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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick in The
00:02:18
Jerk store just called and they are running out of my co-host I give to you the captain hey thank you so much T-Bone
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it's good to be seing and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a France
00:02:31
[Music] today ladies and germs we still got some ice cold pills ners in the old garage
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fridge we are drinking Lazy River pills by our friends over at New Trail Brewing
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this is an updated version of a traditional German pser with German Munich malts for a highly crisp and
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refreshing light and flavorful pser with Citra hops to add a bright orange Citrus
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aroma ABV 4.4% garage grade four out of five bottle caps and here's some cheers to our friends first up we have Daniel
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from Fargo North Dakota cheers mate and we also have Ashley and Kelly and Bakersville North Carolina thank you to
00:03:17
everyone for going to our website and helping out with this week's beer fund providing the funds for the old beer run
00:03:25
yeah BW R you in beer run make sure you go to True Crime garage and sign up on the mailing list and
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Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:43
[Music] crime early on into the murder inves tigation of Charlotte Fano the authorities were looking into another
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unsolved homicide now oddly enough Captain this one took place three years prior and hundreds of miles away this is
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the still unsolved murder of Sherry L Lewis a realtor from decar Illinois who was murdered on August 5th
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1994 and a brief overview of that case is as follows on August 5th 199 4 30-year-old Sherry L Lewis of decar
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Illinois she's a realtor she was found deceased in a mon County residence that was for sale which she had an
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appointment to show this home sher's case has been reexamined and thoroughly investigated by mon County Sheriff's
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Office under former mon County Sheriff Buffett assisted by special homicide investigator John Scag Skelly wag this
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is from the justice for Sher Lewis Facebook page they say their full investigative report containing
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overwhelming evidence solving her brutal murder has been in the hands of mon County State's Attorney's Office since
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May of 2018 former mon County State's Attorney J Scott failed to bring Justice for Sher
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Lewis this is they're trying to Rally here and try to get support to finally take this thing to trial if the evidence
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warrants that so I'm bringing this up because it is all a part of the Charlotte Fano case this is something
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that they reference and that police looked into now I don't know who reached out to who right I don't know if decar
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Illinois reached out to the state police in Pennsylvania or if the State Police in Pennsylvania reached out to mon
00:05:52
County in Illinois but we do know that they were talking and they were examining the details of both cases what
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we would later be told after a few months they're not saying that they're ruling out the possibility that the two
00:06:06
could be connected what they do say is we didn't find any direct connections from one to the other I think in this
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episode captain and I'm reluctant to say this because I I'm hesitant because I hate to go down these roads say it come
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on say it I think you're going to hear me say two things in this episode that you've never heard me say in almost 700
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episodes of True Crime garage that you appreciate my work and my effort I say that all the time you just you just hit
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the stop button uh and and erase it in the editing process and the people think I hate you so but here what's weird to
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me Captain I never think that these cases I I think maybe in the alphabet murders case that we talked about that
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that might be the only other time that I was like yeah these two cases that are hundreds of miles away and years apart
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might be connected I almost never say that because I never believe it and guess what it's because the number
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numbers don't pan out it's almost never true yeah statistically it's it's very low but this this case is strange
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because you were pointing something you know off mic before is if you Google search images of either one of these
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victims they look very similar ex that's exactly right and here here's the weird
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thing like the only reason why this rattled me a little bit I I don't think that they're connected I want to say
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that but there's one stunning fact that that is of course my opinion but I can't get over it when I
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was is it a fact or a opinion it's a opinionated fact damn it the the thing is though when I was first reviewing
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Charlotte Fan's case I saw a picture of Sher L Lewis but it wasn't labeled and I
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just made the assumption that it was a picture of her from maybe 10 or 12 years earlier prior to the her murder and then
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when I looked up Sherelle Lewis just Google image like you said the first picture that came up I thought well they
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got it wrong that's just an old picture of Charlotte Fano and sure enough I click on a couple websites and very
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quickly realized no that is a picture of Sher Lewis to me they look very similar
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yeah Charlotte looks like she could be Sherry's mother so Sherry's 30 years old when she's killed and Char's 40 when
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she's killed and again I I mean not exactly spot-on but at first glance it was enough for me to think that the
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Sherry Lewis picture was a picture of Charlotte when she was 28 or 30 years old for me it's got me a little rattled
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because I can't get over the fact that they were both working in the same line of work the same title job title they
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look very similar and that they were both showing a home that they had appointment now Sherry was beaten and
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strangled and then we know in Charlotte's case it was a gun in ligature strangulation I don't know enough
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details of the Sherry Lewis case to 100% say that I think that they're connected
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my gut tells me that they're not but we do know that police looked at it we do know that they did say they couldn't
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find any direct connection between the two now if you go to that Justice for Sherry Lewis Facebook page you're also
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going to find at least one or two other realtors that were killed uh there's one
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from 1984 oddly enough September 11 1984 which would be exactly 13 years before Charlotte Fano was killed so just some
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very weird strange things with this case and I've got to tell you captain on the
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surface this case to me was very intriguing but there there's this case is very fascinating and I hate to say that
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because there are people that are are related and loved Charlotte and were great friends with
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her and I hate that they would hear or have to hear some schmuck in a garage yeah pencil dick that's a beer and a
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half deep say this case is fascinating you know but but I feel okay to say it here in this case because oddly enough I
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reviewing material and found a detective that was working on this case and he said those exact words all right so two
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wrongs make a right that's really stuck with me in this case because I told you I told you when I arrived at the garage
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today I will be happy to be done with these episodes because this case is is really messed with me over the past 3 to
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four days there's something very funny about this case that I can't quite put my finger on and I I feel like it's just
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one piece of the puzzle that's that that's just missing that's that would put this whole thing together there's
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something very strange about this Charlotte Fano case that's that's really got me shook can I can I say a thought
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that I had without you uh putting me in the old pervert Roundup crew sure but the one one of the things
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that kind of stuck out to me in this is because we don't know if she was targeted or if it was just this location
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was targeted and I would or I hate to interrupt yeah you hate that but keep in mind we don't know if either were
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targeted right right but continue I'm sorry but we do know because of the call into the real estate company we we don't
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know if there was multiple calls that day from that number I I would think that's something that law enforcement
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would want to look up because what if this killer calls and a and a mail answers the phone and then they talk for
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a little bit but make no appointment and then call back and what if there was evidence that they kept calling back
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until they got a female Victim Because what do we know about crimes and killers they a lot of the crimes are sexually
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motivated and so that would seem a little strange as far as like this whole realtor
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scenario and this is where I don't want people going wow that Captain he's one pervert but
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uh I'm going to shift this a little bit pornography there's a real estate agent category in
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pornography so I just don't think it's that far of a stretch for again a sexually motivated crime for
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somebody to be watching this category and then developing a a sicker fantasy does that
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does that make any sense yeah I mean obviously here here's the thing I I shouldn't say Obviously it makes total
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sense to me because what we've seen time and time again especially with serial offenders is that sex and violence is
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all wrapped up into one ugly package for them right and a lot of them will use pornographic materials to kind of keep
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those urges at Bay and so yes it it to me it makes complete and total sense I am very glad that you started to go down
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this road what I wanted to point out here is you love looking at porn the facts okay we're going to get into a lot
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of opinion stuff a lot of theories a lot of speculation here and there's a lot of
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it in this case and I think that is in part why the detective even States this is such a fascinating case but when you
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break it down in it simplest of forms what do we know what do we know about the killer we know only two things in my
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opinion a they were looking for a victim they called and made an appointment and
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were looking for a victim now you can throw in some variables there where they targeting Charlotte when they called
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right or were they just h for as you said a female realtor victim then you go okay
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location the location seems to be important well it might not this location itself could have been targeted
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or not targeted we don't know because we don't know the details of that conversation between Charlotte and the
00:14:49
person that she had on the phone well let's just be clear on something and maybe you can clear this up for me and
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the listening the beautiful listeners like I like to say a fictitious name was given correct I'm
00:15:02
assuming that we know whether that was a male name that was given or a female name my guess is that it has to be a
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male name from my understanding the name's never been released but what we do know is that Charlotte
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did tell at least one other person that she worked with that she had this appointment with and it was a male
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caller so for him to give a a female name would seem to be a little bit of uh of an indicator of maybe I shouldn't
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go on this appointment or take this call seriously but back to what do we know we
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do know that the regardless if she was targeted or not we know that the killer was looking for a victim with that phone
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call number one and number two is it's a premeditated murder a gun was used in this homicide and is not recovered at
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the scene so it didn't come from the vacant home he likely didn't pull it off of Charlotte in some kind of scuffle the
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this killer was looking for a victim and arrived on the scene prepared and ready
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to kill right but I also just want to be clear so just because we have a male caller doesn't necessarily mean that we
00:16:17
have a male killer correct correct and and that's why I that's why I wanted to go down that road in the last episode to
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point out very clearly that while it stands to reason that the most likely perpetrator of this homicide is
00:16:34
that caller who arranged that meeting it's not out of the realm of complete possibility that that the person that
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called is not the person that killed right somebody could have set up this Arrangement and then she arrives and
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she's either ambushed or there's a sneak attack by somebody should she did not anticipate of seeing there at that home
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and that person then killed her and I think that's why in part this case is so fascinating because there's so much of
00:17:06
the speculation that can lead you to very certain theories but there but everything's very open-ended with this
00:17:13
case it leaves the possibilities very open in this case now I want to get into Circle back to the phone calls because
00:17:24
ring ring ring many sources tell us one thing and only one source that I could find tells us a further detail on that
00:17:32
item right so we talked about this Arrangement was made the day prior the day before the murder we would later
00:17:40
learn police would eventually come off in in the corner eventually come off and narrow down that window of time in
00:17:47
question for us the time of death which is so important and key to any investigation because that goes to means
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and opportunity right and we said during the trailer that means and opportunity are the are the very best tools deciding
00:18:04
factors to separate a good suspect from anybody else who actually was unaccounted for for during the time of
00:18:13
death right now they narrowed down the time of death and later released it to be first they were saying 1 to 4: p.m.
00:18:22
and that I think the police may have been forced to kind of show their hand on this one because what happened
00:18:29
Captain was 2 weeks after the murder she's murdered on a Thursday on a Thursday Two Weeks Later police set up a
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bunch of roadblocks in that neighborhood and surrounding that neighborhood and they
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were stopping all passer buyers and asking them if they regularly travel in this area if if they happen to be there
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two weeks prior between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m. and so these people were later
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interviewed by news stations and they're like yeah you know what the what were the police asking you well here you know
00:19:01
they're asking me this that and the other thing but they wanted to know if I was here two Thursdays ago between 1:
00:19:07
and 400 p.m. so that kind of shows you right away that they've already honed in on that that time period that three-hour
00:19:13
window 1: to 4:00 p.m. the police and then later the police come out and say the time of death the suspected time of
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death is between 1 and 300 p.m. so they got a 2hour window that killer had to get into that
00:19:28
area and out of that area and she was killed sometime between 1 and 3 now another thing that we would later
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learn several sources come out months later that say Charlotte went out to that appointment and then returned to
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the office and told several people that she worked with that she got stood up that the male caller that made the
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appointment never arrived and she got tired of waiting around and came back to the office
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right what happens then is once she's back at the office phone rings wing wing she takes the call hello it's the person
00:20:08
she had the appointment with saying oh I got I got tied up I couldn't make it to
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the appointment I was running late could could we still go and see the house well
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again though this is also kind of a remote area is it possible that the killer went to find the house and just
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couldn't find the house well again we don't know the details of that and and there are several people in their
00:20:27
reports that that have said over the years well she was a real go-getter she wouldn't turn down the opportunity to
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show a house and sell the house yeah that's true I get that but let's take it a step further she's been doing this for
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like 15 16 years I'm sure it's not the first time that somebody has called and said I got tied up in a meeting I I got
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caught in traffic I uh my kids suck and I couldn't leave the house um you know so she's probably had several times that
00:20:53
somebody didn't show or was running late and so this probably didn't didn't set her off didn't raise any flags for
00:21:01
Charlotte and she tells a couple people this at the office and then she goes out
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and meets she goes to that that appointment back at the house on Chelsea Lane and we do know that she's killed
00:21:13
there here's here's some of the details that that really set me off in this case
00:21:19
captain and I kept harping on this yesterday the devils in the details the problem with these details is it's said
00:21:28
time and time again she went for a 1:00 appointment and then she was killed and we do know the time in question the
00:21:34
suspected time of death is between 1 and 300 p.m. what was the original Arrangement
00:21:40
if if he calls and says I couldn't make it and could we could we still go see the
00:21:46
house and the people at the office are saying well she left at 1:00 and she had a 1:00
00:21:51
appointment what was the original Arrangement was it for 11:00 a.m. or noon and he didn't make it or was the
00:21:58
appointment always for 1 and she actually came back and then left after 1:00 which doesn't seem to stand a
00:22:05
reason because if people saw her alive at 1:00 or 1:15 or 1:30 then your suspected time of death wouldn't be
00:22:12
between 1: and 3 exactly and the reason why I'm focusing in on this so much and why this pisses me off that we do not
00:22:19
know this detail and you know what there are people out there that know this detail clarification please because her
00:22:27
husband who would be ruled out as far as police say because it's about 3 or 4 months
00:22:33
into the investigation there's a newspaper headline comes out that the police have eliminated have ruled out
00:22:40
husband in realtor's death they rule him out why did they rule him out he has an
00:22:46
alibi did some digging Christian's work schedule he worked 10hour days he had a 20 to 30 minute commute to his job his
00:22:55
his schedule was 1:00 p.m. to 11: p.m. makes a lot of sense and we know that there are other things backing up
00:23:03
that information because what he gets home after 11: p.m. he gets home a little after 11:30 talks to his his
00:23:10
daughter calls in that his wife is missing the reason why that time period is so important to me and what the
00:23:17
original appointment was for what time it was for was because even though police say that they have moved on from
00:23:24
the family that they have ruled out the husband they tell us their ruling out the husband because they can confirm
00:23:30
100% that he was at work between 1:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on that Thursday and had a 20 to 30 minute commute both ways
00:23:39
if someone and I've I never say this on True Crime garage if someone were to set
00:23:44
up a hit and it were to be a husband to take out his wife what time am I scheduling it for when I'm at work when
00:23:50
I'm accounted for when I'm going to have dozens of people tell you nope I didn't
00:23:54
kill my wife because they all saw me hanging out there they all saw me me working there the reason why I think
00:24:00
that this detail is so important is because if it was a in fact a hit that was arranged by the
00:24:07
husband it would it would fall in line with some of the details we do know about the case Charlotte wouldn't may
00:24:15
not recognize the voice of the person he hired especially if she doesn't know who
00:24:20
the person is that he he hired but two if the caller on Wednesday originally scheduled the appointment for
00:24:29
one it it drives me mad to to sit there and think that it's happen stance that this appointment is scheduled for a
00:24:39
time that this dude's also scheduled to be at work I'm not saying that that the two can't both have happened I'm saying
00:24:47
it it leads me to believe and I've never said on the show before that I think that there's a hit I think that this
00:24:53
case is a hit I think that I think the most two plausible things to me are either a a complete freaking stranger
00:25:01
killed this woman right and I think if that's the case they may never solve this
00:25:06
case most likely not they have been so tight lipped about some things I think that that police think they have an idea
00:25:14
of what actually happened here MH and so let's take this a few steps further well
00:25:20
there's I'm not saying that it is concrete evidence but sometimes that's why law enforcement is very tight lipped
00:25:28
about things is because there are certain pieces of evidence that they they know can't get out because it would
00:25:36
basically crumble their whole case against a certain individual and if they're hoping
00:25:43
to let's say they they wanted to follow the husband to see if he could lead them
00:25:50
to the killer or if they wanted to tap his phone or uh surveil this guy what better way to get him to act to
00:26:00
lead you to the killer than to publicly say well we ruled him out we ruled him out because we confirmed 100% that he
00:26:07
was at work that day during the time in question yeah because just because they roll you out
00:26:14
to a public you know newspaper or whatever or even tell him to his face we ruled you out the police are allowed to
00:26:22
lie during an investigation well not only that they're ruling him out as the killer not ruling him out as being
00:26:29
involved in the homicide exactly ruling him out as the actual killer but also law enforcement is not the only tight
00:26:38
lip organization quote unquote in in this case sometimes you have a case where look at
00:26:47
Deli very tight lipped law enforcement very vocal family trying to get the word out uh trying to get information coming
00:26:59
in this one tight lipped law enforcement and it seems like the family was pretty
00:27:04
tight lipped as well yeah and and we need to be completely Fair here because they could the family meaning her
00:27:11
daughter and her husband they could have been tight lipped and shy away from the cameras or
00:27:19
the newspapers just at a pure Devastation their world is completely turned upside down they're completely
00:27:25
heartbroken and that's why they didn't do so much talking to the media and one thing that does make me
00:27:33
doubt this husband being involved a little bit is the the fact that we do know and I had to do a good amount of
00:27:42
digging to figure this out that the husband was the one that actually called 911 the following morning and that led
00:27:47
to her body being found now it also wouldn't be the first time that somebody would lead police to a body of somebody
00:27:55
that they've killed well because it'd be pretty suspicious your wife doesn't come
00:27:59
home in the morning you s and do nothing yeah in the morning you're like well I I
00:28:04
guess she just didn't come home last night guess I don't have to make as much coffee in the morning yeah let's get
00:28:10
back to the other possibility that I don't think we can rule out either is the complete stranger possibility
00:28:16
stranger danger somebody cold calls this realtor office looking for a victim and
00:28:22
needs a secluded vacant ready to move into home to carry out their the dirty deed of of homicide Done Dirt Cheap one
00:28:31
thing that that for me pointed away from a complete stranger is one the motive yes it could be a Thrill Kill but many
00:28:41
of these thrill kills are sexually motivated there's a sexual component to them now one detail that has been
00:28:49
released is that Charlotte was not only found fully clothed but still wearing her coat her jacket so that made suggest
00:28:58
to many that there was no sexual component to the case but I'm I'm going to throw a a
00:29:07
wrench into everything that that most people believe about homicides when they try to look at a crime scene and please
00:29:15
allow me Captain to talk out of both sides of my face at the same time normally do but this comes from a very
00:29:21
well-respected detective and somebody that we've talked about on the show before Joe Kennedy he
00:29:29
says be careful and do not assume there is a close personal relationship between
00:29:34
the suspect and victim based on evidence of Overkill example excessive stab wounds extensive blood force trauma
00:29:43
Etc at the crime scene if ligatures and restraining devices are present there was likely a sexual component to the
00:29:51
murder this should be considered before exploring other motives unless it is obvious another crime gone bad robbery
00:29:59
burglary home invasion or the victim was restrained so the primary crime could be
00:30:05
completed okay so that's that's interesting to to observe here because there is somewhat of Overkill involved
00:30:14
in this case we mentioned ligature regulation we mentioned The Gunshot she was actually shot twice once in the back
00:30:22
of the head and once in the face just below the left eye what Kennedy is pointing out here is
00:30:30
that just that act of strangulation ligature strangulation may even though our victims found completely
00:30:38
clothed could still have a sexual component to it so with that with that possible
00:30:45
sexual component I don't think that we can completely rule out the idea of a complete stranger a complete pervert
00:30:52
stranger carrying out this homicide [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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00:33:44
cheers Captain it's getting hot here in the garage Colonel's get hot tub Colonel's getting angry and worked up
00:33:51
here now no this is a it's these are difficult because again a setup job for who for um a hired
00:34:04
killer or just let's have a mail call but who's waiting there for her her husband yeah I I I would think he
00:34:17
couldn't he couldn't have been there we we know that to be fact right we know 100% he was at work at the time that she
00:34:24
was murdered right right but I was just trying to point out like I have a male caller and then a female real estate
00:34:31
agent that has some kind of beef with her I would think because this is such a possibility that there would be some
00:34:40
rumors of possible infidelity in in her relationship and Charlotte's relationship with her
00:34:48
husband so I did catch some wind of those rumors um I but none of that comes from any of the newspapers or any of
00:34:58
what I would consider to be trusted sources none of it ever comes from police um from my understanding that
00:35:05
those rumors might have been office talk office gossip um there there are people that
00:35:11
expand on that a little bit that say that he suspected her of having an affair and she was adamant that she was
00:35:17
not having an affair there are other people that say that the office gossip was that she might have been
00:35:23
romantically seeing a client or maybe another agent I mean if you were to have an affair this would be uh a line of
00:35:32
work that would would complement hiding that from your spouse right you we all seen American Beauty you'd be doing it
00:35:39
in every house all over the city okay maybe you would be pervert Roundup but here and and and who knows maybe there
00:35:49
is some truth to those rumors but maybe there's not again I don't I wouldn't say
00:35:53
that any of those rumors are coming from trusted sources a quick way to push somebody into having an affair is
00:36:00
constantly accuse them of having an affair when they're not having an affair well there's some weird again
00:36:07
there's a lot of weird stuff about this case and I haven't got to the weirdest of it all the but the one weird thing
00:36:14
too is the the couple the fanos had just moved into what was kind of like a life goal
00:36:22
for them they they had moved into a new home 6 weeks or eight weeks before she's
00:36:28
killed they bought a piece of land and had a home a custom home built on that piece of land and they had her daughter
00:36:36
his stepdaughter again I want to be very clear about this there's no indication that this guy was a bad husband or a bad
00:36:44
stepfather and I know that I said well maybe he ordered a hit on his wife yeah I get it but everything that I've seen
00:36:51
and review what is it but listen for a second I want that's what I'm going out of my way to point this out out because
00:36:58
I'm saying that there are details of the case that lead you to that theory time and time again there's nothing in his
00:37:04
personality that leads you to that theory his personality from my understanding Captain this man passed
00:37:10
away in 2014 and maintained a very close relationship with his stepdaughter up until the day he
00:37:19
died and not only close relationship keep in mind she and her I believe it was even her fiance was living with the
00:37:28
fanos at the time of Charlotte's death right and I believe that his stepdaughter and fiance then turned
00:37:35
husband lived with him for several years after Charlotte was murdered and look this guy was a successful guy so he he's
00:37:43
no dummy and but and I say that because when your wife is murdered of course law enforcement is going to look
00:37:55
at you you should expect that I think it's the ones that fight that and it doesn't seem like this individual fought
00:38:04
that at all it seems like in every turn that the family was cooperative with law
00:38:11
enforcement when law enforcement is tight lipped you're going to get more rumors and more speculation that just
00:38:18
happens in these cases and every thing that police said along the way is that the family was extremely Cooperative
00:38:28
with their investigation and I believe he's the only individual the husband is the only individual that they cleared
00:38:35
publicly correct now here's here's the weirdest and strangest of the details and the this is what circles back to
00:38:43
what I was talking about earlier the fact that we have several people come forward very trusted sources
00:38:51
saying that Charlotte returned to the office then received another phone call and then went back to the
00:38:58
property now to be clear if she was running around on her husband she may not have been at that
00:39:06
property in the first place and these calls could be there could be a more mysterious element to them maybe she's
00:39:13
lying about her whereabouts maybe she's lying about who she talked to her comings and goings right that would
00:39:19
stand a reason if she is having a secret affair but let's push that completely aside and go down this rad
00:39:27
there is a source out there that says and I'm throwing out a buy or beware here on this on this information
00:39:35
but I also don't have any even though I've not been able to confirm it double triple check it I don't really have any
00:39:41
reason to doubt the information either or the source the information is that now we have two phone calls that police
00:39:49
were going to be concerned about the one setting up the appointment for the next
00:39:55
day which would be the day of the murder and then the one that she receives when
00:39:58
she returns saying well that person stood me up never showed up at the meeting I I came back and then gets
00:40:04
another phone call and goes back out this Source says that police attempted to locate where those calls
00:40:13
came from and that they could not determine the source of the first call but they
00:40:20
did the second call now this is going to be pretty simple when I lay it out for you
00:40:27
the second call they traced it back to a pay phone at a local mall and it's my understanding that in
00:40:37
1997 where this phone was this pay phone it was across the street within viewing distance of the
00:40:48
real estate office that Charlotte worked at now that's strange are going through
00:40:56
through all these other previous homicide cases that we've covered we can we can fill in some of the blanks for
00:41:01
you here if you've not listened to all 690 episodes of our wonderful garage coverage we know that that these are not
00:41:12
cell phones you know nowadays we talk about DNA solving murder cases cell phones are solving just as many murder
00:41:20
cases if not more than DNA that's because the phone can track you they can the victim they can trace
00:41:27
the victim they can trace the communications with the victim with the in some cases with the
00:41:32
murderer 1997 not so many cell phones out there but what they can determine is we know that back then that they could
00:41:42
easily find a location of a call if there was if there was billing involved if it was not going to be a free call
00:41:49
well a pay phone obviously is not a free call somebody somebody dropped the quarter into the slot and called the
00:41:55
real State office spoke to Charlotte and said you know what I was running late and according to that Source it came
00:42:01
from that pay phone at that mall across the street from the real estate office the first call they couldn't track it
00:42:08
why because it probably came from a residential location in that same area code where there was no longdistance
00:42:16
calling needed so for me there there is added problems with that that situation learn
00:42:26
how to speak please because when we look at these cases don't we usually try to determine when we have an unknown
00:42:33
perpetrator we try to apply the evidence and the facts as they were to see and get gather if if we can get some
00:42:41
insights into the Killer and if they have any criminal sophistication to me this at first at
00:42:48
first glance I thought this is potentially showing some signs of criminal sophistication
00:42:55
however I I think I think there's two sides to that coin Captain I think with this situation you one could go you know
00:43:01
what I don't know any better I don't know if they can track that call yesterday to my
00:43:08
house but what I do know is there's probably if they can if they can track calls let's make it let's not show up to
00:43:16
the appointment and let's make a second call from somewhere else and then that way if it least if they trace the first
00:43:21
call to me at the very least that they're going to have another call with another appointment
00:43:27
that moves them they can't completely hone in on me because there's another call with another
00:43:32
appointment so it it's a weird situation where it could be a a default reaction to oh [ __ ] I used my home phone number
00:43:40
to call this lady or it could be uh I know what I'm doing and let's make a a second
00:43:49
call this case again is all screwy and and all funny and fascinating and weird you reference red light case this is a
00:43:59
bang my head against the desk case yeah because on there's so many possibilities there's roads that lead
00:44:07
you to a stranger there's roads that lead you to a competitor that may have wanted to offer because she's so
00:44:13
successful taking business from them and then there's roads that lead you back to
00:44:17
her husband or if she is having Affair maybe to the person she's having an affair with yeah and let's just go
00:44:22
through this very slowly a guy has a fantasy of killing a woman he finds a remote location he
00:44:31
calls he meets her out there he kills her or there's a female hey she's having an affair with this lady's husband she
00:44:41
has a male call the woman meets her out there kills her or hires a hit the husband hires a hit and has the killer
00:44:50
call or like you said she's having an affair and the guy the the phone call in general was a phony phone call and she
00:44:58
knew it was a phony phone call I mean there's so many possibilities I think because of the
00:45:06
strangulation and the shots it's almost like the shots were like to make sure that she was dead well a couple thoughts
00:45:15
that I have on if it were if she were targeted or not right because if it was a stranger then you would believe that
00:45:24
that she's probably not targeted if it were a perfect stranger she's probably not targeted but then again how perfect
00:45:31
could The Stranger be they weren't able to trace the first call so that came within her area
00:45:36
code but but here's the thing if if somebody wanted to Target her but make it look like she wasn't
00:45:43
targeted somebody that knew her schedule or had a general feel for how that oper
00:45:48
that operation the the office operated where they put people on the phones on a rotation to take these cold calls and to
00:45:57
take the walk-ins somebody may know that information especially somebody she works with I'd like to know too if
00:46:05
especially her husband I'd like to know if there was any male walk-ins that day because what go ahead I'm sorry I
00:46:16
was going to say because you know most of the time the the killer has a a vision of their victim and so by that
00:46:27
by the calls being traced back to a pay phone that's really close to their office it make some sense I'm I'm just
00:46:34
going to go in the office and see which girls are working today and okay well this one will do
00:46:44
well there's a pay phone across the street I'll go make the call and set up the appointment
00:46:49
there they're not going to assume that it's the same person why would I I would why would and I just made the
00:46:56
appointment why I was there well because I don't want that appointment traced back to me so I wonder if there's any
00:47:03
walk-ins that day there's a couple things that I want to know and I think that the police probably know the answer
00:47:09
to at least one of these questions I do know that her husband for in 1997 I do know that he did own a cell phone which
00:47:17
is not common in 1997 now we do know that they traced the one call that came in via the pay phone or or at least that
00:47:25
source tells us that they did I wonder all of those calls on his cell phone would have been build did
00:47:33
they did they do a background check on his call log for that cell phone right that would be interesting I don't care
00:47:40
so much about the Walkins I understand why you you would want to know and other people would want to know here's what I
00:47:45
want to know we know that two people were Manning the phones that week if you were to Target Charlotte
00:47:52
right if I'm setting up a hit here's what I need I need my Hitman to arrange a meeting
00:48:01
with my target with my hit but I want to muddy the waters and make and not create a trail from the
00:48:12
Target to my Hitman to me right how could I do that well if I have an understanding of how that office
00:48:21
operates that works right away the people that would have that knowledge would be people that work
00:48:28
there or people close to people that work there and her husband so if I know that my target is
00:48:37
going to be one of two people manning the phones that week is it as simple as having my Hitman
00:48:46
call and go you because here's here's typically what happens especially look customer service ain't what it used to
00:48:55
to be my friend I don't care who you are but or where you're from it ain't what it used to be but back in the day 1997 I
00:49:02
can G I would wager a Franklin you love it when I wager Franklin I'm down like 900 Franklin now yeah I would wager a
00:49:09
Franklin that 1997 90% of the time when somebody answers a call at that real estate
00:49:15
office for these cold calls when they're put on the desk that week go uh thank you for calling True Crime garage real
00:49:24
estate office this is the crispy Colonel how may I direct your call this is the crispy Colonel how can I help you and
00:49:31
guess what if your target is Charlotte all your Hitman has to do if she doesn't pick up the phone is
00:49:38
Click Click as soon as that other lady who's answering the phones or some guy that might have answered the phone that
00:49:45
day if it's a guy's voice easy hang up that's not your target if someone picks up the phone says this is Sharon how can
00:49:52
I help you well Sharon's not your target click and you call back later you got a 5050
00:49:58
shot of getting Charlotte on the phone if you know the operations of that office for that
00:50:04
week I I cannot get past the fact that I I don't know who hired the hit I think this was absolutely a hit I don't think
00:50:11
it was a stranger crime I think that there's too many connecting factors I think that the that the
00:50:18
stranger would have to know too much and the reason why I think it's a hit is I think that Charlotte was too smart that
00:50:25
I think she would have recognized you know how someone from her office calls how do they disguise their voice
00:50:34
there 50 people in that office yeah you're not going to maybe know everyone's voice on the phone but it but
00:50:39
it it seems unlikely and here's why I say hit too they say and we hear this all the
00:50:47
time in homicides but here especially in this in this case gunshot wounds ligature strangulation and often
00:50:55
times the coroner will tell us both could have caused the death well both could have caused the death but
00:51:04
both didn't cause the death one of them caused the death and guess guess what is
00:51:09
the absolute weapon most of the time a gun the gun caused her death I think this shows signs of a hit because I
00:51:18
think that the guy showed up with the intention of going to a secluded place in a vacant house one on-one and when he
00:51:27
confirmed that she was there by herself he went in for the kill with the strangulation and what do we know and
00:51:33
what have we said a hundred times on the show Killers have told us it is surprisingly difficult at times to
00:51:41
strangle someone to death she could have come too and he decided I don't care if
00:51:48
this gets low I got to make sure that I do what I was sent here to do and I think that that's when the gun come came
00:51:55
in into play yeah or even so it's uh strangulation first and then the like I said
00:52:01
before the gunshots suggest to make sure that there's no chance that she's surviving the
00:52:09
strangulation and sometimes we like to give a little homework out there if anybody can find like a a a real true
00:52:16
very good source that that backs up the information that police and we're talking I want this from like a a local
00:52:24
newspaper paper a statement coming from the the police the investigating agency a
00:52:30
detective or the state police saying we Trace that second call to a pay phone because if that information is incorrect
00:52:39
that changes that's a GameChanger right there so if anybody can can send us a link to that hit us up on Twitter
00:52:46
Instagram or put it on our blog on true Crim garage.com that's information that we
00:52:53
need to know this case is is incredibly interesting there's a lot of a lot of problems and a lot of puzzle pieces
00:52:59
missing from this case we want to hear what you think and what your thoughts are we also want to remind you that
00:53:05
there is still a reward for information in this case now we talked about the real estate
00:53:13
office offering up 100 Grand back in the day that from my understanding that reward is no longer available I mean it
00:53:21
was 26 years ago but from what I could find here Captain this is uh dated December 16th
00:53:31
2021 the Pennsylvania State Police continues their investigation into the homicide of 40-year-old
00:53:38
Charlotte Fano Charlotte Fano an agent with wer Realtors failed to return home after showing a home to an unknown
00:53:47
client on September 11 1997 it was determined that her last destination was a vacant home for for sale at 2147
00:53:57
Chelsea Lane heler toown lower sockum Township Northampton County Law Enforcement discovered her body in the
00:54:05
vacant home during the early morning hours of 912 1997 Charlotte had been strangled and
00:54:12
shot to death anyone with information on this case is asked to anonymously contact the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers
00:54:20
toll-free at 1 8004 paa tips that's 18004 paa [Music] [Music] 8477 want to thank everybody so much for
00:54:51
joining us here in the garage for everything True Crime Check out true true Crim
00:54:56
garage.com Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week captain we're going
00:55:02
to recommend the everybody go out and listen and consume as many podcasts as they possibly can it's fall time for
00:55:09
most of us that means kids are back in school football starting up kids sports are starting up everybody's running
00:55:16
around crazy busy but you know what keep your earballs entertained with some podcast and we've been recommending
00:55:25
several over the past week to two weeks and just a quick reminder here off the Record that is brought to you by True
00:55:32
Crime garage every other week and plus we have a bunch of extra episodes on there as well if you've not checked it
00:55:38
out yet you can check it out now on patreon and for Apple listeners you can subscribe on Apple podcast and you can
00:55:47
also get a little bit of a free trial on there if you just want to dip your toe in the waters we've also recommended
00:55:54
Mary and Bill and Ohio Cold Case podcast check that one out we've recommended the
00:56:00
prosecutors podcast and if you want complete in total nonsense in your life which we all need a little touch of that
00:56:07
we got two good ones for you there's the captain and Morgan podcast and there's also the big kid show podcast that you
00:56:14
will find one of us and maybe sometimes both of us on those show so check all of
00:56:20
those out if you want something good to read go to truecrime garage.com click on
00:56:24
the recommended page and we got lots of book titles there for you and until next
00:56:29
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