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Best of 2020 ////// 452

November 10, 2022 / 57:40

This episode covers the hosts' top five favorite True Crime Garage episodes from 2020, featuring discussions on notable cases and interviews.

The hosts, Nick and Captain, begin by introducing their favorite episodes from the year, emphasizing their enjoyment of the Mind Hunter John Douglas interviews, episodes 445 and 446. They highlight Douglas's insights into famous cases like the Zodiac and JonBenet Ramsey.

Next, they discuss the Hi-Fi murders, episodes 402 and 403, noting the brutality of the crime and the thorough investigation that followed. They also mention the Taylor Robinson case, a tragic story of a young nursing student who went missing in 2013, and the ongoing efforts to bring awareness to her unsolved case.

They continue with the Jabez Spann case, where a 14-year-old boy was murdered, and the Evansdale murders of two young cousins, emphasizing the community's hope for resolution. Finally, they conclude with the Las Cruces bowling alley massacre, an unsolved case that remains a mystery decades later.

The episode reflects on the importance of keeping these stories alive and encourages listeners to engage with the cases discussed.

TLDR

Nick and Captain share their top five True Crime Garage episodes from 2020, highlighting notable cases and interviews.

Episode

57:40
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foreign [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thank you
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that says after 2020 we will all know what it
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feels like to be a bubble boy here is the captain it's good to be seen and it's good to see you but please do not
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touch the bubble [Music] today friends we are drinking must go faster by one of the very best Brewers
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in the business that's tactical Brewing Company this is a delicious Imperial New
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England IPA double dry hopped with sabro and Citra 9.3 ABV garage grade 4 and 3 4 bottle
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caps out of five and here's a cheers to some of our friends that are just as hopped up for
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today's show as I am here's a happy holidays cheers to Hunter and Northwood New Hampshire and a big shout out to
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Allison in Amarillo Texas a huge thank you and big time cheers to our friend Jordan oh in Chambersburg Pennsylvania
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and a big we like to jib goes to Kyle R in Tulsa Oklahoma here's a cheers to Lisa and canvas Baron United Kingdom and
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last but certainly not least we have Kristen in Mount Airy Maryland everyone we just
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mentioned went to True Crime garage.com and helped out with this week's beer fund and for that we thank you yeah
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bwr-u-n Beer Run make sure when you're at the website to sign up on our mailing list
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we'll be sending out all next year we'll be sending out discount codes and all you have to do is sign up on the mailing
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list to get those all right that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
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talk some true crime [Music] all right boys and girls Captain this is something we've been wanting to do for a
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while I guess at least the entirety of 2020 as we've been putting together great shows and great cases for the
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whole year every one of them was great that was we took a vote and everybody confirmed every one of the shows was
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absolutely great but you and I are going to talk about the ones that we enjoyed the most yeah we put out a poll and
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everybody said every episode was number one tied for number one some would say it
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was the best year we ever had some would say that um so today we're going to each talk about our top
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five our five favorite shows of this last year of the great year that was 2020. I like to think that you know
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about 15 20 years from now when we're sitting around and we're all very old and we're sipping our beer maybe we're
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drinking it through a straw at that point that we're gonna go hey you guys remember that year when we stayed inside
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and didn't go anywhere so that was nice that was nice and football was completely weird the
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Buckeyes are looking for their sixth Victory here in December all right without further Ado uh I'm I'm assuming
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we gave Carlos the day off he's not here to count us down no he's not here wait we gotta get we had to lay people
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off because of because of the covid we gotta talk to him and see if we can get him back in the garage for 2021. said he
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will not work for free all right Captain here is my number five for best of 2020
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the responsible side of me said to go with the I-70 killer because it's such a fascinating mystery where did the killer
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go why did he start abruptly and then stop abruptly but the Fanboy side of me went with our mind
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Hunter John Douglas episodes this would be episodes 4 45 and 446 from November from just last month of this year I went
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with this because it's no secret the colonel loves John Douglas I his books are fantastic I've been a fan of his
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career and everything that he has done and the interesting thing that we had with this year's episodes and this
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year's interview with him one we've been very lucky to interview John Douglas at all right I mean he is
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the top named in true crime in my opinion in this in this form of infotainment that we do yeah if not the
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top name at least in the top five of top names correct I mean we've talked to Paul holes he's fascinating he's he's
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considered one of the big names he's fascinating he's handsome he's very handsome that's right and he's
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passionate about all the unsolved cases out there and I love hearing Paul talk about the Delphi case he's one of the
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top names we've met Nancy Grace top mom sometimes she is is such a delightful person and an incredibly funny and
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Charming she's one of the top names but for me I think the top name is John Douglas so I've been lucky to interview
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him he spoke with us last year and last year it was like okay please stick to the book that's coming out that's the
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killer across the table and he doesn't do very many shows so when he did our little garage show and
