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Glass & Mason ////// 451

November 10, 2022 / 01:09:26

This episode of True Crime Garage covers the unsolved murders of Nicole Glass and Melissa Mason, who were found dead in their Phoenix home in December 2010. The discussion includes the timeline of events leading up to their deaths, the investigation's challenges, and potential motives behind the killings.

The hosts, Nick and Captain, recount the details of the crime scene, including the locked doors, lack of forced entry, and the discovery of the victims' bodies by a concerned friend. They highlight the visible trauma on both women and the tragic revelation that Melissa was eight weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

Key discussions involve the last known sightings of the victims, including their interactions with Melissa's boyfriend, Marquis, and the unanswered questions surrounding the private event they were supposed to work that night. The hosts speculate on various motives, including robbery and personal connections.

The episode also addresses the investigation's slow progress, the lack of communication from law enforcement to the victims' families, and the potential for new leads based on the evidence collected at the scene.

Listeners are encouraged to reach out with any information related to the case, as the families continue to seek justice for Nicole and Melissa.

TLDR

Nicole Glass and Melissa Mason were found murdered in 2010; the case remains unsolved with multiple theories on motives and suspects.

Episode

1:09:26
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foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that would like to tell Howard to stop picking on
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Gary so darn much here is the captain I don't know what to say Buffy thank you thank you thank you it's
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you filthy animals all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] is it today [Music] this week's True Crime Story will focus on two young ladies home
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alone on a Thursday night their plans for the night fell through so it looks like Plan B is a quiet
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evening at home or at least that is what it should have been the two roommates passed the time
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texting with friends but life turns on a dime and just like that they go silent the next morning both of the roommates
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are unaccounted for M.I.A they fail to be where they are supposed to be a concerned friend decides to
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check on them and finds the unthinkable both women are dead the two ladies were killed in their own
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home there are very few Clues and even fewer suspects police wondered did either of them have
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a past with known enemies or Associates with a reason to hurt or kill them did the killer Target the two roommates
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or was this a random homicidal Act could it be that only one of the young ladies was the real Target
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was Melissa just in the wrong place at the wrong time or was Nicole the one who was collateral
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damage this is true crime garage and this is the unsolved murders of Nicole glass and
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Melissa Mason [Music] it was Midday on a Friday December 3rd 2010. a young woman who has never been
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named publicly was trying to reach her friend Nicole glass age 27. the unnamed friend was trying to reach Nicole for
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several hours Nicole failed to show up at the gym that morning which was highly unusual Nicole went by the name of Nikki
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Nikki's phone was going straight to voicemail on that morning the friend decided to head over to the home that
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Nikki shared with her roommate Melissa Mason also age 27. this house was located at 4247 East Cambridge Avenue in
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East Phoenix Arizona this was a modest single level home on a cul-de-sac in a residential neighborhood
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Nikki purchased the home in 2006. when the friend arrived around 12 20 p.m there was no response to her knocks at
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the door now although both women's cars were parked at the home so she suspected
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that they would be home at least one of them so when she tried the door it was locked
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but then the friend didn't give up she walked around to the back of the house and started peeking in through the
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windows and through one window she saw the body of a woman lying on the floor of the living room area of the home so
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she called 9-1-1 on the 9-1-1 call she says quote I just came over to my friend's house and she's not answering
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the door and I went around to the back and I just seen someone lying there and quote
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when investigators arrived they noted that the house was locked and there was no sign of forced entry into the home
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once they forcibly gained entry thanks to some help from the fire department they found the bodies of not one but two
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women lying on the floor this was in fact the two roommates that lived at the house Nikki or Nicole glass the
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homeowner and her roommate Melissa Mason sadly both were dead there was obvious and visible trauma to both bodies one of
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Nicole's dogs a bulldog had also been beaten as well and required medical treatment thankfully the dog survived
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yeah if you look at pictures of these two they they almost could pass as sisters yeah they were the same age they
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were long time friends and as you just pointed out they they could pass for sisters or cousins now the autopsies
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Captain confirmed what people who viewed Nicole and Melissa's bodies must have surmised they both were killed by way of
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a ligature strangulation this information was released in a statement by the Maricopa County Medical
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examiner's Office the ligature was a cord-like object it was not stated whether police believed that the
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ligature or the chord like object came from inside the home but it is reported that the Implement whatever it was was
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not found at the crime scene and even more tragic the medical examiner discovered something very
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important while conducting the autopsies Melissa Mason was eight weeks pregnant when she was killed so this is even more
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sad but fittingly so the case was declared a triple homicide yeah when you first hear that maybe it leans to some
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kind of motive certainly it it raises suspicions that's for sure now Rachel glass Nicole's mom told us True Crime
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garage that she narrowly avoided being the one to find her daughter and her friend she was supposed to go over to
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Nicole's house to help her with a printer but she was too tired after working so she left Nicole a message
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saying that she would do it over the weekend Rachel found out that her daughter was dead when she received a
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phone call from one of Nicole's friends telling her to turn on the news and I don't see in any reports where there's
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any sign of break-in correct there was no sign of a forced entry in to the home And in regards to Melissa's mom Sandra
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she received a phone call that frankly no one wants to get she learned over the phone that her daughter Melissa was dead
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and even worse that her daughter was murdered and that no one knew why exactly when or who committed the
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homicides now in regards to the time of death in this case it's going to be very
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difficult to determine captain of course you always want to know the time of death to determine who had the means to
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commit the murders but according to the family the medical examiner was not able
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to pinpoint a time of death all that the public has been told is that the two were believed to have died between
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this is sometime between 8 P.M on December 2nd and 12 22 p.m on December 3rd now the basis for this very loose
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timeline is this it's reported that Melissa's boyfriend Marquis was at the house visiting Melissa on the night of
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the second now according to him both women were home and accounted for and of course Very Much alive when he left the
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home around 8 PM Marquis is the last known in-person sighting of both of these young women now per HLN detective
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Toby Myers who was in charge of the investigation initially said that both women sent text messages from their
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phones after Melissa's boyfriend left their home quote since there were only text messages and not phone calls
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meaning no one heard their actual voices right sitter Marquis to be the last person to
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see or talk to the girls said the detective however at some point that evening it may have been earlier Nicole
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was at a Ross clothing store in Phoenix so it must have been earlier I'm guessing here Captain but there's no
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time frame for this event as far as we know the Phoenix PD has never reviewed the video surveillance footage from the
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store to see if it held any clues now I want to put a little caveat on there they may have reviewed this surveillance
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footage they've just never spoke publicly about right this event on the timeline and again we know that this
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happened per the family and per Witnesses however we don't know when this event occurred that
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evening I'm guessing because of statements given by the detectives and law enforcement there in Phoenix that
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this would have been before the boyfriend left the home or again we're taking him for his word
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the boyfriend says he left the home at 8 pm so this must have happened before then right and all that what they're
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trying to do there is that we have this eyewitness saying hey I came over I was there for a while when I left they were
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both alive well we got to find out if they were alive before then okay well we have now this movement where Nicole was
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at at a shopping center possibly she used her debit card to pay for something and then we have other eyewitnesses so
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so now we know that his story is lining up more with what he's telling law enforcement and to further extend that
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timeline a little bit Captain according to Melissa's mother Sandra Melissa also sent out some text that evening the last
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one going to her boyfriend Marquis just after 10 pm now he says when he called her back it
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was after midnight and her phone went straight to voicemail this is according to what he told Phoenix police and I'm
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guessing law enforcement has both of their cell phones they do and that was a bit of a mystery for the public and
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we'll get into that deeper as we go because I think that's a big part of this case and a big part of the mystery
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of who done it so we have Marquis the boyfriend being the last known person to see the girls apparently he told the
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police that when he left Nicole was in the shower and it sounds like they had a a
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bartending job scheduled for that night but neither woman ever went to this bar tending job and that's it when when the
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when the friend showed up at their house at 12 22 PM the next day both of our victims are already dead and the killer
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or killers were long gone by that time now Captain I would mentally walk everyone through the crime scene but
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that will be quite difficult in this case the Phoenix police have released almost no information about the crime
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scene so little that even the families of both of the victims know next to nothing about the state of the crime
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scene and what evidence may have been found inside the home and remember our poor woman who discovered them who's
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never been named did not enter the home so we don't have any statements from her
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either she simply saw the body of one of her friends lying on the floor in the living room area and then called 9-1-1
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when looking through after looking through the window of the back of the house well two things there one they're
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protecting the friend's identity because we don't want her to become a suspect that's one but or a victim right and but
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I also want to take a second to look at the front of this house it looks like it's a single car
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garage I'm guessing the garage has access to the house like maybe it's side access to the house
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and then you have the front door but it looks like there's possibly a window on the front door but also there's a front
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window which if somebody's at your front door you'd be able to look out and and know who was at your front door
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yes that's correct now the the Phoenix Police Department told family and friends of the victims that this was a
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very high profile case and they said that it would be best if very little information was released not just to the
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public but very little information released to the the victims in our circle of family and friends as well and
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as we stated they did confirm that there was no forced entry into the home all of
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the doors and the windows were found to be closed and locked and law enforcement stated that the killer
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must have locked the door on their way out of the house this was not done with a key but with the kind of door handle
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lock where you turn to engage the lock in the middle of the knob and then you close the door behind
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you and now you have locked the door on your way out of the house right there is
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some information about the crime scene that we do know and it is as follows both Melissa and Nicole's cars were
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parked at the house Melissa was found on the floor between the kitchen and the dining room area
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well hold on and the reason why that's important to for them to say hey both of their cars
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were there meaning that the individual that did this definitely knew both of them were
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home yeah if you're going to just judge on suspicion of anybody being home based
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on vehicles spotted out front then you see both vehicles and you go well they they must be home at this time
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right and if I was a killer and I was going to Target one of the individuals I probably wouldn't go in
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it probably would not be the opportune time to try to kill one of them if both of them were there right and that's
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going to that leads us down the path of was this planned or was this something that just was reactionary
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now Nicole was found on the floor of the living room other than that no information was released whether there
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was any sign of a struggle inside the home or whether the two women were restrained in any manner or whether
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anything was missing from the home which is very interesting to me as the detectives have said
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that they could not rule out robbery as a possible motive but they went on to you know just to add to the vagueness of
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investigator statements here they also went on to say that they could not rule out any other type of common motive for
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the murders yeah but with death by strangulation with two individuals it almost feels
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like it leans to more than one perpetrator well we do know regardless of what it should be or what
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it is we do know that they that law enforcement collected quote a lot of evidence from the crime scene this is
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per Sergeant Steve martos of the Phoenix PD but exactly what that means specifically right it is unknown now
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several family members told True Crime garage that one of the pieces of evidence was the cell phones that you
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asked about their Captain so both cell phones the phone belonging to Nicole and then
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the phone belonging to Melissa were in fact found inside of the home but get this the phones were found in a pot of
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dirty water in the kitchen sink so presumably the killer or Killers wanted to destroy the phones to destroy
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evidence on those phones and as we saw police were still able to determine that the women had been texting that night
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and with whom this is interesting because you have to wonder did police gather that information about the women
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texting that night and who they were texting and when from the two victims phones or was that
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information that they collected from other people I I'm or both um yeah I'm wondering you
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know it appears to me whoever killed these women be it one perpetrator two or more there
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was some concern given to the phones that they they went out of their way to purposely destroy the phones
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right you have to wonder how successful they were by leaving them in in water soaking in water presumably overnight or
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whenever the murders went down again it just leads in my mind to more than one perpetrator I mean
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if you are have control of one victim the other victim is gonna possibly put up a fight or run to get
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help or something and it looks so a dog was putting up a fight as well yeah it just seems like there's there's a lot
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going on and there's a lot to control in this environment yeah yeah and speaking
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of environment the neighbor said that the young women pretty much kept to themselves but always had a lot of cars
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so a lot of people coming and going from the home you know all the time Phoenix Police
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Department reported that they did not have any reports of illegal activity having taken place at the home it seems
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maybe the neighbors were they might have been a little touchy about all of the friends that the women had over from
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time to time now I don't know this to be the case but often you will see this when younger people we know both of our
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victims here Captain are 27 years of age right you see this when you have younger
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people like our victims when they live in an older neighborhood but I guess of course you don't need to be older to be
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a busybody you know sometimes you get neighbors watching one another and policing each other for reasons only
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because they're they may be bored now Nicole had a series of different roommates over the four years that she
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owned the home so there was always people moving in and out of the house and as we said the home was on a
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cul-de-sac but there was only it looks like there was only one house across from them also situated in the
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cul-de-sac behind our victim's home where the women died was a brick wall around a small yard area separating
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their plot of land from a parking lot for an apartment building so who knows how busy that apartment building parking
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lot would be at certain times let's get into a little background information here in regard to these two ladies the
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two 27 year olds were close friends as we said roommates and also colleagues they live together off and on since they
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met when they were both 23. until very recently up until the time of their deaths they both worked as
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bartenders and waitresses at a strip club in Phoenix called The Sweet Spot Melissa still worked there at the time
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of her death now until 2008 both women had worked at a gentleman's club called Pantera
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and overlapping there for about three years yeah I used to strip at a club called Mega Death the managing General
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partner of the club Frank van zucci told the desert news that the two were quote
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real good girls real smart and quote Nikki was five foot four inches tall she was a workout junkie she used the
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treadmill and waits at her gym regularly remember this one kind of the first sign
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that all is not right when her friend at the gym says she did not show up for her
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normal workout that day red flags go up she goes over to check on her friend right when she worked as a bartender as
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someone who used to bartend she would be what I would call a very smart slash popular bartender she knew
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how to play the bartending game alright so her regular patrons would bar hop they would follow her from bar to bar as
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she filled in for Relief shifts or for other bartenders right this is something you know your your whole salary as a
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bartender is based off of tips and you'll see some very smart bartenders who do this often you can only work
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a couple days a week at a bar because they they have other bartenders and they don't you you traditionally work longer
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shifts so you work just a couple of days well if you want to make good money in in that career
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you get two two different bars or you move around and you're always letting everybody know all of your regulars uh
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Hey tonight I'll be at this bar on Thursday I'll be at that bar and they tend to follow you around and that
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really if if you're baring busy you ain't making much money that night so she was not only good at her job but but
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smart enough to to have that following now she recently quit her job at the club and was taking classes at the
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University of Phoenix where she was studying Communications better than computer it was reported by the media
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that she did not have a steady boyfriend at the time of her death Nicole's Aunt described her to the Phoenix news times
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as quote she loved to tease she was fun happy-go-lucky she just loved life and lived life to the fullest but it's also
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a little bit a part of the job uh if you're a bartender or you're a server or if you're even in the band
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that night your job is to have make sure everybody's having a good time maybe you're you become a little flirty
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that's natural Melissa was known as BB to her friends she was a recent graduate from the
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it looks like pyma Pima paima Medical Institute where she trained to become a dental hygienist
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but she since decided to go into forensics she also loved to travel in fact one time visiting a cousin as far away as
00:27:06
Qatar in the summer of 2010 she lived with her sister Samantha so this would be the summer before the young women
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were killed Samantha is her younger sister she was planning to move back to Tucson
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where her family was from now Samantha told us that the summer in the summer of 2010 Melissa seemed great she was acting
00:27:33
totally normal wasn't into anything shady didn't disappear at random times or receive mysterious phone calls when
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they lived together she was living a normal life that summer before she was killed right but we would be remissed if
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we didn't point out both women worked at a strip club and a lot of times with strip clubs there are
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there is drug use yeah well with bars in general there's there's trouble just by
00:28:03
be it by the patrons or by the the staff staff now Melissa moved back into Nicole's house in the fall so she moves
00:28:15
in relatively not too long before these murders take place and she did recently discover that
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she was pregnant it's not known whether this was a planned event but she told friends that she was very happy about
00:28:31
the pregnancy and she told everyone that the father was her boyfriend Marquis Melvin
00:28:39
a Melissa old Samantha her sister about the baby but was waiting for three more weeks until Christmas to surprise her
00:28:49
mom Sandra with the good news it was after she was killed that the positive pregnancy test was found in the
00:28:58
home in a baggie with merry Christmas written on the baggie in a Sharpie with a sharpie but the boyfriend knew that
00:29:06
she was pregnant the boyfriend knew the sister knew and of course her roommate knew as well as a couple of friends
00:29:13
she's just keeping it for Mom I'm guessing she would have found out uh she was eight weeks pregnant is is what
00:29:20
we said so she would have found out probably in November and you know she's probably waiting just to Christmas to
00:29:28
surprise Mom saying hey wonderful news you're going to be a grandmother well I'm an idiot so I don't
00:29:35
know this for sure but I've heard a lot of people say that you wait 12 weeks something could go wrong right you don't
00:29:43
want everybody getting all excited and happy and and that it just adds to the sadness later investigative reporter
00:29:50
Nicole Partin told Nancy Grace we're also hearing from former employers friends family members co-workers
00:30:01
that both of these girls were very loving very generous and had absolutely no known enemies and we really couldn't
00:30:10
find anybody to say anything native about either one of them yeah and I think law enforcement would be able to
00:30:18
find out if there was any disputes going on through text messages yeah again how
00:30:25
successful were the killers in in destroying those phones or what information would have been on those
00:30:33
phones we don't have statements from detectives to tell us where they collected the the knowledge of of
00:30:41
knowing that there were text messages sent and received that night right from from the people that received them or
00:30:48
that that were communicating with Nikki and Melissa that night now as we said in
00:30:55
2006 Nikki purchased the three-bedroom single level home on East Cambridge Avenue where the women were living
00:31:03
she did this with some roommates so immediately she's buying the home and then having roommates move in to help
00:31:10
with the expense by paying her rent and taking advantage of at the time what was
00:31:18
readily available mortgage loans that were around in the mid 2000s right it looks to us from from
00:31:26
our review of the financial documents that she borrowed about three hundred thousand dollars to purchase this home
00:31:34
at some point she got underwater with the house after a refinance this home went into foreclosure but in
00:31:43
November so this is this is to point out that she's having some money issues leading
00:31:49
up to the murders November of 2010 just one month before they were killed Nicole
00:31:56
was able to come up with the money to save the house and at the time of her death it was actually under renovation
00:32:04
so she and Melissa were still living there while the house was being renovated but it was empty
00:32:12
it was it was somewhat empty you know there's not a lot of furniture inside the home because the floors were being
00:32:19
redone at this time and the two young women were sleeping on couches while the work was being accomplished
00:32:26
[Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers cheers to you Captain cheers to everybody out there and happy happy
00:33:04
happy holidays Nicole and Melissa's families feel that they have been given the Run Around by Phoenix Police
00:33:13
the initial detective on the case as we mentioned earlier her name Toby Myers she went out on maternity leave for five
00:33:22
months after the murders and according to the families no one worked the case until she returned in October of
00:33:32
2011. so unfortunately the you know this is such a stupid thing to say but unfortunately the timing of the murders
00:33:40
of the investigation is just not not great we have the detective who's going to be working the case looking
00:33:47
into it and after five months she has to go on maternity leave and then you have
00:33:55
the even more sad fact of the case just kind of sits there on the Shelf nobody doing anything with it while Toby Myers
00:34:03
is off on maternity leave yeah but that's speculation from the family correct correct but speculation or not
00:34:12
what they can say is for x amount of time this case was unsolved it was relatively fresh and no one's contacting
00:34:21
us we did not see or hear of any work being done on our daughter's case so after
00:34:28
Toby Myers comes back in October of 2011. she moves on and the case was handed off from there
00:34:37
to another detective and then to another detective and it really this case really
00:34:42
bounced around the department to different detectives for years and apparently there were a large number
00:34:52
of homicides in the city in 2010 and the police force was just overwhelmed well the problem here with this case is it's
00:35:01
not right away when you look at the situation you look at the victims you look at Nicole what she's doing with her
00:35:09
life you look at Melissa what she's doing with her life you have a one of them pregnant so okay that's a possible
00:35:15
motive then you go well maybe burglary and could be known it could have been a known burglary and
00:35:25
the reason why is because you have both individuals that worked at a strip club both individuals worked as bartenders
00:35:32
both of those occupations give you loose cash right that's true so that's very true
00:35:40
you'd be coming home with cash and most of the time because you're working as a bartender you don't have the time to
00:35:49
make a deposit to your bank at night so it's safer to come home and then on top of that thinking about
00:35:56
the patrons whether whether they're a stripper whether they're working as a stripper or whether they're working as a
00:36:03
bartender guess what both of those occupations have fans right and so now you have a situation
00:36:12
where it's like okay were they robbed and people knew what they were doing just robbed in general
00:36:18
because they thought oh well there's two females here we can control the situation
00:36:24
but did it have something to do with uh the one being pregnant or was there some
00:36:31
Patron that was had some I had some uh fantasy about one or or had some crush on one and there's
00:36:42
so many motives in this case yeah it's possible that some skeevy old dude becomes obsessed with with one of these
00:36:49
young ladies I think the issue where I take with that theory is you would want to
00:36:57
you would very likely want to wait until your target would be alone and as you pointed out seeing the two vehicles out
00:37:06
front if you were watching either one of these young women or following them around you would know that right now is
00:37:13
not a great time to to go into the home the other thing we got to factor in here
00:37:17
too is you have a situation where there is no force entry was was this someone that the one of the women knew or both
00:37:27
of them knew and let into the home that's also quite the possibility what what I think we have here and this is
00:37:35
really just someone trying to read between the lines of the statements given by law enforcement when I hear we
00:37:43
cannot rule out the pro possibility of robbery as a motive but we cannot rule out any other motive either where that
00:37:51
leads me is I don't see this being a home that is randomly robbed meaning it there does
00:38:02
not seem to be evidence or if there was it's not a very smart tactic as far as law enforcement go to not say say so if
00:38:11
this if there was clear-cut evidence to detectives that someone just at random picked out a house and said all right
00:38:18
let's go in there and Rob the place oh [ __ ] everything went bad and we ended up
00:38:24
killing the two people that lived there police in my experience will almost always say publicly that this was a
00:38:32
robbery we feel that the motive here for these murders was a robbery gone bad they say that because they need the
00:38:40
public to be aware that this could happen again that these offenders could pick another house at random it's time
00:38:47
to alert the public that that is is a likely possibility and that their safety is a concern so what I think we have
00:38:55
here when you have law enforcement and saying we cannot rule out the possibility of robbery but we cannot
00:39:02
rule out the possibility of any other motive I believe that there were there was something missing from the whole
00:39:09
something maybe an item or a couple of items that were taken from the home and that's why they have that statement we
00:39:17
cannot rule out the possibility of robbery but it's not a clear-cut robbery at random as said because they would
00:39:24
have taken a whole bunch of stuff from the house they you don't just go in there and kill and then walk away with
00:39:30
little to nothing you you come out of there with with every treasure that you can uncover while you're in there and so
00:39:39
to me I it's the same as the cell phones I feel like somebody went out of their way to try to destroy those phones or
00:39:48
what could be on those phones and then had to take it a step further and take an item or two from the home
00:39:55
that may have some connection to them or to make it to Stage it to look like some
00:40:02
kind of robbery and I and then I think if you're going to go that route you also have to include what you said they
00:40:09
could have had a lot of cash on hand and if somebody knew that then it's not a random robbery it's a targeted robbery
00:40:16
with a very specific goal in mind for the perpetrator yeah or it's one of the goals there could be multiple goals
00:40:23
you know what I mean well and with all of these with the with the high homicide rate in the area at the time in the city
00:40:32
of for the year of 2010 we've seen this in other cases in other cities as well it it appears that the
00:40:41
case quickly lost the attention of the investigators because they have Case Files piling up on their desk and from
00:40:48
what the police were saying there was very little concrete evidence to go on in this case to begin with yet they kept
00:40:57
telling the family all along for 10 years now that they can't tell them any details about the
00:41:05
evidence because they were worried they would jeopardize the investigation yeah again that's one of those things that I
00:41:11
think would be so difficult with law enforcement because as you're given this information
00:41:16
to the family you can tell that the family is they're they're suffering their loved one was murdered they want
00:41:22
answers they're starting to point the finger at you and putting blame on you for not getting this solved but there's
00:41:28
a part of you going hey we don't have a lot of evidence and if I turn this over to you then then there goes our case
00:41:36
possibly yeah and I'm going to continue to read between the lines here so law enforcement would not address this
00:41:43
is according to the families would not address whether there was any sexual assault
00:41:49
or even confirm whether there was any type of robbery at all now the family members that we spoke with are skeptical
00:41:56
about both of these items they were being told this is very interesting they were being
00:42:03
told that there was no helpful DNA that seems very intriguing to me Captain the choice of words there there is no
00:42:12
helpful DNA it sounds like there is some kind of DNA evidence but what the problem is with it we do not know uh
00:42:23
they were told there were no prints no forced entry and no digital record of anything useful to go on in this case
00:42:31
that's according to what the family says they were told by law enforcement but we
00:42:36
know that Melissa texted her boyfriend that night again around 10 p.m if it was in fact Melissa that sent that text it
00:42:44
could be if the phones are a big concern to the Killer maybe this is just a a red
00:42:50
herring here we do know that there were other Communications that night as well now according to family members DNA was
00:42:58
found on some cigarette butts and drinking cups found at the crime scene there was some partial Prince that were
00:43:06
found by crime scene texts and per the Phoenix Police Department none of these things panned out
00:43:13
that's what they're saying but the family says that the Phoenix PD has failed to use updated testing methods to
00:43:21
test the DNA that they they have it and they're simply running it every six months or so
00:43:26
against databases of known offenders but they're not re-testing the DNA itself the family even tried to petition
00:43:36
for further DNA testing saying that not everything from the scene the the evidence that they've been told was
00:43:43
collected they're saying the families are saying not everything at the scene has been tested
00:43:49
but the state officials have not been receptive to to the families trying to get a hold of this information or
00:43:57
pushing them to to test it this could be because an of an Infamous backlog in text and testing I'm Sorry by the state
00:44:07
crime lab so in 2016 the Arizona sexual assault evidence collection kit task force
00:44:15
reported a total of 6424 untested rape kits in their storage at law enforcement agencies across the
00:44:28
state so I'm pointing all this out to to just say Hey look it's very possible that there is
00:44:37
some material from Nicole and Melissa's attack that has never been tested I mean
00:44:44
we have we have them on record the State of Arizona saying over 6 000 untested rape kits are in storage at Law law
00:44:53
enforcement agencies across the state and that is absolutely ridiculous yeah and it unfortunately it goes on in every
00:45:01
state Arizona is not just the only one in fact there there are cases here in Ohio and I can say this because of our
00:45:08
work with the porch light project and our work here in True Crime garage that we are aware of several cases that have
00:45:15
DNA evidence and for whatever reason they're either not testing it or you know it's it's it's just frustrating
00:45:23
it's frustrating there is a certain amount of expense that is associated with with these tests though too we do
00:45:31
need to point that out that there it's not free to to do this type of testing and and these agencies do have to run on
00:45:38
on budgets like everywhere any other business would right but if it was if it was men being raped I guarantee you
00:45:45
those tests would be done already they don't have anything sitting on the shelf yeah I don't know I can't I can't
00:45:52
speak to that I'm guessing that uh if you have over 6 000 untested rape kits that that some of the victims might not
00:45:59
or might not all be female um there are some people that have been vocal in this case in the glass and
00:46:11
Mason case here that say look the the ball has been dropped and I will Echo that that
00:46:18
feeling as well I will say it looks to me that the ball has been dropped here but
00:46:24
some have gone as far to say that the the ball the dropping of the ball in this case was so blatant that they're
00:46:30
wondering was this on purpose is is there someone protecting someone else here or are the investigators in the
00:46:40
Phoenix Police Department just borderline incompetent in this case well you also have to wonder too with Nicole
00:46:46
and Melissa's so you know working in a bar or working at a strip club sometimes they have
00:46:52
off-duty officers that will work security at night or they'll have like a I know
00:47:00
my buddy's bar they'd have Cop come in as they would be closing down for the night so
00:47:07
maybe that's where the suspicion is leading people and as far as if you want to look a little closer to home
00:47:16
we do have on record police saying that they that Marquis Melvin the Melissa's current boyfriend at the time when she
00:47:26
was killed they say that he this is a direct quote from the police department quote he's certainly been Cooperative
00:47:35
with our detectives certainly providing some information to us that we hope will
00:47:39
be useful in this investigation but because we do not have any leads at this point we certainly don't want to rule
00:47:48
anybody out so they checked out this this current boyfriend of Melissa's and their their stance on him is he's
00:47:59
been Cooperative he's worked with our detectives and our investigators if we need something he's responsive however
00:48:08
we've not officially ruled him out we've not cleared him uh specifically now they did say that a
00:48:17
former boyfriend of of Nikki's again not saying that he's ruled out either but they did go on record to say that they
00:48:28
do not believe that the former boyfriend of Nikki was involved in any way at all
00:48:33
so I don't know if this means that he has a solid Alibi for the night or if he was just you know nowhere near the area
00:48:41
but in regards to that old relationship of Nikki's we do have family members who are saying
00:48:48
that the the breakup was amicable that um that there didn't seem to be any hard feelings it was not a a violent or
00:49:00
hostile type uh relationship now per the Phoenix New Times they reported that Melissa's boyfriend Marquis took and
00:49:09
passed a polygraph examination uh so that would further further along the statement by police
00:49:16
saying that he was in fact Cooperative again though they've not officially cleared him and
00:49:24
if you're reading between the lines they're going out of their way to publicly say he's been Cooperative but
00:49:30
we've not officially ruled him out so there must be something suspicious there and as you pointed out Captain
00:49:36
this pregnancy unfortunately it's supposed to be a beautiful wonderful thing we've seen this in other cases
00:49:43
it's also a motive for for murder yeah which is sad and pathetic as for other suspects police
00:49:51
uncovered some information that could be relevant to the murders Nicole glass had
00:49:58
a record a police record in fact she was arrested in 2009 so the year before she was caught up in a some kind of
00:50:07
giant sting operation that was targeting drug dealers and drug users in the area
00:50:13
Nicole used her phone to contact the dealer and she bought some pot now I do want to point out this is
00:50:21
very low level stuff here um I've seen people online who suggest that this is the motive that this is
00:50:30
your answer that that she must have ratted somebody out or when they busted this this drug ring that this part here
00:50:39
that this this was a little more bigger than than normal situations because it looks from what I could find they busted
00:50:49
everyone they could find involved in this thing and there were it was reported there were between 60 to 110
00:50:58
people arrested so it does seem to to go a little bit above and beyond your your normal
00:51:07
low-level pot dealing but from what I could see though Captain through all the weed and smoke it appears to me that she
00:51:13
made a phone call and bought some weed and that's about the extent of her involvement in this so I don't know that
00:51:21
I see a situation where it's some big time drug dealer some drug cartel being ratted out by this
00:51:28
person who probably like to smoke a little pot on the weekend so I think it's a little far-fetched to say that
00:51:34
this is in fact the cause for a double homicide here uh in regards to Nikki and Melissa now one
00:51:45
thing that I found to be very interesting as we're kind of going through some different possibilities and
00:51:51
theories here captain the girls both of the the young women were supposed to work a private event
00:51:59
that night so this is something that would be out of the norm for both our victims right and of course murder is
00:52:08
completely out of the norm so we're looking for anything strange going on around the time of the crimes
00:52:16
this I found to be very interesting they were supposed to work a private event that night and whoever
00:52:23
I couldn't figure out find who set this whole thing up or who was supposed to pick them up
00:52:31
somebody was supposed to pick them up and take them to the private event that night and for whatever reason whoever
00:52:38
this was they did not show up so the the two young women did not go and work this
00:52:44
event this right do we have a record of a car showing up and honking the horn or
00:52:50
going to the door and knocking and and the girls just didn't come out and then the car left
00:52:55
well what we do have is we have communication from the the victims to others that say the event was not going
00:53:04
to happen or the event fell through so that's that's how we know that this this event this private event that they
00:53:13
were supposed to work uh did not happen so let's go into to what this event was or could have been
00:53:22
this from my understanding keep in mind they're they're bartenders so someone had hired them to work a
00:53:29
private event as bartenders for that night now the boyfriend leaves their home if the boyfriend's not involved I mean
00:53:39
he could be if he's not involved if he didn't kill them if if him and and somebody else didn't kill them because
00:53:46
I'm with you Captain I think this was more than one person but was this whole private event was this this person
00:53:53
that's supposed to show show up and pick them up is this some kind of ruse that to me seems likely but if that person
00:54:00
were to be the killer or wanted to attack or rape one or both of the women or what have you
00:54:07
it seems to me that this person would have went along with hey the event's still going on and picked up the women
00:54:13
and taking them willingly from the home to another location yeah that makes sense the event from my understanding
00:54:20
had something to do with the Phoenix Cardinals with the with the football team it was
00:54:28
supposed to be some kind of after hours party that they were going to bartend and for whatever reason again according
00:54:36
to this communication it looks like either they it was decided that they were not needed for this event or that
00:54:42
the event did not happen at all now I looked up the 2010 Cardinal schedule because my first thought was they were
00:54:51
found Friday Friday morning Friday early afternoon so was this a situation where the
00:54:57
Cardinals were playing a Thursday night home game and there was going to be some
00:55:01
after party well there's nothing in the football schedule that would indicate to
00:55:06
me anything obvious uh any kind of obvious event going on that night they played the Sunday before and they played
00:55:14
the Sunday after and the Cardinals were not very good that year so I don't see any reason for
00:55:20
celebration at all so I I I do wonder what this event was what the exact details of this event were to be it's
00:55:31
something that I've looked at and would like to know more about and then to circle the wagons one more
00:55:39
time here captain I think that the answer to me I think this is a very solvable case now
00:55:48
I don't know what has been lost due to time I mean keep in mind we're sitting here in the garage December 2020. so
00:55:57
this month marks the 10-year anniversary of the triple homicide and it is still unsolved and you have to
00:56:07
wonder how cold has this case got by now and what do we have in the way of evidence we know that
00:56:16
they collected a lot of items from the home it seems to me like there's meat on the bone here for detectives it sounds
00:56:22
to me like there is somewhat of a bread crumb trail that they have some type of evidence I just questioned how well they
00:56:31
are currently working right this case and I think it's solvable or there might not be much there's a trail but there's
00:56:38
not much Bread on there well I think it's solvable too because of the cell phones to me that points at every
00:56:46
indication that one of the girls likely both of the young women knew the assailant or the assailants
00:56:55
people went out of their way to try to destroy information on those phones did somebody I'm wondering if it could be to
00:57:04
the point where somebody even made a threat via text message or was there somebody calling one of these young
00:57:12
women over and over and over again that night right and they thought by dumping it in and look there could have been a
00:57:20
pan with water in the sink already but they decided Well if I dump it in this pan with water I'll get rid of these
00:57:28
text messages or these phone records yeah and it does it looks to me like someone was very concerned about what
00:57:34
was on one if not both of those phones to the point where they made an a a conscious effort to one not take the
00:57:44
phones with them not remove them from the home I think there was something removed from the home maybe to Stage the
00:57:51
possibility of a robbery or there was something that tied something that directly tied the perpetrator to that
00:58:00
home that they decided to remove with them but they decided not to take the phones but oh I got to destroy these
00:58:07
phones they didn't smash them they were smart enough to leave them in water well
00:58:12
that's what makes you um start going down the conspiracy theory Rabbit Hole a little bit because you go
00:58:19
put the cell phones into water don't take them with you because even if the phone was turned off you probably could
00:58:25
get some cell phone ping technology who has knowledge of that well law enforcement
00:58:34
um so that could get your brain going down the conspiracy theory Rabbit Hole pretty or people listening to this show
00:58:41
you know they you can pick up on these things uh a multitude of different ways so to me I think that that is your
00:58:50
breadcrumb that is your bread crumb Trail right there for me it's it's who in their Inner Circle
00:58:58
would have killed them I mean obviously we said it's been reported to the newspapers
00:59:04
by by employers and co-workers family and friends that we could not find an enemy we could not find anyone that
00:59:14
didn't like them but obviously someone someone did not like them or did not like what was going on or somebody liked
00:59:22
them too much that's true that's true and what I would like to know and I think it's something that they again
00:59:28
you know it was the case dropped was the ball dropped here I don't know but they
00:59:34
didn't obviously pick up the ball and run with enthusiasm right it wasn't Nick job from the Cleveland
00:59:42
Browns grabbing the ball and taking off running with it or if you saw Chase young pick up that
00:59:48
fumble and run into the end zone you're not going to stop those guys and I think
00:59:53
some of the stuff that they could have done and I would like to know the answer maybe they know the answer if you have a
00:59:59
smaller time period of when you think possibly Nicole was killed or Melissa was killed is there a Gap
01:00:07
where is it within maybe a couple minutes again because we need to figure out are we
01:00:14
looking for one suspect are we looking for or two or three so I think that's some stuff that with
01:00:24
autopsy you know take the ball and run with the autopsy that they could have better answers
01:00:31
and and that I think would lead you into different Avenues of Investigation well
01:00:37
and one thing too that I think is just ridiculous I mean when we spoke with John we spoke with John Douglas he said
01:00:48
I I don't get he's like he's like yeah I get that you have to have some hold back
01:00:53
information he's like but the public is who is going to help investigators most of the time solve these cases before
01:01:01
they go cold and he's saying you know I don't understand why they would choose to hold back everything and not let the
01:01:08
public know anything at all there is no doubt in my mind that law enforcement knows has a much better idea of well
01:01:20
they were killed sometime between 10 p.m and 12 22 PM the next day I mean that is
01:01:27
a window of of 14 and a half hours roughly they know they can shrink that window
01:01:35
down a little bit more and what I mean by by why would you hold on to that information it makes no damn sense
01:01:41
because if you know if you can go you know what we have a pretty good idea that that both of them were dead for
01:01:49
eight hours or 10 hours before they were found well that's a much shorter window
01:01:54
you have family and friends and a lot of people you have neighbors who seem to be
01:01:59
nosy watching the watching the cul-de-sac watching the you know watching the neighborhood
01:02:04
if you can release that information now you have a much shorter window you have people that are eager to help and
01:02:10
provide information to the Phoenix Police Department in this specific case and they can go you know what uh so and
01:02:17
so was not accounted for during this time or oh uh oh the boyfriend uh he said this that and the other thing well
01:02:25
um he left in the middle of the night or he didn't come home until very early in
01:02:30
the morning you know there there's a hundred different ways to to shake this thing
01:02:36
and to get some some better information I mean in in defense of the Phoenix to place the police department we do have
01:02:45
the sergeant Steve martos on record saying unfortunately this case has remained unsolved that the Phoenix
01:02:52
Police Department and members of the crime lab were working tirelessly tirelessly on this case and many other
01:03:00
cases and this will remain the focus on identifying and arresting those responsible for this triple homicide it
01:03:10
says according according to the sergeant he's saying that the department is continuing to seek help from the
01:03:16
community well that doesn't seem to be the actual case because you're you're claiming to
01:03:22
the family members that this is a high profile case and we can't tell the family anything
01:03:28
you're seeking information from the community yes you are but you're not giving any you're not giving any help to
01:03:35
the community help me to help you you know you there there is information that they can come off of in this case that I
01:03:43
think people can provide some details to investigators to narrow down the suspect
01:03:49
pool here well that's arrogance and it's ignorance as well and it's basically um
01:03:56
it's an ego thing and that's why John somebody like John Douglas goes I don't understand because what he understands
01:04:04
is that at the end of the day it's again I'm going to bring up another football reference only two football references
01:04:11
in the last four years just just to let everybody know it doesn't matter how you
01:04:16
get the win as long as you get the win because two weeks from now nobody gives a [ __ ] if
01:04:21
you beat the team by one pointer if you beat the team by 10 points it doesn't matter if you get the win and it's the
01:04:27
same with law enforcement if you solve the case it don't matter how you got there
01:04:32
it doesn't matter if you if you put out it's just like in the Delphi case if they would have put out some of this
01:04:37
information earlier maybe it would have been solved and if it got solved then you're the
01:04:43
hero nobody's going to look at you and go oh you release too much information you're
01:04:48
not a good detective if your job is to solve the the case doesn't matter how you solved it and I
01:04:56
think that's why people like John Douglas are going doesn't make any sense to me why would not why would you not
01:05:01
use the media why would you not use the public to try to solve this case because they're the ones that are going
01:05:08
to help you solve it and guess who's going to get credit yeah you will law enforcement Phoenix the department will
01:05:14
they'll be the heroes they will be the heroes at the end of the day who solved the case now if you and I are right
01:05:21
captain and our suspicions that more than one person was involved in this attack from what very little that
01:05:28
they're telling us about the crime scene and the crime itself it appears to me that this was two or more individuals
01:05:35
that puts a much higher probability that someone in that group has told somebody
01:05:41
at some time maybe they got a drunk confession or or a guilty confession they just had to get it off their chest
01:05:49
and tell somebody I believe that someone has been told some information in regards to this triple homicide and
01:05:58
it's time to come forward it's been 10 years now Rachel glass spoke with the Arizona Central in 2019 saying quote I
01:06:10
need answers my daughter was 27 and she was just starting her life I thought I would be planning a wedding instead of a
01:06:19
funeral and then we have Melissa's mom Sandra who told the Arizona Central quote we relive the moment over and over
01:06:29
again and we get asked the same questions I have the same answers because I have no new information we
01:06:39
just pray to God that one day we'll see justice as said Captain this December marks 10 years
01:06:47
since these women were murdered and their killer or Killers is still out there walking around free free to kill
01:06:56
again anyone with information on this case is asked to call Silent Witness at 480-948-6377 we will include that phone
01:07:12
number in today's show notes there is a reward for information in this case need to go
01:07:22
[Music] I want to thank everybody for listening I want to thank everybody for joining us
01:07:35
here in the garage every week we enjoy your company we enjoy your smell Colonel do we have any recommended
01:07:46
reading this week this week I am very happy to be recommending the snow killings inside the Oakland County child
01:07:54
killer investigation by Marnie Rich Keenan this is in my humble opinion the definitive book on the Oakland County
01:08:03
case it's a very famous case and this book was put together by Marnie Rich Keenan she is an award-winning reporter
01:08:12
and columnist who recently retired after 26 years with the Detroit News if you're
01:08:18
looking for a last minute holiday gift idea pick up the snow killings and give it as a gift this year it's the perfect
01:08:25
book for any True Crime fan I want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage yeah and if you pick up one
01:08:33
of the recommended reading books send us a picture or tag Us in it on social media and for everything True
01:08:40
Crime Check out True Crime garage.com join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be
01:08:48
kind and don't listen [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music]

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Episode Highlights

  • The Unsolved Murders of Nicole Glass and Melissa Mason
    Two young women were found dead in their home, leading to a chilling investigation.
    “Life finds a way.”
    @ 01m 13s
    November 10, 2022
  • A Friend's Alarming Discovery
    A concerned friend finds the bodies of Nicole and Melissa after they go silent.
    “I just came over to my friend's house and she's not answering.”
    @ 06m 58s
    November 10, 2022
  • Melissa's Pregnancy Joy
    Melissa was excited about her pregnancy, planning to surprise her family with the news.
    “She was very happy about the pregnancy.”
    @ 28m 31s
    November 10, 2022
  • Investigation Delays
    The case went unsolved for months due to the detective's maternity leave, frustrating the families.
    “The case was unsolved while Toby Myers was off on maternity leave.”
    @ 33m 39s
    November 10, 2022
  • Untested Evidence
    Families believe crucial DNA evidence from the crime scene has never been tested.
    “It's very possible that there is some material from Nicole and Melissa's attack that has never been tested.”
    @ 44m 41s
    November 10, 2022
  • A Mother's Heartbreak
    Rachel Glass expresses her grief, saying she should be planning a wedding, not a funeral.
    “I thought I would be planning a wedding instead of a funeral.”
    @ 01h 06m 16s
    November 10, 2022
  • Endless Pain
    Melissa's mother, Sandra, shares the agony of reliving the tragedy without new answers.
    “We relive the moment over and over again.”
    @ 01h 06m 25s
    November 10, 2022
  • A Decade of Silence
    Ten years later, the case remains unsolved, leaving families in despair.
    “Their killer or killers is still out there walking around free.”
    @ 01h 06m 49s
    November 10, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • I just came over to my friend's house and she's not answering.
    Glass & Mason ////// 451
  • This is even more sad but fittingly so, the case was declared a triple homicide.
    Glass & Mason ////// 451
  • She just loved life and lived life to the fullest.
    Glass & Mason ////// 451
  • She was very happy about the pregnancy.
    Glass & Mason ////// 451
  • I thought I would be planning a wedding instead of a funeral.
    Glass & Mason ////// 451
  • We relive the moment over and over again.
    Glass & Mason ////// 451

Key Moments

  • Pregnant Victim08:50
  • Triple Homicide08:50
  • No Forced Entry16:29
  • Bartending Background23:30
  • Pregnancy Discovery28:23
  • Mother's Grief1:06:16
  • Endless Questions1:06:25
  • Unsolved Tragedy1:06:49

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown