was found unconscious on in January of 1980. It wasn't until
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April, late April of 1980 that the coroner's report was released. Now, I've heard a lot of people and read a lot of
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people stating that, you know, oh, it's the 1980s, they didn't really know what they were doing back then, and this was
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the cause for the delay of this coroner's report. I actually don't believe that to be the case at all. I
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think that they probably knew very quickly, within days of him arriving at the hospital, of what was the manner of
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death. Mhm. Uh I believe that what actually happened here, Captain, was there might may have been a dispute
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between the sheriff's department and the coroner as to the cause of death. Is there any other findings that the
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coroner finds? Yes. Uh a toxicology report shows Valium in Bill Coen's blood. Mhm. But other than that, there are no
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signs of personal drug use by the 14-year-old. Now, law enforcement are not sure how Bill got the Valium or why
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it was in his system. The coroner uh publicly declares the death a very bizarre case, and we're
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going to see why very quickly. Because it was quickly reported after his death, after the young man's death, that on two
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previous occasions, uh the first being in September and then again in October of 1979,
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Bill was attacked by two unknown males and he was choked on both of these occasions. Bill Coen, as we said, he's
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14 years old. And I want to paint a picture of Bill for you. Now, 14 sounds very young. I've seen pictures of Bill,
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and Bill is 6-ft tall, about 175 lb. Uh he's a freshman at Westland High School.
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He's, you know, from all accounts, he's the the teachers say he's a perfect student. His parents say he's a perfect
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child. Um he played the piano. He was in the school choir. He was a newspaper boy. Yeah, he he had
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a newspaper route for some time. Now, I do want to touch upon this uh 6-ft tall,
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175 lb because I've seen pictures of Bill. Mhm. He does not look 14 years old to me. He he looks seven 17 or 18. He
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looks almost like a grown man. You know, when you picture a freshman in high school,
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you don't So, typically don't think to see somebody 6-ft tall, 175 lbs. So, he's a He's a tall, big kid.
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Let's talk about these attacks that took place in September and October of 1979.
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Now, Bill received some threatening notes at school. It's reported that he received three to four notes that were
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found in his locker. These were given to detectives eventually. Some of these were typed, some were
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written, and some were cut from pieces of magazines. Now, Bill's best friend and his girlfriend also received a note
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in their lockers. These notes were typed in red ink. One saying that blood will spill,
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another saying it's it Bill has 3 months left. So, PS, make the best of it. The The note that said that Bill had 3
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months left is the note that was delivered to his girlfriend's locker. Well, it seems like somebody has way too
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much time on their hands. The other thing, Cap, and there is one note that was found at Westland High School after
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Bill's death that says, "You are next." Signed with a red S. This is according to Bill Cormin's parents, but I also
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want to state that the deputy Hold on a second. So, there was another note that was delivered after his death
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that says, "You are next." We don't know if it was delivered after his death. It
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was found at the high school after his death. Now, the tricky thing here is So, it wasn't delivered to anybody.
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That's what I'm trying to get at. Um I do Here's where there's a big problem. There's little details about this note,
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and that is because we have Bill Cormin's parents saying that this This note was found after his death at
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Westland High School. We have the sheriff's deputies who would not discuss this item, nor would they confirm even
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having found this. Right. So, we don't even know if it exists. So, it's Yes, it's in big big-time
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dispute here whether this this thing was real or not. Played the base big time. So, I want to
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talk about these assaults. The first took place on a Wednesday. This is September 5th, 1979 at approximately
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8:30 p.m. Bill was on his way home from a friend's house. He decides to cut through the woods behind an elementary
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school. Bill is on his bike. He's riding his bike. He's on a trail that's about 50 yards
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behind the school when he is knocked off of his bike by what he would say is two
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men that were unknown to him. Um they approached him from behind. Once they attacked him, they tie a plastic garbage
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bag over Bill's head and wrap a bicycle inner tube around his neck. Bill almost blacks out from this attack, but
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eventually he starts to break free before he can black out. When he when this happens, these two dudes that
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attacked him in the woods took off. When Bill gets home, he has obvious signs of bruising.
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The police are called regarding the attack. The attack is reported, but the the police go to the scene. They find
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Bill's bike. They find the inner tube, and they find the bag that was placed over Bill's head. They found a note
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there saying, "He was warned." Uh Bill was unable to describe the two men that assaulted him.
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Okay, so normally you could be able to tell right away the individuals were black or white.
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Mhm. So, he's not able to say that? find any reports where they they say, you know, these are white guys, these
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are African-American guys. Um really there's no description of these people at all as far as public
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records go. Well, normally too, it's like you might not be able to tell if the guy is 16,
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you know, the person that attacked you if they were 16-year-old or if they were but you can normally, you know, break it
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down and go, "Well, they're in their 20s or 30s." That's one of the frustrating one of the
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many frustrating things regarding this case. And and what if Bill knew and just was afraid to actually
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state anything? There's a lot of speculation regarding that. Let's talk about the attack that took place on
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Monday, October 22nd, 1979. This is the second assault and you could you could possibly call this the
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attempted murder of Bill Coen's. This takes place at approximately 6:30 p.m. Bill is out collecting money.
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Like the captain said, he had a newspaper route. Mhm. And he was going door-to-door to
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his different customers and he's collecting money. Now, he's not on his bike this evening. He's on foot. He says
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that at some point while he's out collecting money, two men who were driving an older model vehicle,
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he described this as aqua or turk-turquoise in color. Two men jumped out of a car and they jumped him from
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behind. Mhm. They attack him and then tie a rope around his neck and throw him into some bushes. Billy loses
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consciousness and he blacked out for about 5 to 6 hours. Once he regains consciousness, Bill walks home and he
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arrives around 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. that morning. Bill has rope burns on his neck. He has a gash on his face and
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broken blood vessels on his face as well. You know, obvious signs that this guy was choked and knocked out. Bill
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files a police report and describes the assailants as two white guys in their late teens or early 20s. He's also taken
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to the hospital at this time where his injuries are noted. This was probably part of the police report.
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And so he's two He's attacked twice. Both times the police investigate, a report is filed and at least one of
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these occasions he seeks medical attention because of the attack. Bill would ultimately end up quitting his
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paper route. I understand why and just four days after filing the report, Bill is asked to take a
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polygraph test. Now, he has to take this test. This is at the BCI office, the Ohio BCI office, which is in London,
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Ohio. Mhm. There's a lot of questions about these two attacks. The the sheriff's
00:21:27
department and let's let's kind of clear this up a little bit because I said earlier the New Rome Police Department
00:21:34
would more than likely be the ones responding to the missing report of Bill from January of 1980. Mhm.
00:21:42
New Rome is a tiny little tiny little area and they only had part-time police officers back then. It's bigger than
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parts unknown, but it is tiny. Yeah, and the best way to describe these police officers, picture boy scouts in cop cars
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is pretty much the way I would describe the new New Rome Police Department. They're part-time. They really only
00:22:03
issue traffic tickets. They don't really investigate any type of crime. Later, and I don't know that
00:22:10
There's probably a New Rome cop listening right now. Mad as hell. Well, there there can't be because New
00:22:16
Rome no longer existed. At some point it was absorbed by Prairie Township because
00:22:20
there. There you go. But if they had any type of major crime or an assault or anything like this, this is within
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Franklin County, Ohio. So eventually the sheriff's department would be called in
00:22:32
to investigate these different things, not the boy scouts that were issuing traffic tickets on West Broad Street.
00:22:39
Yeah, I'm sure I got a ticket from them before. Yeah, I I definitely received one and one thing I remember is they
00:22:46
they told me I had to pay in cash in person. And my ticket was for not having being
00:22:53
able to provide proof of insurance. I was pulled over for who knows what, but that ends up being the ticket. I didn't
00:22:59
have my insurance card on me at the date that I was pulled over. Now, in Columbus
00:23:04
and in most cities, you can just go to the court and prove that you had insurance at the time you were pulled
00:23:09
over and there's then they take away the ticket. My situation with New Rome was I
00:23:14
showed up, I'm like, "Look, I here's my proof of insurance." They're like, "We don't care that you have insurance. You
00:23:19
were pulled over for not having proof of it. You need to pay that ticket and pay
00:23:22
it in cash." I can't remember what I paid, but here's what I do remember. Part of the reason
00:23:27
why New Rome no longer exist Mhm. is they were writing all these tickets telling people they had to pay in cash
00:23:33
and then they they the government doesn't believe that New Rome was reporting all of these tickets being
00:23:40
paid or even issued. That they're basically pocketing the money. So, So, they got you. Yeah, many many good
00:23:47
reasons why New Rome is no longer around. But, let's let's go through this real quick, Captain. So, we have a dead
00:23:54
14-year-old boy, Bill Comings. He's found face down in a snowy ditch. Uh his scarf is tied tightly around his neck.
00:24:02
Death by strangulation. Exactly. And then we also find out that on two previous occasions this same
00:24:09
young man has been attacked by what he describes as two men who attack him and both times trying to
00:24:15
choke him to death. Yeah, first time trying to put a bag over his head and then tie the bag, you
00:24:21
know, tight. And then the other time trying to strangle him with a rope. Where he blacks out for 5 to 6 hours.
00:24:29
Yeah, but did they report him missing that day? There's So, here here's a big problem with this
00:24:35
case. His parents are no longer around. Um they they both passed away, lived to be,
00:24:41
you know, in old age. Um his sister and brother are still around. Uh he had two brothers. I don't know about his oldest
00:24:50
brother, but his sister and brother to this day are very active in the case, keeping this case alive, searching for
00:24:56
answers. Good for them. Exactly. Um but however, his they were young at this time. His
00:25:02
sister was only nine. Uh his brother was a few years older than him. They are a little they're a little fuzzy about the
00:25:10
details of some of these things. And there's also been a lot of people that have kind of come out of the
00:25:17
woodwork saying, "Well, if my son was attacked on two separate occasions, I would have moved. I would have mortgaged
00:25:23
my home and Sure. to another neighborhood." Sure you would have. Okay, let's let's not fault these
00:25:30
parents. I don't find any fault in what the parents did or did not do. No. Okay,
00:25:35
let's be clear about this. The two times that he was attacked, both times it was
00:25:39
reported to the police. That's what you're supposed to do. At least one of those occasions, Bill received medical
00:25:45
attention, if not on both occasions. Right. Um so, I don't know what more you expect of parents to do. You you report
00:25:52
these things to the police and and then you know, you hope that the police are out doing their job. Well, yeah, but
00:25:59
with the police is the the victim is unable to describe these guys. Uh the best description that they get
00:26:07
out of two attacks is it it was a aqua turquoise car uh with some white dudes that may have
00:26:13
been in their late teens or early 20s. Yeah, but it kind of sounds like you're faulting Bill. I mean, again, I think
00:26:19
there's probably some reason that he didn't want to come forward with some information, but yeah, there's ways to
00:26:25
toughen up your kids, too. I mean, you could you could have sent Bill to the Cobra
00:26:29
Kai dojo. Yeah, but it's also I I'm not faulting Bill. What I'm saying is there's good chance he may not have he
00:26:36
couldn't provide a better description because he didn't know who these guys were. Uh he was attacked. Uh you've
00:26:41
talked about on this show several times what happens when you're knocked out. You might not remember things that
00:26:47
happened leading up to being knocked out. I don't know what happens when somebody's choked out or strangled like
00:26:53
that to the point of losing losing consciousness that they might might not be clear about what happened to them. Um
00:27:00
it's pretty easy then when you come to to be pulling the inner tube off of your neck and the bag off of your head and
00:27:07
realize that that's how you were choked or strangled. There is so much more to get into in
00:27:11
this case just heating up. We'll get right back to this right after this quick beer break.
00:27:31
All right. Cheers, mates. Cheers, full on, mates. Full on cheers, mates. Okay, so let's jump right back into this,
00:27:38
Captain, cuz this thing is this thing's pretty big, I think. Mhm. Let's take into account that the sheriff's
00:27:44
department they're currently investigating that Bill has been attacked on two separate occasions. This
00:27:49
is before he's found murdered or found dead at the end of that dead end street. They were also investigating the letters
00:27:58
that these notes that Bill received at at school. They were investigating all this before
00:28:04
he's found dead at the the end of that street. Now, after his death, the Franklin County Sheriff's Department,
00:28:11
the detectives, they're on record stating quote that we are interviewing persons close to Bill. And the reason
00:28:18
being is at this time they're still struggling to determine if they were dealing with a homicide or potential
00:28:24
suicide. So, for the first part of their investigation, they interviewed just about if not everyone that would have
00:28:31
known Bill. Uh they interviewed his family, his friends, and school officials. And they state they said
00:28:37
quote uh persons interviewed describe Bill as a perfect student, a perfect child, a perfect citizen.
00:28:43
So, I really firmly believe that they could come up with no apparent reason for his death whatsoever. Even though
00:28:50
they couldn't decide if this is a homicide or suicide, there's no reason for this 14-year-old boy to be dead.
00:28:57
And I believe that that is why that they waited so long to have the coroner release his report, ultimately ruling
00:29:05
the situation a homicide. More evidence is going to come in backing the idea that this is a homicide and not a
00:29:11
suicide because his neighbors are going to start getting threatening letters. This is a crazy thing, Captain, because
00:29:17
on July 21st of 1980, neighbors on Maple Drive start receiving threatening letters or notes.
00:29:26
We say Maple Drive, this is the same street that Bill and his family lived on. It's reported that 13 to possibly 19
00:29:34
notes of these threatening letters or notes were received by eight different families all very near the Comeyns home.
00:29:42
Some families received identical notes on the same day, some notes were mailed, some were delivered in person at night.
00:29:49
Notes were found on porches and on cars. So up until September of 1980, these notes were mailed, but the first note
00:29:57
that was delivered in person at night was discovered on September 9th, 1980. Police were looking at the handwriting
00:30:05
on these notes. The handwriting is described in two ways, two very different ways.
00:30:10
One being crudely printed, and there's also notes that are neatly penciled on pieces of cut out envelopes.
00:30:17
These notes are submitted for analysis which reveals that the letters were all written by the same person, even though
00:30:25
some crudely and some neatly. Right, but were these letters connected to the original letters?
00:30:31
Let's go through that because there is some wording of these notes that would make you believe that they could be
00:30:38
connected. And keep in mind, he's Bill Comeyns is receiving these threatening letters and then he's killed. Most of
00:30:45
these letters are brief. They're simply just three or four words on a lot of the
00:30:49
notes. The messages that were reported in the newspaper at the time were as follows. Parents should guard their
00:30:57
children carefully. This one is signed X. The next note is time is short. Now, I want to note here that seven different
00:31:05
girls and women in the neighborhood, which the ages range from seven all the way up to 50, received these letters
00:31:13
addressed to their name. Mhm. Some of the other notes said all have been warned. One said death in October. One
00:31:21
said you are next. And the other one said it's time. This one was left the night before Halloween.
00:31:29
This of course, you know, just some of the notes received because they didn't report all of them to the newspapers.
00:31:35
Police say that they did believe that the letter writer could possibly be the the killer of Bill CoMeans.
00:31:43
On November 2nd, law enforcement took the notes to Syracuse for a psychological profile of the letter
00:31:50
writer. Here's where things Well, that's kind of difficult too when the letters are so short. Yeah. Well,
00:31:57
here's the difficult thing too because in December of 1980 they arrest somebody for writing these
00:32:04
letters. A 54-year-old woman who lives on Maple Drive was arrested for writing the threatening letters. She wrote all
00:32:12
of them. So, how did they catch this crazy old bat? Well, remember they did the psychological profile and they've
00:32:20
not said this in the papers, but here's what I believe. I believe that what they
00:32:23
came up with in the psychological profile is that probably one of the persons that have received letters or
00:32:30
received the notes themselves Mhm. was the author of all of these notes. So, what they end up doing is they go back
00:32:38
and everybody that received a note, they asked them to submit a handwriting sample so they can compare it to the
00:32:44
notes found. Mhm, clever. So, 54-year-old, this is Aileen Toop. Uh she decides she's not going to submit
00:32:52
a handwriting sample to the police. So, they get a search warrant and they go to
00:32:57
where she works and they take items from her desk, basically taking, you know, collecting handwriting samples on their
00:33:05
own without her help. They determine that she wrote these letters based off of items that they found in her desk.
00:33:13
And the letters probably smelled like cats. Well, Aileen Toop was a state employee.
00:33:20
She worked for the Ohio Department of Taxation. She lived with her husband who was a retired mail carrier. This is
00:33:27
Willard Toop, 56 years old. had him deliver the letters. They had four adult children at this time when
00:33:35
she's arrested. One daughter and three sons ranging in age from 22 to 30. I believe the daughter was the youngest of
00:33:44
their children. They lived in their house on Maple Drive for 7 years. They knew the Comeyns.
00:33:51
Actually, Mrs. Comeyn describes Aileen Toop as a friend. Um and So, then why is she writing these
00:33:59
these letters? Because she's not really a friend, I'm guessing. This is This is after the fact that once it's discovered
00:34:05
that she was the writer, the mother states, Bill Comeyn's mom states, you know, she was once a friend, now she's
00:34:11
somebody I don't even want to see ever again. Mhm. Uh they lived smell. The way that the way that Bill's sister Kathleen
00:34:18
describes the neighborhood, um the Toops would have lived not directly across the street from them, but across
00:34:26
the street in a house over. Right. So, they lived very close to the Comeyns. A little more background on Alien Toe.
00:34:34
Um She She before she wrote the letters, before the letters started showing up, this is back in 1973 and 74, she had
00:34:42
several nervous breakdowns. Um after after being caught as the letter writer, she was diagnosed as having dual
00:34:50
personalities. She spent 3 weeks in a hospital. And then she got all better. Well, she was or her family was one of
00:34:58
the first people to receive these threatening notes. They took The notes were delivered between July 21st and
00:35:05
October 31st of 1980. She's caught for this in December of 1980. Mhm. So, she even participated in the
00:35:13
investigation in the sense that she spoke with police on several occasions and she also talked to the newspapers.
00:35:20
Uh when when the people in the neighborhood were receiving these notes, she told the Columbus Dispatch that this
00:35:26
is some kind of sick joke or somebody is ready to go off the deep end. That's what she's quoted as in the paper. She
00:35:33
told the police she was receiving threatening phone calls and prowlers were lurking around her home at night
00:35:39
and attempted break-ins to their home. Well, I wonder if maybe with the mental issues she was dealing with
00:35:46
if this uh because Bill was murdered, maybe this triggered something inside her and and again maybe she was friends
00:35:53
with the family and that that was a bigger trigger and therefore then she became mentally unhinged because of the
00:36:00
murder. So, but it's sad nonetheless. Now, law enforcement would end up proving that all the phone calls to
00:36:07
police, uh the the comments or the suspected prowlers or attempted break-ins to their home, they were all
00:36:14
false claims. All right, so what does she get charged with? Well, she gets charged with writing the threatening
00:36:19
letters. This I guess is a misdemeanor and she pleads no contest to this and receives a fine of $50.
00:36:27
Um, she fainted during the court proceedings. And like Just like Suge Knight. Yes, he has a he has a problem going to
00:36:35
court. Um Here's the weird thing though, Captain. Mhm. Uh, in as if it's not weird enough.
00:36:41
much weirder. So, I've read newspaper articles that came out in December of 1980 and her husband is interviewed with
00:36:50
her uh, regarding her arrest. He seems to be in her court. Uh, he has her back. Um, like we said, she probably has some
00:37:00
mental issues going on. The thing is though, she offers no explanation as to why she wrote any of
00:37:07
these letters. Eventually, law enforcement would say that she did not write the letters that
00:37:13
Bill CoMeans received before his death and stated that she is not a suspect in Bill CoMeans murder. The letters that
00:37:20
were received were received at people's houses or on the street. Um, the the letters that Bill received
00:37:27
were at the school. Mhm. In September of 1981, so over a year and a half goes by and after announcing the
00:37:35
menacing letter writer was not a suspect uh, in what the coroner called a very bizarre case and also Eileen Tope was
00:37:43
not considered a suspect in the threatening letters Bill had received before his death, the police still had
00:37:48
named no suspects. Couldn't find a motive for the murder of Bill CoMeans, but now in 1981, they're re-examining
00:37:57
the case and talking to the press once again. This time advance there's a there's a theory that starts to come out
00:38:04
a year and a half after the death of Bill CoMeans. Okay. And this is that he possibly died
00:38:09
of an accidental suicide by way of autoerotic asphyxiation. Law enforcement Okay. Law enforcement claims that the
00:38:17
investigation is ongoing at this time. However, uh, we have detectives detectives
00:38:23
stating publicly that they don't believe that Bill Cole means was murdered. The coroner at this time still has not
00:38:29
changed his ruling of homicide. The deputy coroner claims the ruling of homicide was given to keep the case open
00:38:37
that law enforcement were they were having trouble believing the stories uh regarding the first two attacks on Bill
00:38:43
Cole means and they are now telling the newspapers that Bill Cole means uh responses to the lie detector test that
00:38:50
they asked him to take before his death showed signs of {quote} significant attempt to deceive. Okay, a couple
00:38:58
things going on here. First of all, autoerotic asphyxiation, right? Mhm. So, this is where either during
00:39:04
sex, I guess, or during self-sex. Okay. I can't believe we're talking about this.
00:39:13
Uh but you'd be choking yourself and be and it would help uh you know, you climax. Okay. Right? So,
00:39:21
that's what they're stating they believe it's a possibility that he was choking himself with his scarf
00:39:28
um and then beating off uh by the train tracks? All right. Well, let's get into this.
00:39:34
This is the time where we have to get into all the speculation. Mhm. Because it's obvious that law
00:39:38
enforcement they don't seem to have a good idea, I think, on whether he's murdered or whether this was an
00:39:45
accidental death. What's pretty simple, was his pants found down around his ankles or or was his pants on? I'm going
00:39:52
to go off of what Bob has said. Bob is uh Bill's older brother. He was one of the people that found Bill face down in
00:39:59
that ditch that night. He states that as far as his memory goes that Bill's clothing didn't seem abnormal.
00:40:08
Um and to furthermore, the family's belief that he was murdered is Okay, so this is a cold night. There was
00:40:18
snow on the ground. Bill's wearing a winter coat. He's wearing pants, long pants. He's wearing big thick gloves and
00:40:25
a scarf, a scarf his own scarf that is tied tightly around his neck that probably caused this cardiac arrest that
00:40:32
he had. There's no sign of There's no sign of a struggle, but there's also no sign of
00:40:39
what you were just talking about, that your self-sex that you were just discussing.
00:40:45
Um Sorry. So That's inappropriate. Yes. Bill, you know, Bob, these are Bob's statements many years later. One
00:40:53
sad One of the saddest things about this is I've I've read Bob's stories and um you know, just the fact that he and his
00:41:02
father basically took turns performing CPR on Bill, trying to revive him. Yeah. Um Bob states that that Bill had vomited
00:41:12
because of the the strangulation. And that for many, many years Bob could still taste that in his own mouth
00:41:21
from having performed the the CPR. But there's all kinds There's so much things There's so many things to discuss
00:41:29
here. Okay, let's Well, I think this whole idea of this autoerotic asphyxiation theory is to me is just irresponsible.
00:41:38
Well, and and one thing that that would have your back on that is that a lot of people argue that the size of the gloves
00:41:45
he wore would have been that you wouldn't have been able to tie your shoelaces with these big thick gloves
00:41:51
on. That he wouldn't have been able to tie this scarf around his own neck. Mhm. Um
00:41:58
I have so many questions about this case. And this is one of these fascinating cases that you dive into and
00:42:04
you could go a million different directions with it. Um the first The first question I have is there's there's
00:42:12
some question as to when Bill still in life started receiving these threatening letters, these threatening notes.
00:42:19
Was it before the first time he was attacked or was it after the first time he was attacked? Um he was attacked on
00:42:28
September 5th of 1979. And the reason why I bring that up because that's a Wednesday. That would
00:42:35
have been the Wednesday after Labor Day. Now, back in the day, and you'll remember this, and I know that school
00:42:41
school years have changed throughout the years that a lot of kids start school early August or mid-August nowadays.
00:42:48
But back when we were kids, we would typically start school the week before Labor Day. And I used to love
00:42:54
that because they would kind of ease you into the school year because you would typically start on that Wednesday before
00:42:59
Labor Day. Mhm. So, you would go to school for 3 days, you would have a 3-day weekend,
00:43:05
you would go back to school for 4 days before you went to your first full week of school, which is week three.
00:43:11
So, I have to believe, I'm just going off of numbers here, that Bill probably started receiving
00:43:18
these threatening letters after the first attack. And I only say that because I believe
00:43:24
that having found them in his locker and his friends finding them in their lockers, that these letters would have
00:43:32
been delivered by somebody that had access to that school. This would be an upperclassman or a
00:43:37
teacher, somebody already in the school. Now, leading up to the first attack, Bill would have only been in school for
00:43:45
what? Five days? Five school days before the first attack? Right. Um and I do have confirmation
00:43:52
that that that school year is correct. Uh his sister would say years later when questioned about the whole incident,
00:44:00
that back then we started school the week before Labor Day. So, he wouldn't have been in school very
00:44:06
long before before being attacked. Right, which makes some sense because, you know, people get back from summer
00:44:12
break and then they're kind of rowdy. Mhm. So, that's you know, that makes sense. And I And I believe, you know, if
00:44:18
he was murdered, that the the people that they're looking for, the suspects, are going to be
00:44:23
members of that high school. Mhm. There were some reports that Bill might have been bullied by some upperclassmen. Now,
00:44:31
no one could give really specific incidents of him being attacked or being picked on at school other than there
00:44:38
were a couple people that said on more than one occasion during choir practice, you know, while he's at choir, there
00:44:45
were several upperclassmen that seemed to go to the choir room and kind of stare down some of the kids in the
00:44:51
choir. Yeah, because Bill being one of them. Right, because when you go to high school, you normally have like freshman
00:44:56
English class. Well, who's in freshman English class? Freshman. Right? Mhm. You have sophomore math class or
00:45:03
whatever. There's those classes that have a overlap. So, choir being one or like jazz band or like even gym class
00:45:10
sometimes would have a overlap. Right, so this would give Bill the opportunity to be in contact with some of these
00:45:17
upperclassmen. You're exactly right. Okay, so let's talk about these notes and let's talk about the things going on
00:45:24
at school. Um regarding the notes that he received before his death, these are items that are being held
00:45:32
somewhere in an evidence locker in the Franklin County Sheriff's Department. These are These are notes that his
00:45:40
remaining family members are a little unclear of and they're not actually certain that they've seen these notes.
00:45:48
So, Kathleen and Bob, who are active in this investigation, are not really able to clue us in as to what these notes
00:45:55
are. We have some vague descriptions of these notes, but like I said, some of them were written, some were typed, and
00:46:02
some were letters and words cut out of magazines and newspapers. Uh the sheriff's department does not comment on
00:46:09
these letters other than stating that they were investigating if Bill was the actual author of these letters.
00:46:17
Mhm. And I say that because remember the polygraph test that they gave Bill, that
00:46:23
they requested of him? Once they saw signs that he might have been deceptive during those polygraph
00:46:29
test, that's probably why they're starting to look at him being a possible author of these notes. One big question
00:46:36
I have regarding those notes are which ones were written, which ones were typed, and which ones were uh cut out of
00:46:42
magazines and received by whom? Mhm. You know, if all the handwritten letters and notes were received by Bill, and the
00:46:50
typed ones and the ones that are cut out of newspapers and magazines were received by his best friend and his
00:46:55
girlfriend, I would really wonder if Bill actually authored those those notes. Yeah, cuz one of the theories that, you
00:47:03
know, gets me is, you know, as far as the the autoerotic asphyxiation theory, doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but a
00:47:10
possible like, you know, maybe it was uh suicide mhm in the sense of, well, you know, whatever's going on in my
00:47:19
head, I'm going to go take a walk, and I got this scarf, and if I tie it really tight Mhm. and cut off my airway,
00:47:27
that uh and I throw these gloves on, that once it gets difficult to breathe, that maybe uh I won't be able to take
00:47:36
off the scarf. Mhm. That that would be my idea. And so, but then what if, cuz like what
00:47:42
the coroner said is, well, it was really the heart attack because of the So, what
00:47:47
if he tied the scarf super tight, he can't breathe, he has these gloves on, before it gets to the point where he
00:47:54
would probably struggle to save himself, you know, he he passes out. Mhm. And so that that is a possibility.
00:48:01
And like you said, if he's writing these letters, then maybe he's just writing these
00:48:06
letters or talking about these attacks that maybe never happened as a way to get attention.
00:48:13
Yeah, or to cover up some kind of thing that he was doing on his own. Mhm. I actually I don't think But what would
00:48:20
that thing be? I mean, you're just tossing that out as a overall blanket idea. Well, I'll get into that in a a
00:48:27
bit here because I don't think that suicide is the right word for any of this. I think that what we're dealing
00:48:33
with here is either a homicide or an accidental death. Um Mhm. not a suicide. So, there is one report that one of the
00:48:43
teachers at Bill's high school at Westland High School told law enforcement that at one point Bill had
00:48:49
asked that teacher how to pass out, how to make yourself pass out. Mhm. I couldn't find I don't know how
00:48:56
credible this is. Um this is something that I found on a website somewhere. I didn't find it in a newspaper. I
00:49:03
couldn't find any other reports of this actually being a real thing. Okay? But what I'm
00:49:10
getting at here is that possibly could have happened. He could have asked somebody that or could have had these
00:49:17
weird conversations maybe with some of his friends. Now, Kathleen and Bob, they don't believe that a good number of his
00:49:23
friends were interviewed about this. You know, we have the law enforcement stating that, you know, we talked to
00:49:28
everybody that knew Bill. Um and they say that a lot of his friends weren't spoken to by the police. I don't know
00:49:34
what information they could offer, um but here's here's where I have a problem with this being a homicide.
00:49:43
The first thing is that the parents state that Bill would have not left the home without telling them where he was
00:49:50
going. And I believe this. I believe this because everybody that's been in the newspaper, anybody that knew Bill
00:49:57
has always said he was extremely close with his family and his parents, and he was also
00:50:03
a very responsible kid. You know, we talked about him being a good student and talking about him having a paper
00:50:08
route. Uh so, I believe this. So, their statement to the sheriff's department is
00:50:13
this has to be a murder because he would not have committed suicide. And Bill would have had to have been abducted
00:50:19
from either their front porch or from their front yard because he wouldn't have left on his own. Right.
00:50:26
But, there's a few problems I have with this. The one being that that these homes are close together. They're
00:50:31
small homes. They're small lots. Uh this this area, when I lived there 15 years ago, was a very quiet area at 9:00
00:50:41
at night, especially during the week. Mhm. If Bill was abducted, you would think
00:50:46
that somebody would have heard something. That there might have been a struggle. Bill's 6-ft tall, 175 lbs. Uh
00:50:54
I I feel his father's in the garage with the door open working on the car. Mhm. It almost seems to me like if he
00:51:02
was abducted, all Bill would have had to do, especially after having been, you know, in two situations like this
00:51:09
before, already being in fear, all he would have had to do was shout out or yell or scream, and his father would
00:51:15
have heard him or a neighbor would have heard him. So, I have a problem with the
00:51:20
family's thought that he was abducted and then later found strangled to death. And I'm going back to the first two
00:51:28
attacks as part of this problem. One being the night that he was coming home from his friend's house where he was
00:51:34
attacked in the woods and somebody places a bag over his head and an inner tube around his neck to
00:51:41
choke him out. I have a problem with the inner tube. That seems like a strange thing for an attacker to bring to an
00:51:48
area in the woods maybe lying there waiting for somebody? I mean, how would you know that
00:51:55
the letters to me if Bill's receiving threatening letters, it almost seems like Bill is targeted. Maybe he was
00:52:01
targeted after this first attack. I don't know. But having the inner tube there seems like a strange thing. It
00:52:06
doesn't seem like a strange thing to me with somebody being on a bike. Bill might have had an inner tube. You know,
00:52:11
a lot of people will bring an inner tube with them in case they get a flat tire out somewhere. They can change the tire
00:52:17
themselves and ride home. Well, right. So, you're saying that possibly he's playing like the blackout game. Yes, or
00:52:24
something of that nature. That that he was getting a some kind of high or or maybe this was something taught to him
00:52:30
by a friend. This is pretty common actually. I I'd say probably every generation that
00:52:36
people go through this period of, you know, the the blackout game or the fainting game, speed dreaming. There's a
00:52:42
bunch of different names for it. So, let's go back to the first attack. I've looked at where that school in the woods
00:52:49
behind the school are located. Mhm. And I know where his friend's house was and I know where his home was.
00:52:55
Deeper. The woods was actually out of his way. And he did not need to go through the woods to get home. First of
00:53:01
all, second of all, it was not a shorter route. You know, like kids often would take shorter routes, cut through
00:53:08
people's yards and cut through the woods. I get that. Yeah, but it would have been faster for him to
00:53:13
take the the roads from his friend's home to his house. It was completely out of the way. Yeah, but maybe he just
00:53:20
preferred it. I get that. I get that, but it seems strange. And then second of all, we have the
00:53:25
second attack. He's out on his own and he's unaccounted for for 5 to 6 hours. Mhm. That seems strange to me, too. I I
00:53:33
have so many so many issues with with this case. Claiming that you're attacked while
00:53:37
you're collecting money for your paper route might give you an not to have a paper route anymore. And on none of
00:53:44
these occasions was he robbed. And on the two occasions that he comes home from these attacks, there's nothing on
00:53:51
his clothes to indicate any type of struggle other than the bruising on his neck and that this this poor kid was had
00:53:59
passed out or was unconscious for some period of time. Right, but how do you explain these
00:54:04
marks? Could he could have choked himself. He could have blacked out himself. No, no, that's what I'm saying. But what
00:54:10
I'm saying, let's say you're trying to play the blackout game. You're just curious, right? Maybe you played the
00:54:14
blackout game with your buddies and you're like, you know what? That was kind of weird weird feeling. I kind of
00:54:19
want to experience that again. I mean, again, he's a 14-year-old boy. I mean, we do some dumb stuff, you know? So,
00:54:27
he's sitting there and he's like, okay, I want to try this by myself. Then he goes home and they're like, what the
00:54:32
hell's on your neck? Right? And then he's like, well, what happened was I was attacked and that's what was happening.
00:54:39
And then what he did was, well, I'll make up these notes cuz then if I make up these notes, then that covers my
00:54:45
tracks even more. Yeah, the first attack is weird because the police do go to that spot in the woods and they find the
00:54:51
bicycle, they find the inner tube, and they find the bag. Everything that Bill said would be there was there. Why would
00:54:57
he leave his bike? Maybe he came to and and panicked and and freaked out and just went home on foot. And like you
00:55:05
said, now he's at home, he's got to he's got to explain for his whereabouts, he's
00:55:09
got to explain why he doesn't have his bike. Um now we also have the situation where he's coming home from his paper
00:55:15
route. He's unaccounted for for 5 or 6 hours. He comes home and he looks like he's been attacked as far as the choking
00:55:22
goes. Um and now he's got to explain to his parents why they have to take him to the
00:55:26
hospital. I just don't see any sign of abduction or struggle or attack other than this
00:55:33
choking thing. The rumors of a abduction really kind of came after. Mhm. And then we have the Valium. Why was
00:55:42
there Valium in his system? That's strange to me, too, but I I don't think that anybody would have made him or
00:55:48
forced him to take Valium and then kill him. Mhm. That doesn't make any sense to
00:55:53
me. I He He would have died or been close to death pretty quickly after having been, quote unquote, abducted
00:56:00
from his front yard. I don't know how much time it would take Valium to get into his system, but I think this is
00:56:05
something that he took on his own. I wouldn't be surprised if this was something that was We could find no
00:56:11
reason that it was prescribed to him, but we're talking about 1979 and 1980. Is there a possibility that when he was
00:56:18
seeking medical attention for the second attack that a doctor he he received a shot that night, according to his
00:56:25
sister. Is there a chance that a doctor said, "You know what? Here's some of these
00:56:29
Here's some of these pills, and when you're feeling weird, Bill, or not feeling good about things, you can take
00:56:34
one of these, and it'll help you relax." Mhm. So, there's a possibility he could
00:56:38
have received those from an actual doctor or hospital, but not actually have been prescribed the medicine. We
00:56:45
don't have Bill's parents around anymore to verify how he would have received that Valium, nor could I find anything
00:56:52
from his parents discussing the Valium in the newspapers at the time. Well, you were telling me earlier about
00:56:57
an interesting point about the second attack. Yeah, the the one thing about the second
00:57:01
attack, remember he states that he was choked from behind with a rope. Uh these two white dudes, teenagers, early 20s,
00:57:08
they jump out of this car, they jump him. And the way that he makes this sound, and the way that it sounds in the
00:57:14
newspaper, is that he was along his newspaper route. These are homes that are close together, that he was attacked
00:57:20
there and basically choked and left for dead, thrown into some bushes or underneath a tree.
00:57:25
I wonder, you know, if we could get a better a better report of that actual attack. Because had he been abducted and
00:57:33
taken elsewhere, that would make more sense to me because I cannot believe that in this neighborhood he that that a
00:57:39
boy that a 14-year-old boy just lie there lifeless almost for 5 and 1/2 6 hours on the side of a sidewalk or in
00:57:47
somebody's front yard or side yard and nobody discovers him during this 5 and 1/2 6-hour time period and he eventually
00:57:54
wakes up and walks himself home. Well, and I think your theory makes a lot of sense. Uh I would just argue that there
00:58:00
was items found uh with uh Bill's body and you know, they were able to pull DNA off these items. Yeah, okay. So, there's
00:58:09
the items found with him. There's There's one item in particular that uh the family points to and this was a
00:58:15
knife was found in the area of where Bill was found. Mhm. And their thought is it's possible
00:58:21
that this knife was used to abduct Bill. That's why he was silent during the ab-
00:58:27
abduction. Um and that whoever killed Bill would have thrown him there into the ditch and then discarded of the
00:58:34
knife uh before leaving the scene. Well, and there's possibly DNA on the scarf as
00:58:40
well. Correct. So, I've I've seen several reports that in late 2013 and early 2014, they were
00:58:49
going to test these items. As early as 2000 I believe 2012. Okay. Um I've heard conflicting results on
00:58:58
these tests. Mhm. Uh I've heard some reports that the items still to this date have never been
00:59:03
tested. That's the main rumor that I hear as well. And then the other rumor is that
00:59:09
these items were tested and they weren't able to come up with any new leads based
00:59:13
off of their findings on these items. I wonder uh as far as the knife goes, let's
00:59:19
describe this knife. It was described by Kathleen, his Bill's sister, as basically a knife that you would find in
00:59:26
somebody's kitchen. It had a wooden handle. Um it was not a knife that the family recognized to be from their home.
00:59:33
Mhm. Um it also could simply just be trash. You know, this was along the the railroad tracks.
00:59:39
Uh he was found, you know, there were beer bottles in the area. There were car parts. Possible that this could just be
00:59:45
trash. Well, one of the other rumors about the DNA is that there was not enough to sample that they would have
00:59:52
this destroyed. And it's funny to me because think about how many cases that we cover
00:59:56
and we learn week by week we learn something. Mhm. And what did we learn last week? Was it
01:00:02
PCR? Yes. So, you know, there you know, you're reading about this case and they go, "Well, we
01:00:08
don't have enough DNA evidence to to test it. We're afraid we'll contaminate it." And then you go, "Wait, but PCR is
01:00:15
like basically a photocopier. So, why aren't we implementing this in this case? And if it's about money, I think
01:00:22
the thing maybe not the knife cuz like you said, it's a very possible very good possibility that this knife
01:00:28
was just thrown out as trash or just left there. You know, some kids were playing with their mom's kitchen knife
01:00:33
and just was like, "Ah, just leave it here." Littering. Don't do it. That's what it comes down to. A bunch of
01:00:40
litterers. Pick up your Pick up your trash. You You piece of trash. Um No, so I I agree with you. There's
01:00:48
There's those items there that to me are sketchy. But, I think the thing here is
01:00:53
if we can pull DNA evidence off of his neck, his scarf, anything that they could get that was connected to him, not
01:01:00
on those surroundings, but connected to him. If they're able to test that, if they're not, but they're able to
01:01:06
duplicate with PCR, then do that and then test it. Now, is there somebody else's DNA other than Bill's? Right.
01:01:14
Because if it's just Bill's, then your theory makes the most sense. But, if there's somebody else's It the
01:01:20
the or the you know, or the killers, not the suspects, the killers went to his high school. He knew them through high
01:01:26
school. They were upperclassmen. The thing that I lean towards your theory about is uh
01:01:34
why would you when you went to pick on an individual, wouldn't you punch them? Mhm. Hold them
01:01:40
down. Do something. I mean, it seems like strangling the individual is you know,
01:01:48
the first thing you would do when attacking somebody. possibly that you'd strangle them with
01:01:53
your hand, you know, you'd be in a fist fighter or or or maybe they're not even fighting back, but you'd strangle with
01:01:58
your hand before you would use a bag with a uh you know, a tire tube. And if they have
01:02:05
the tire tube, can can we you know, what kind of a tire tube did did Bill have? Mhm. You know,
01:02:13
so I don't know. I mean, it leans that way. The re- The only reason why I lean that way cuz I would assume that if
01:02:18
somebody's bullying him, that there would be a punch or something thrown. First, Bill would have a black eye, you
01:02:24
know, not just marks around his neck. Yeah, and okay, let's I'm going to go back to the DNA real quick before we get
01:02:30
before I get into the bullying. But the DNA that we're that you're talking about that was found on his
01:02:35
scarf, um was reported as bodily some kind of bodily fluid, right? Um been the puke. That's what I'm getting
01:02:44
at. We all we now know that that Bill vomited at some point uh and it very well could have been Bill Bill's vomit
01:02:51
on that that scarf. Um so, I question I question that and I'm like like you said, let's test that stuff and if it's
01:02:58
Bill's, we got to move on from this thing. What's irresponsible here is that I really feel that we're 30-some years
01:03:06
later and I I think there's enough to question if this is a homicide or not. I would love for law enforcement to come
01:03:14
out and say definitively one way or the other. It remains technically a homicide
01:03:20
because it's on the books as such. And that's what his sister believes it is as well. And so does Bob and his and I
01:03:26
believe his family always believed that he was killed and that he was murdered. Um I don't mean to go against his family
01:03:33
at all. Um I simply just want answers exactly like they do. Regarding the bullying, uh you mentioned something,
01:03:40
you know, that this would have had to be upperclassmen. I I agree with you 100% on that. The other thing is if these
01:03:47
people were not just they weren't just upperclassmen. If it if he was in fact murdered,
01:03:53
it wasn't just somebody that had access to his school that attended his school. This was also somebody that fit into
01:03:58
that neighborhood that didn't seem out of place in that neighborhood because there's nobody other than Bill on three
01:04:04
separate attacks to say, "Hey, I saw this guy or these guys or these group of people driving around in this
01:04:10
aqua-colored older car that that he said was probably a Ford Falcon or something
01:04:15
that looked like a Ford Falcon." Do yourself a favor, Google an older model aqua Ford Falcon. That is not that could
01:04:22
not have been a common car back in 1979-1980. Not the pictures that I saw. This is a
01:04:28
car that in my opinion would have stood out. This is a car in my opinion that had they gone to the school, they
01:04:33
probably could have asked about 50 people and said, "You know who drives one of those? So-and-so drives one of
01:04:39
those." Yeah. Uh it would have been an easy thing to come up with. The other thing regarding the bullying
01:04:45
is when interviewing his girlfriend and and his friend that received these threatening notes as well,
01:04:52
Captain, don't you believe, you know, both of us, you know, in a high school setting, don't you believe that if you
01:04:57
receive some kind of threatening note, you might have some clue who put that in your locker?
01:05:02
Yeah. Yeah, no, I I think so, but Or or at least out of the three of you, you might have some speculation as to
01:05:09
who did it? Yeah. I think you know, I think you could come up with somebody going oh so-and-so doesn't like me or
01:05:14
so-and-so's mad that I'm dating this girl or so-and-so doesn't like my buddy or started a fight with my buddy. I
01:05:21
think you would have a small list of people that would be likely suspects in the notes themselves. Well, I but I also
01:05:28
take back what I was saying before, you know, when I was saying the bullies would probably punch him in the face. If
01:05:33
you think about stuff like um what's that show Dazed and Confused? Mhm. You know, they these upperclassmen
01:05:40
would jump out of the car. All they're doing is holding down an individual and then spanking them. Mhm. I say that only
01:05:48
what I what I mean by that that's a horrible thing to do to anybody but what I mean only by that is they're not
01:05:53
punching them. Right. To get the So this could have been just some sick thing. doing like a form of hazing almost.
01:06:00
Right, but this could be some kind of sick form of hazing. Mhm. And so yeah, these these two individuals for whatever
01:06:07
reason picked Bill and then they go after him they grab him and then they just we'll tie this around his head and
01:06:13
then we'll we'll run off. Mhm. But the but the threatening letters that the the notes that he's getting don't sound like
01:06:20
some kind of taunting as towards hazing. You know, I get you are next. Yeah, that
01:06:26
sounds like oh you know, remember we choked that one kid we now we're going to we're going to choke you in our
01:06:30
little hazing weird hazing thing that we do but one of the notes says blood will
01:06:34
spill. That sounds like murder. That sounds like some kind of severe attack. The other one stating something like
01:06:40
Bill has three months left. Uh spend them wisely or something like that. You know, this Again, like I said there's so
01:06:48
many things that you brought up that I think are super valid points and then the other side of me goes
01:06:53
but the people that were closer to this case than me me and you could you know, ever be is his siblings. And for them to
01:06:59
come out and say look this doesn't you know, it's a 14-year-old boy that you know, maybe was just you know, had this
01:07:06
weird phase for a while where he was making himself pass out. That's a very good possibility.
01:07:13
There is a good possibility that he was just being harassed by somebody and that
01:07:17
these individuals, for whatever reason, maybe it just started out as a haze and they're like, "Oh, well, this, you know,
01:07:23
this actually went too far. Now we got to get rid of him." Mhm. That's that's a good possibility, too. And I But I
01:07:29
think, you know, what I know what his sister's doing is she has a Facebook page. They've posted a lot of
01:07:35
information about that school. And now, what's great about like WebSleuthers is they can
01:07:41
actually go online and pull up the yearbook for Westland High School. Mhm. Um Westland High School in Columbus,
01:07:49
Ohio. And and look through uh and look through these pages. Yeah. And and if he was murdered, to me, 100% I
01:07:58
believe you'd find those those individuals in that book. Well, I think a big problem with this case is Aileen
01:08:06
Tope, the one who started writing these other letters that were not connected to
01:08:10
anything. I think that I think that the police probably had their suspicions as to whether this was an actual homicide
01:08:17
or not. And I think once the once those letters started, well, there was a big scare in that neighborhood by people
01:08:24
receiving these letters and even by people that weren't receiving these these letters. And so, the police had a
01:08:29
job, they had a duty to that community to go in there and determine who's writing these letters because everybody
01:08:36
in the neighborhood immediately thinks these are coming from whoever killed poor Bill Comings. And I think that once
01:08:43
they were already confused about their own investigation, they get involved in this letter writing investigation. And I
01:08:51
think the police for a long time, for those few months that those letters are being received, I think they thought
01:08:56
that if they could find the author of those letters, that they would find the killer of Bill. And when then that that
01:09:02
didn't work out, when that turned out not to be Bill's killer, I think maybe they reverted back to their original
01:09:08
thought of this might not be a homicide. And what I mean where I think a big interruption is alien tope is I think
01:09:16
that those months would have been better spent. They definitely they definitely did a lot of work on this case. They did
01:09:21
a lot of work trying to figure out who that letter writer was. Why would they have spent those hours and those days
01:09:27
going back and actually clearing up within a year, within months of his death, determining the actual cause of
01:09:34
death and and maybe getting it right. Well, and I wish you know, there was more than one polygraph test.
01:09:40
Yeah. Because I because I don't know how much that proves. I mean, we I I don't I
01:09:44
actually don't leave I don't I don't look to that polygraph for anything, really. Because I don't I I think I
01:09:51
think giving a polygraph to a 14-year-old Mhm. boy or girl, I think is strange. I think especially if he was in
01:09:59
fact attacked, you could make a child feel like they're guilty of something that they had no
01:10:05
had nothing to do with. Yeah. And just by putting him in the chair and submitting him to that test, he could
01:10:11
come off as deceitful just because he's now in a situation and in a setting where he feels you made him feel like
01:10:18
he's done something wrong. And I would love to know if that DNA was actually tested. If so, I would love to know what
01:10:23
the results are. I know people are going to send us things that they've seen, but
01:10:27
like we've said, we've heard both sides of the coin Mhm. that yes, that they have been done, nothing came back, or
01:10:33
that they've not been done. I worry that the sheriff's department, this many years later,
01:10:38
believes that it's not actually a homicide and they might not be technically working the case. If that's
01:10:44
if that in fact is their stance on it, I would love for them to say, "You know what, Comeyns family, let's sit down.
01:10:51
Let's review the boxes of evidence that we have. Let's review this together because they are owed some answers. They
01:10:58
are owed some answers in this case and They're owed closure, yeah. Even even if it's just law enforcement coming out and
01:11:04
stating, yes, we are on your side. We believe this was a homicide. Or no, we still think that this was an accidental
01:11:12
death. And I And all the people that write suicide or even the autoerotic asphyxiation stuff, I think that's a
01:11:19
little too I think that's a little irresponsible. I think that this, in my opinion, I lean
01:11:25
towards accidental death here and I think that's the right term. I And I welcome I welcome anybody else's
01:11:31
thoughts on it because there's I my When I sit down and look at this thing, Captain, my opinion changes daily
01:11:37
Mhm. as to whether he was killed or whether this was an accidental death. Yeah, well, again, I think sometimes
01:11:43
people throw out these theories and they have no evidence to back it up. Mhm. So, you know, I think look, I but I
01:11:50
do think, like I said before, there's enough information online and that maybe that the websleuther community could
01:11:56
help out in some way, the true crime community in some way possibly could dive into this case a little bit and
01:12:02
maybe uncover some new leads. That's the hope of his sister. The other thing, too, is, you know, like we said, our you
01:12:09
know, what we kind of lean towards or what kind of makes the most sense was this was some kind of accidental um
01:12:17
death. The other thing, too, is if we do have these letters, why can't we pull DNA off the letters that were written?
01:12:23
Right. So, and if it's if it is if it's about funding, well, it's this simple, you know, the the siblings can contact
01:12:30
us, can contact True Crime Garage and we'll we'll pull the the true crime community together and we'll get this
01:12:37
tested ourselves if it's about financials. So, um I I you know, it'd be great for that
01:12:44
community and for the family to get some closure on this case. Yes, and I truly hope that Kathleen and Bob, uh Bill's
01:12:51
brother and sister, receive the answers and the information that they need and deserve. Uh, his parents deserve that
01:12:57
information and and that closure as well. Unfortunately, they did not get it. You can follow you can actually follow
01:13:04
Bill Comings and Bill Comings family at Twitter. Um, so if anybody's looking for updates
01:13:09
on the case, hopefully hopefully there are updates. Um, you can do that at Bill Comings. Well, it's a really interesting
01:13:17
case, one I never heard of uh, till this week. And it was a Columbus case. So, uh, do we have a recommended reading for
01:13:23
this week? We do. This week we are recommending the Pierre Hotel Affair. This is a true
01:13:28
story of one of the most famous unsolved heist in American history. In 1972, someone
01:13:35
uh, well, I should say someones stole $28 million worth of jewels from New York City's Pierre Hotel. You know, this
01:13:42
would make a great movie, Captain. Anyway, a group of men arrived at the hotel dressed in tuxedos. They very
01:13:48
quickly attacked the security guards and took hotel staff and guest hostage. Uh,
01:13:53
when they finally left the hotel, they departed with $28 million worth of jewels and they left in limousines. If
01:14:01
you would like to if you like a good heist or you like a good who done it, check out the Pierre Hotel Affair and
01:14:06
you can do that by going to truecrimegarage.com and click on the recommended page. Uh, team Nick shirts
01:14:12
are about to sell out and and team captain uh, tank tops are about to sell out as well and I don't know when when
01:14:19
the next time we'll print these. I have a couple um, different designs up my sleeve that we'll be rolling out in the
01:14:25
next week or so. All right, until next week everybody be good, be kind and don't litter.
01:14:57
Oh.