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and then agreed to do it a second time I thought well either either we fooled him or he likes
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the garage so this time he just said oh he's drunk Nick you guys come up with whatever you want to talk about right so
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he walks into this interview no idea what random questions the colonel is going to throw at him we talked about
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everything from uh the Zodiac to JonBenet Ramsey to The West Memphis Three I just peppered him with questions
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all these old cases cases that he worked as an FBI agent or cases that he worked
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as a consultant after he retired some cases he just looked into for the media's perspective yeah he only had one
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requirement was there's no Captain [Laughter] the table's not big enough for the both
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of us Captain he likes the captain but yeah I I was just such a pleasure to have John Douglas on the show again and
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it was it it just made my day made my whole week in fact to hear him say hey I'd like to come on again next year so
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we're hoping to have Mr Douglas the Mind Hunter on again next year in 2021. come
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on just think about it all those years ago sitting in the hot garage laptop I think
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the laptop fan was going a million miles a minute sweat dripping down we had two mics but
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only one of them was nice if I would have told you after that episode hey guess what
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a couple years from now you're gonna interview John Douglas twice you would have been like you must be
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really drunk this episode I would have said I am you're a liar yeah so that's my number five there boys
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and girls mind Hunter John Douglas episodes 4 45 and 446 if you've not checked those out because some some
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people do not dig the interview shows I get that they want more of the storytelling with a new case
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if you have followed the Zodiac JonBenet West Memphis Three I can't even think of all the cases we talked about
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we talked about so many monitor if you like Silence of the Lambs if you like red dragon
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that's right he gave us a little insight into the Mind Hunter season three as well uh so yeah thereof correct so check
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check that out uh if you enjoy any of those old cases my number five is I guess self-serving because
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the more I went over the list of shows for 2020 I kept on going back to the fact that the the Hi-Fi murders
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to me that might have been my best theme music all year so I had to put that on the list high five Murders episodes
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402 and 403 and anybody with the Stitcher app that wants to go back and listen to some of these older ones they
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have the ability to do that if you don't have the Stitch wrap you get it for free
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and check out these old episodes the Hi-Fi case is a very interesting one it's it's a spoiler alert if you've not
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listened it's a solved case but the police work the investigation is very interesting
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the the brutality of the crime is horrific yeah and really at the end of the day it was thought to be
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that it was just some goons that were looking to steal some very expensive stereo equipment
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and they're going to go in and Rob this stereo store take all of the the expensive equipment that they have but
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it turns ugly very very quickly it's a it's a horrific case thank God that it's solved but a
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very interesting one and it gives it it gives you the perspective of a very violent crime and a very thorough
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investigation that followed along with the trials and such that took place that will bring me to my number
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four there Captain I went with Taylor Robinson this was a case that we were asked to be
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involved into shine a spotlight on this case Taylor Robinson was a 19 year old Kent State
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student she was studying to be a nurse and worked as a home health care aide Taylor was known as a kind person who
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volunteered at church and worked with special needs children just a fantastic person somebody that we need we need
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more people like Taylor Robinson in this world one night in May of 2013 her mother dropped her off at work she was
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working at a house and she would stay overnight to watch a special needs child the mother of the child was at work and
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the next morning when Taylor's mom went to the house to pick her up Taylor wasn't there the mother of the child who
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arrived home shortly before yells at Taylor's mom because she's like you know where is your daughter she left my my
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child home alone all night long Taylor's mother explains that she dropped Taylor
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off that she was there she's as concerned as as the patient's mother is Taylor's coat and shoes were left at the
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house there's no sign of Taylor so immediately her mother and her family they know something terrible has
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happened and it wasn't until four months later that bones were found at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park this is 15
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miles away from where Taylor was working that night her clothing was found within a mile of
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her remains she was found in a heavily wooded area and a heavily wooded part of the park
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this is an area that would not be easily accessible by vehicle when we covered this case captain and we pretty much
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laid out for everyone what happened that night and without naming names we we were not given the ability by law
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enforcement to name names here in this particular case but they have pretty much narrowed it down to two people
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either one of these individuals was involved in her murder and more importantly the disposal of her remains
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because she would not have been easy to move to the location where she was found
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so they actually believe that two people were involved in the I hate to say this the cleanup of the
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murder itself and getting rid of Taylor's Body and we were asked to get involved and Spotlight this case it's
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one that's near and dear to my heart so I put it at number four on my list and as a reminder anybody in Northeast Ohio
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let me know if this came true because the rumor was last year when we covered it that soon they were
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going to be putting up billboards with Taylor Robinson's face and her name and information on there to help bring more
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awareness to the cause and to her case her unsolved case one that is now what I would deem a Cold Case
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I don't know if that happened or not you know the 2020 has been wacky and wild so
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a lot of things have not come to fruition but if anybody's seen those Billboards please email me let me know I
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would love to know if those are up and just a quick reminder too if anybody has any information even if this is stuff
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you've been holding on to for years and and haven't been able to tell anybody we
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have a gentleman that you can reach out to Tim demoff he's with the sacs Consulting he's been working with
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Taylor's family to solve this case he can be reached it 330-730-3524 or by email at tademoff at
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s a c s consulting.com all right number four on my list is Mara Murray the Julie
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Murray interview those that's episode 368 and 369. and I think it's because well one it's the first long form
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interview that she's pretty much ever done and then they the family wanted to use
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the interview to put on their website for people that are looking into their sister their daughters their family
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members case Mara Murray being a girl that disappeared in 2004 her case has really become one of the most famous
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cases on the internet for people to dive into so I think the reason why I like it
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is the idea that we're adding to an investigation we're adding something to the True Crime Community it wasn't just
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our take on possibly what happened uh we were working with their family to get an
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interview where Julie would be able to talk openly about her sister and that kind of just gives you a better profile
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of the victim it was a fascinating interview and I know you and her go well kind of way back bit of friends so it
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was very interesting to listen in on what is an interview but also just generally a conversation and about
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Mara's case and some of it really cleared a few things up too I believe that we're just
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things that were misconstrued over the years about Mara her personality her her characteristics and the case itself so
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it was a fascinating look and I think you're right I think it did very much add something to the True Crime
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landscape for that case in particular my number three captain we're moving right along here I went with Jabez span
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this is a case that we covered in January episodes number 366 and 367. this case is eerily similar to
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Taylor Robinson's case that we covered in June of last year that was episode 406 and 407 if I failed to mention that
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earlier but jabez's case is eerily similar in a sense that police pretty much know who did this or or have a good
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idea of who was involved to the point where they have the names of these yahoos that committed this crime and we
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came under some fire because I I must have said the word thugs about a thousand times during those episodes but
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I don't know if there's a better term to label people that that kill others in the streets and then abduct a child
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I mean we're talking about people that are out committing crimes constantly and then they're committing murders to cover
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up their other crimes and that's what these individuals are and the the Sarasota Police Department desperately
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needs help in jabez's case which also is very much involved with several other homicides that they have out there
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they've been able to close some other cases that are that are connected to jabez's case but they still need help
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we're talking about Jabez our victim here he was 14 years old when he disappeared on Labor Day
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in 2017 he was last seen at a candlelight vigil in Sarasota just two blocks away from his home now
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witness Saul Jabez with two other boys around one in the morning and he disappeared within an hour or two of
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that sighting it was January of 2020 when we covered it and that was roughly about a year since his
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skeletal remains were found he had been missing from his home since September of 2017. his mom and
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grandmother and family were just destroyed and devastated by him having God missing and then of course years
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later they find his remains and that was from a a press conference that took place in February
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of 2019 when the Sarasota police and the Manatee County Sheriff's Office reported
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that a man working a fence line in a rural part of Manatee County found the remains of of just 14 year old Jabez
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Spann a a kid with a beautiful smile look he was a teenager he wasn't a saint neither was I when I was 14 years old
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but he had his whole life ahead of him and I think chabez would have went on to do some great things and this really
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stinks because it's the murder of a child but also the murder to cover up other homicides and other crimes in a
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particularly bad area of what is a good Community what is a good area Sarasota Florida the police say that they are
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still asking for anyone who has any information again they know who did this they just need some evidence and they
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need to build cases against these individuals that's right plural individuals you we need to get these
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people off of the streets because they're a danger to everyone in that community
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they need people to come forward the reward money for information leading to an arrest in jabez's case I believe
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believe is up as high as fifty thousand dollars and people can submit tips anonymously to Crime Stoppers down there
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at 941-366-8477 or you can reach out to the Sarasota Police Department just a word to the wise something we've
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talked about plenty of times on True Crime garage if you do have information and you are willing to come forward in
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any case at all if you call Crime Stoppers it's Anonymous to the point where you
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cannot even leave your name or any of your information they do not want it so if you want to be contacted if you want
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to be involved if you think that there is more help that you can provide at a later date a later time
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called the police department and make sure that you give the tip to them directly ask to speak with the detective
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involved the Sarasota Police Department in this case is the investigating agency
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their number is 941-366-8000 I'm sure if you really wanted to leave your information you'd
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be able to figure it out well good luck I mean I've I've contacted Crime Stoppers in the past and I've insisted
00:22:01
on leaving my information and they they will not take uh personal information no
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it's sad and uh 2021 cleaning house that's what we'll be doing if you're listening to a show and you and and
00:22:16
individuals take a 14 year old and kill him and dispose of his body because he witnessed the murder another murder
00:22:27
so they murder him to cover up that murder we'll call those individuals whatever the [ __ ] we want to well and
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there's there's rumor too and some suggestion that they may have even held Jabez for a period of time before before
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the homicide and before disposing of of the the body I just I'm so tired you can
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you just called them thugs well the captain probably called him pieces of [ __ ] too and and we won't get emails
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about that but we get some silly emails sometimes and you just think they killed
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a 14 year old boy about what label we give them you're worried about what label we gave the murderers
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hmm interesting yeah that's where I say focus on the victims focus on the crime and let's uh let's do our part to help
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rather than just be speed bumps along the way but that was jabez's case and we covered that back in January of 2020.
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interesting case it was one that that of course that we're passionate about and that's why it's on my list but also
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interesting from the perspective of yet another case where we worked with the private investigator this is an
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interesting case where the the private investigator usually they work with the family with family members of victims in
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this case they worked for basically the community they worked with the family obviously
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but they worked with law enforcement and worked with the community as a whole and
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one thing that we were really pounding our fist on the table when we when we covered jabez's case is that is what
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this case is it's a crime against that Community against that family against Jabez of course but in this case very
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very much a crime against the community as a whole all right my number three is a series we did called Shaker Heights
00:24:38
again pat on the back because it was a excellent theme song excellent and if people don't know well
00:24:46
go back and listen uh to that theme and and listen for the Shaker the shaker that's the best part the Rump Shaker
00:24:56
listen for the Rump Shaker I think it's because it was different I think the case is very fascinating obviously it's
00:25:04
not solved in some people's eyes solved in other people's eyes but I think it was just working with
00:25:12
with everybody from Bob Ruff to Tim from the missing Mara Murray working with Maggie James Renner a bunch of other
00:25:21
True Crime people just to try something different we had the transcripts of these interviews that took place and we
00:25:30
tried to lay out the story in a different manner than we normally do and also just let the transcripts speak for
00:25:37
themselves we didn't go hey this is what we think you should think which a lot of people
00:25:43
out there and went wait wait a second I'm used to you telling me what you think you forgot to do this in that
00:25:49
series so um people have requested you know that we cover the case our typical way our normal form but I
00:26:01
think it was just I mean it was a very long process between recording to other people and then
00:26:07
editing those all together and tweaking everybody's vocals to try to make them sound similar to little sound effects if
00:26:15
if you listen closely you'll hear like fax machines and stuff going off in the background during uh some of the
00:26:22
interviews or the interrogation so it was just kind of a different project and it was definitely a different project it
00:26:29
was kind of like a I mean it was a radio drama of how a case a real life case unfolded and one thing that I think is
00:26:39
unique and will take everybody behind the curtain here for a little bit but obviously it was it was fun for us
00:26:46
because we got to work with a lot of the friends that we've made along the way in
00:26:50
our true crime podcasting Adventure here but we started working on that that show
00:26:58
the actual production of Shaker Heights which was six episodes that came out in February but we started working on that
00:27:07
in our free time in our extra time after already working on our each case week after week in October of 2019. so it was
00:27:17
very much a long process for the colonel and the captain but it was fun along the
00:27:22
way and it was um we had to have a little party a little two-man garage party when it was
00:27:29
finally completed because it was it was a lot of hard work went into putting that together
00:27:38
[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers mates let the good time let the good times roll
00:28:25
let the good times roll let the good times roll in 2020. cheers to you Captain cheers from I'm a whole County
00:28:34
away we are playing it safe that's how you you social distance you you stay County counties away at minimum we're
00:28:45
both wearing our mask minimum of 15 miles apart in all directions from anybody who's living and breathing that
00:28:52
goes for our furry friends as well so long distance cheers to you my friend number two we are just blazing right
00:29:02
through our list blazing through all of 2020 burning that bridge right that gives us number two on the kernels list
00:29:12
I went with the Evansdale murders this was episodes 3 30 I'm sorry 393 and 394 back
00:29:24
in April this was the case of cousins lyric cook 10 years old and Elizabeth Collins eight
00:29:31
years old they were riding their bikes on a Friday afternoon in July of 2012. their grandmother
00:29:40
is believed to be the last one or one of the last people to have seen the young girls on that day and this would have
00:29:47
been around 12 20 p.m in the afternoon they went off riding their bikes near Myers Lake in Evansdale Iowa
00:29:57
where they were seen for the last time five months later their bodies were recovered at Seven
00:30:04
Bridges Park 25 miles away from the abduction site and to this day the killer their killer
00:30:14
or Killers remain at large this made it onto my list Captain because it had all of the elements that I think it takes to
00:30:24
one cover a case in its most thorough and almost thorough ability but also a case that has enough meat on
00:30:34
the bone that that you can you can start to formulate theories and suspects and speculation in your own mind this is a
00:30:44
perfect armchair detective case we we laid out the mapping of where they would have been at the abduction time we also
00:30:54
laid out possibilities of who could be involved or the type of person that would be involved or who had the ability
00:31:03
to abduct two girls at that time of day in that area and we went through the offender profile of the of the believe
00:31:12
Defender and so this is a case that again still unsolved after we covered it you know we covered
00:31:21
it in April don't know if we got to this on off the Record or not for those of you unfamiliar with off the Record if
00:31:29
there's an update on a case if if we get some new information on a case that's generally where we put that new
00:31:36
information so one one thing that I when I first got into True Crime be it on TV
00:31:43
or podcast one thing that I didn't like is rarely not most shows did never they never went and Revisited a case even
00:31:53
years after the fact and when when the captain and I said we were going to do True Crime we said you know what we're
00:31:59
going to cover these cases we're going to try to go more in depth than most shows and we're going to try to bring
00:32:04
you some tidbit of information that you may not hear anywhere else but it's true
00:32:10
and factual and it's important to the case but we're going to take it a step further
00:32:14
and when we have new information we're going to make sure that we bring it back to the audience and remind them hey this
00:32:21
case is still unsolved but here's a little new nugget that just came out be it from the area the media or law
00:32:28
enforcement themselves after we covered it and I don't I'm not there's no belief
00:32:33
that it's because we covered it but it doesn't hurt that we helped shine a light on this unsolved case double
00:32:39
homicide that in July of 2020 they were interviewing family about the case and this is uplifting to hear
00:32:48
one of the family members said I think that it will be solved soon now of course we're sitting here five months
00:32:54
later and we know that it is yet to be solved but that should still be uplifting and optimistic for everybody
00:33:02
out there because a lot of times in some of these cases we hear family members or
00:33:09
people in the community going yeah I don't think the police have a clue or yeah I think they stopped working this
00:33:15
case I can't believe they haven't solved it that's not what they're saying here in this Evansdale case we have positive
00:33:23
thinking we have positive uh response and saying I think it will be solved soon I'm hoping it will be it was
00:33:32
interesting too because so many people have tied this case I don't know if they're connected or not but we did
00:33:38
certainly talk about the possibility a lot of people have tied this case because it has some similarities to the
00:33:45
Delphi murders case so it was it was perfect and we didn't really plan this out Geniuses people
00:33:52
think we might be or as genius they're as dumb as people think we might be um I don't think we planned this out but
00:34:00
it was It was kind of perfect that we followed up the Evansdale murders our coverage of their case the following
00:34:08
week we did the Delphi murders discussion episode uh because there was a lot of rumors and stuff in the Delphi
00:34:16
case and a quick little reminder for again Evansdale case anyone with information still unsolved you can email
00:34:25
our missing Iowa girls at dps.state dot i a DOT u s yeah that was a fascinating case there there were so
00:34:37
many looking back looking back and going well that was a fascinating case but was
00:34:42
it one of my favorites and um it's not easy to put these lists together right it's not easy to take a look back on a
00:34:49
whole year and just narrow it down to five shows I thought the the liko Kenny case was very fascinating I thought our
00:34:59
interview with Bob Ruff about West Memphis Three was really good but also I think it's sometimes for us when when
00:35:06
it's looking back it could be as simple as well I I like the work I did on that show our list
00:35:15
would be very skewed compared to a listener's list yeah yeah the listeners well that's why people can hop on the
00:35:23
blog and type up your your favorite five for the year so we could see them there's like thousands of people right
00:35:29
now going this is the dumbest list of 2020 I've ever heard the stick around these are not there
00:35:39
this is not this this no I think my top and you know what who cares this is this
00:35:45
is my list and you got your list and I I'm not gonna lie to you Captain I was beating myself up pretty bad I was like
00:35:52
I was going through all of 2020 trying to make the hard decisions trying to narrow it down to five but then I had to
00:35:59
remind myself I'm like you know what this is just my list the captain is going to have his own list and I was
00:36:05
actually hoping that you would have different cases than what I had so that it would it automatically expands it to
00:36:13
10. for for all of us so so far uh without comparison we we did not sit down in advance and compare list here we
00:36:23
I have no idea what the captain's going to say as usual um so it's so far we've we've not hit on
00:36:30
any of the same cases what would your no bumpy bumpy flicky what was your number two Captain number
00:36:39
two and this is uh this is the moment when I realized last night when I was going over my list and double checking
00:36:46
it is I I think I I used to say I didn't care so much for Gore I don't think that's true anymore and I don't know if
00:36:57
that's I maybe that's how it's always been it's never really bothered me to talk
00:37:03
about like somebody could talk about a severed head and I I go okay and I think it's because I don't picture it I'm just
00:37:13
in the conversation so I think some people when they start talking about his hand was cut off or whatever I don't
00:37:21
picture it so it doesn't bother me so much where other people will hear graphic natured cases and uh it turns
00:37:32
them off and and some people can't listen to that and I respect that if that's not your thing so number two
00:37:39
is the ice box murders episode 443 and 4 444. those are recent episodes that we just did but it's very graphic
00:37:51
but there's also a lot of twists and turns yes it's a fascinating case and again it's another one of those cases
00:37:59
where it's technically unsolved but police are pretty certain who they believe did the double homicide and then
00:38:08
fled the area afterward but yeah it's a it's a fascinating case and some people have really put forward some interesting
00:38:17
theories and speculation in that case which leads you to some other Mysteries um Big Time Mysteries we should well and
00:38:26
I think this is the one where you were saying if if somebody's eating and it's like look if you turn on
00:38:33
a true crime podcast while you're eating that's on you right you made that decision I can't put
00:38:43
that on anymore we've done 400 and some episodes you kind of know what you're going to get so if you if you got that
00:38:50
turkey on rye put it into your mouth don't blame me yes my number one is and this is simply because one I
00:39:02
think the episodes themselves were were good and great and put together very well the storytelling Pat myself on the
00:39:09
back I thought I did a great job Captain was fantastic but more so it's about the
00:39:15
mystery this is a big time mystery for me this is one that keeps me up at night and when we dove into this case I
00:39:23
couldn't shake it for weeks and weeks and weeks I'm talking about the Las Cruces bowling alley Massacre which
00:39:30
occurred in Las Cruces New Mexico on February 10th of 1990. seven people were shot four were
00:39:38
shot fatally by two unidentified robbers at the Las Cruces bowling alley which is
00:39:46
on East Amador Avenue after they shot the victims robbed the place they set the building on fire well attempted to
00:39:55
burn down the entire building but started the fire in in the office where they shot the victims prior to the two
00:40:03
robbers leaving the building now these guys were spotted by several people so we have a good description of of what
00:40:11
the the offenders what the murderers look like but here we are 30 years later and it's still unsolved now this was the
00:40:21
case that we covered in it was on June 30th and July 1st and it was episode 409 of 410 Unsolved Mysteries and I'm
00:40:30
talking not the Netflix version I'm talking the original version with with the the king of True Crime TV Robert
00:40:39
Stack you know they covered this case way back when and what was very interesting was they covered it in a
00:40:46
very short four or five minute segment and it was simply because the case had just happened in February and I think
00:40:54
they released it like April the first week of April of that same year and it was really just Unsolved
00:41:01
Mysteries was a Big Show at the time lots of ratings reaching out to everyone across the United States and even Beyond
00:41:09
and they were really just trying to find the individuals that did this so Unsolved Mysteries put together a short
00:41:15
segment about the crimes themselves and as as cheesy as some of those reenactments can be on different shows
00:41:23
and they were a little cheesy on the Unsolved Mysteries one it was still horrific to watch I mean it was it right
00:41:30
this was a case that just shook me to the Core and so for that reason and many other
00:41:36
reasons that's why it's my number one but I was thinking about this after I put my list together and we talk about
00:41:43
Unsolved Mysteries Netflix has done two seasons I need to get caught up Captain I haven't watched any of the I think it
00:41:51
might be like a season and a half okay I don't know I haven't got this technically too yeah I haven't got to
00:41:57
summon what they're calling the volume two I guess I haven't got to some of the stories yet in volume two but I think
00:42:05
that this would be a fascinating case for Unsolved Mysteries Netflix to cover like like I said Unsolved Mysteries
00:42:12
covered this in just a short four or five minute segment back in the day this is a case that you could do long form
00:42:18
they could do one of their 45 minute or hour long segments on this case there are some very interesting theories and
00:42:28
speculation as said the offenders were seen by several people well this is also known a hugely popular case and what's
00:42:37
been good about the new Unsolved Mysteries is they've been covering cases that haven't been covered a hundred
00:42:45
times by other sources that's correct so for them to go back to uh something that
00:42:51
they try to shine light on so many years ago and then to revisit it again a case
00:42:57
that's not brought up by a hundred different sources yeah so my number one for 2020 I'm going to go with Las Cruces
00:43:04
bowling alley Massacre yeah a lot of people in that case um a lot of people from that area wrote
00:43:12
into us to let us know some different local theories and a lot of people believe that the owner got
00:43:19
into some he was kind of like famously known for gambling so the community eventually I
00:43:27
think kind of just chalked it up to the idea that well this guy was a massive Gambler and he probably didn't pay
00:43:34
somebody and this is their revenge or the drugs were at the heart of it we had the weird situation where the owners the
00:43:42
bowling alley's owner's son was involved with some shady characters and involved
00:43:47
with drugs himself so there's some very interesting theories very plausible theories as well one thing we did and
00:43:55
one thing that I was pretty proud of in our coverage of Las Cruces Bowl was I I can't say that we definitively
00:44:03
linked the bowling alley Massacre to another crime but we linked it to another crime that there's a lot of
00:44:12
similarities and there's a lot of Reason to Believe whoever committed this previous crime was involved in in the
00:44:20
later crime at the Las Cruces Bowl yeah I think it's interesting with these towns where
00:44:27
a big crime takes place like the Pike County murders were were pretty close to Adams County
00:44:36
and a lot of my friends that live down there and I I used to work down there but it's interesting to have
00:44:43
such a horrific crime happen and that the the community around uh the crime comes up with multiple possible
00:44:53
solutions or possible I guess the way possible story lines of of why it played out uh the way it did and how it played
00:45:04
out the way it did and then they can almost move on but until they do that because like I said a lot of friends
00:45:12
from that area I had peop friends that could not stop talking about it but once they came up with their own Theory it
00:45:19
was like old news to them then obviously later the truth comes out and it was none of the theories that they were
00:45:26
bringing to my attention but it's almost like they had to be able to wrap their head around it before they can move on
00:45:32
with their own lives and I think that's what I saw by getting so many emails the
00:45:37
the emails that we got from the local people were fascinating because there's also theories on where these two
00:45:44
individuals may have gone after committing this crime because we have the descriptions of them their faces
00:45:51
were plastered everywhere in that area so it's very hard to believe that they would be able to stick around and remain
00:45:58
in the area and then still go undetected all right best of 2020. let's go over the list real quick how about you go
00:46:08
over yours real quick okay so mine were in order from from five down to one number five mind Hunter John Douglas
00:46:17
episodes 4 45 and 446. Taylor Robinson is my number four from June of 2020 episode 406 and 407 Jabez span
00:46:30
from January episodes 366 and 367 and then at number two I had the Evansdale murders this is the double homicide we
00:46:40
covered in an April episode 393 394. and my number one was the Las Cruces bowling alley Massacre from episodes 409
00:46:52
and 410. all right number five for me was Hi-Fi murders episode 402 and 403 number four was Mar Murray interview
00:47:03
with Julie Murray episode 368 and 369 number three Shaker Heights series I don't know what that is off the top of
00:47:14
my head I know we did we put that out in February if you just go and search Shaker Heights True Crime garage it pops
00:47:21
up number two the ice box Murders episodes 443 and 444 number one and this is how I know it's number one
00:47:34
of best of 2020. best of 2020 I have mine hunter so it's the only episode that repeats on our top five
00:47:47
lists yes it's number five for you it's number one for me but because there's a crossover that means it's number one
00:47:54
there we go it's settled 2020. but for me because I wasn't even really a part of the episode I mean I did the intros
00:48:02
and the outros and I probably read the the commercials or whatever I got a nice email the guy said you're really good
00:48:10
when you just read the commercials you dumb dumb I he goes no no I got another one that says I really like when you sit
00:48:18
there and you shut your mouth and then you read the commercials you dumb dumb I was like oh I love you too
00:48:26
haters gonna hate but yeah mind Hunter and I think because one I had to edit the interview
00:48:33
and so normally you start cutting out the US and the uh you know weird noises that people make and John makes a lot of
00:48:42
them because there's so much information in his head that he's sifting through and I think I edited like two or three
00:48:50
minutes and then I went back and listened to it and it made absolutely no sense and all I was editing out was us and uh
00:49:01
you know noises really so then I just went he this doesn't make any sense I just have to kind of keep it
00:49:08
the way it is but what I thought was so cool being a part of the show and and starting the show years ago in your
00:49:16
garage and and sweating and sweat dripping on notes I remember one time looking down at my notes but I couldn't
00:49:24
read them because the sweat made the ink smear everywhere the old hot garage but
00:49:32
I think with all this time passing and so many years of doing this show there's multiple times in the episode
00:49:41
again where John Douglas is sifting through tons of information thousands and thousands of
00:49:49
cases he's covered or read about or just maybe had to talk about in an interview
00:49:54
and sometimes when he gets stuck on a name he would defer to you Nick what's the
00:50:02
guy's name and again something so small but by like the third time he did it you realize
00:50:12
well this guy is um having a conversation with the crispiest of the kernels he's
00:50:23
having a conversation eye to eye if that makes any sense and he was deferring to
00:50:29
you and to think about where we started and the hours that we have spent talking about
00:50:37
crime to hear somebody like John Douglas basically talking to you as if you guys
00:50:43
were equals it was neat to experience it was almost like watching your buddy go take batting practice at like Wrigley
00:50:52
Field or something and and a hit in a home run or something why why they're doing a batting practice and maybe I
00:50:59
enjoyed it too because I wasn't on the episode well I think some things that were so great about
00:51:05
just that conversation with John first off I did have somebody approach me and they said um
00:51:12
John Douglas that guy yeah he's fascinating but he he says uh uh a lot and I I said I had to inform the person
00:51:21
he said well you do understand Mr Douglas is not a TV personality he's not someone who spent his life studying
00:51:30
broadcasting or someone who is on TV week after week he's a real life FBI agent who's now retired and he's willing
00:51:40
to talk about his career in cases that he has actually worked and so when you hear those us I liken it to you know
00:51:49
when we were little kids Captain people had these Encyclopedia Britannica where you had volume after volume and if you
00:51:58
looked at it on a bookshelf it usually took up the entire shelf and you would have a volume for a all the way through
00:52:05
to Z and then there was a a book full of maps and and geography and other things
00:52:10
so we're talking 30 books big in the collection and it covered darn near everything you could think of I think of
00:52:21
John Douglas as a walking real life crime encyclopedia and those us you are hearing that's him mentally
00:52:31
verbally flipping through the pages in his mind of cases that he's worked and you have to keep in mind too there's
00:52:39
probably a lot of stuff along the way that he's not allowed to talk about but he witnessed it he saw it he experienced
00:52:46
it he worked it and he has to remind himself when he goes through some of those cases of the things he can and
00:52:54
cannot say so that's him kind of sifting it out in real life in real time yeah John Douglas is a has square and he
00:53:02
smells better better than old books but yeah he's kind of like a walking encyclopedia my my family was so poor
00:53:09
that you would have to make payments so we had a and b but we never got past that
00:53:16
so it was we had encyclopedia a and then B and then we stopped making the payments and so every time uh we had to
00:53:25
do a report I tried to pick a subject that was a or b yeah well in so if you have any questions and the the question
00:53:34
involves anything that starts with the letter A or B Captain is your go-to guy anything after forget about it
00:53:41
I forget about it I'm I'm a walking two book Encyclopedia set well and the other thing I want to that's the other
00:53:50
thing I want to point out too with with that interview with with John Douglas that
00:53:56
maybe well not maybe but people wouldn't know this we did not supply him any questions in advance he he didn't yeah
00:54:05
this is off the top yeah he didn't ask for any questions in advance some sometimes the interviews we do they want
00:54:11
questions in advance or they say this is the topic and the only topic that we can
00:54:16
talk about no when we talked to John Douglas this last time he said ask me anything about anything so he walked
00:54:23
into that completely blind completely unprepared to know what questions we were going to talk about what cases we
00:54:30
were going to talk about and just fascinating the the answers that he supplied to to us and the listeners out
00:54:37
there but yeah good list I want to thank everybody for supporting us this year and look sometimes
00:54:48
we make mistakes during the episode sometimes we're not on our game right and and I don't
00:54:55
mind when people call us out for that I don't mind people sending emails saying hey you said this
00:55:02
and and that term is bad towards this group of individuals right I don't have any I don't have any problem with people
00:55:12
pointing out areas where I can learn and to grow and I think that's one of the reasons why we've been doing this so
00:55:20
many years is I feel like we continue to grow and we continue to get better we're always trying to fight the good
00:55:28
fight for the victims of the case yeah bringing awareness to unsolved cases and keeping these stories alive and keeping
00:55:37
them in the in the thoughts of everyone out there and you can do your part by like the captain says not just listening
00:55:45
but telling a friend telling someone else hey maybe it's not telling them hey I love the garage hey I love True Crime
00:55:52
garage check out this show but maybe it's hey did you know this unsolved murder or this cold case took place here
00:55:59
in in our state or our hometown and it was years ago that that helps as well keeping the cases alive that's what
00:56:08
we're hoping to do and bring a little bit of an entertainment along the way so your list Captain fascinating my list
00:56:18
even better but um go to truecrimegarage.com let us know what your favorite show of 2020 was for
00:56:26
you [Applause] foreign [Music] thank you guys so much for listening make sure you subscribe to the show hope
00:56:44
you guys had as much fun going over this list as we did for all of our old episodes download the Stitcher app
00:56:51
they're free and check out our bonus show called off the Record and join us back here in the garage next week until
00:56:59
then we want you to be good be kind and don't litter foreign [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 65
    Best overall
  • 60
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Best performance

Episode Highlights

  • Top Five Shows of 2020
    The hosts discuss their favorite episodes from the past year, highlighting memorable moments and cases.
    “Every episode was number one, tied for number one!”
    @ 03m 22s
    November 10, 2022
  • Taylor Robinson's Case
    A spotlight on the tragic case of Taylor Robinson, a 19-year-old nursing student who went missing.
    “We need more people like Taylor Robinson in this world.”
    @ 11m 29s
    November 10, 2022
  • Jabez Spann's Tragic Story
    The heartbreaking case of Jabez Spann, a 14-year-old boy whose remains were found years after his disappearance.
    “He had his whole life ahead of him... this really stinks because it's the murder of a child.”
    @ 19m 57s
    November 10, 2022
  • The Evansdale Murders
    The case of two young cousins who disappeared while biking in 2012 remains unsolved.
    “This is a perfect armchair detective case.”
    @ 30m 44s
    November 10, 2022
  • Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre
    Seven people were shot in a robbery gone wrong, and the case remains unsolved 30 years later.
    “This is a big time mystery for me.”
    @ 39m 17s
    November 10, 2022
  • John Douglas: A Living Encyclopedia
    John Douglas is like a walking real life crime encyclopedia, sharing his vast knowledge.
    “I think of John Douglas as a walking real life crime encyclopedia.”
    @ 52m 21s
    November 10, 2022
  • Growth Through Mistakes
    Acknowledging mistakes helps us grow and improve in our journey.
    “We continue to grow and we continue to get better.”
    @ 55m 24s
    November 10, 2022
  • Keeping Cases Alive
    The importance of keeping unsolved cases in public consciousness is emphasized.
    “Keeping these stories alive and keeping them in the thoughts of everyone.”
    @ 55m 37s
    November 10, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • We took a vote and everybody confirmed every one of the shows was absolutely great.
    Best of 2020 ////// 452
  • Just think about it all those years ago... you're gonna interview John Douglas twice.
    Best of 2020 ////// 452
  • It was definitely a different project.
    Best of 2020 ////// 452
  • I think it will be solved soon.
    Best of 2020 ////// 452
  • This is a big time mystery for me.
    Best of 2020 ////// 452
  • I think of John Douglas as a walking real life crime encyclopedia.
    Best of 2020 ////// 452

Key Moments

  • Cheers to Friends01:31
  • Best of 202003:41
  • Long Distance Cheers28:56
  • Las Cruces Massacre43:01
  • Garage Memories49:16
  • Real Life Insights51:40
  • Learning from Mistakes55:16
  • Awareness for Victims55:28

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown