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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
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a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. WTHR Channel 13 is the news leader for Indianapolis and
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Central Indiana. For this week's case, they have been there since the beginning.
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December 12th, 2012 Sharice Walker Bingham was shot and killed near her home. The murder has gone unsolved.
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Not because of a lack of effort or know-how but from a lack of evidence. Sharice was close with her family
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and every year near the first days of winter the Walker family unfortunately has to
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experience the anniversary of her death. But, it's also a very important marker for where the case stands today.
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It's one more chance to remind the public that someone very special was taken away far too early.
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An injustice has been done, and someone still needs to be held responsible. WTHR reported on December 12, 2016,
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that on this date, exactly 4 years ago, someone got away with murder. On the anniversary of the crime, police
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and the family of Shariece Bingham begged for help and justice. They returned to the scene of the crime,
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a popular walkway along the White River near New York Street on the edge of the IUPUI campus.
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Bingham's brother, Keith Walker, organized the vigil each year. He said, "We want to keep praying about it,
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and justice will prevail. It really will. We just can't give up." Shariece Walker Bingham was walking her
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dogs. It was early evening. She was murdered with her own gun. Her family and friends are pleading and
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praying someone steps forward and points the police in the direction of her killer.
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At the vigil, one woman prayed out loud saying, "We know things are done in secret.
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Things are done in the dark will come to light." 2018 marked 6 years since the murder of Shariece Bingham.
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On this day, Keith Walker was quoted on Channel 13 saying, "When this day rolls around,
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that's the day she got murdered. For my family, we just go back to how loving and caring she was.
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We just knew it wasn't time for her to leave us. Every December 12th, her brother Keith
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and other friends and family mark her murder at that location. Yeah, the pain is still there, said Walker.
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It will never go away, but the evil thoughts that I had, they're gone. They have been replaced by the strong
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drive to find the killer. He pleads with anybody on the trail that night. You had to see somebody walk up to her
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and say something to her. Bring this to a close. Let's find out why this happened, said Walker.
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Get some justice over it so both families can move on. The family asked anybody with
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information to please call the Indiana State Police at 1-800-453- 4756. This week
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we will explore the known facts of the case and some previously not released to the
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public. We will look into the possibilities. Was this a random crime? Was there something or someone
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closer to home that could be responsible? This is True Crime Garage and this is the case of Shariece Walker
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Bingham. Shariece Walker Bingham was 51 years old. She died just days before her 52nd
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birthday. Shariece was born on December 23rd, 1960. She was a native of Indianapolis,
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Indiana. Growing up in the area in a large family surrounded by two brothers and a larger extended family.
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Sharice's mother was ill and unfortunately passed away in her early 50s. Sharice was called Reese by her family.
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She was popular and athletic in high school and she had an affinity for dogs, particularly German Shepherds.
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At the age of 9 or 10, Sharice's family said she was so attached to her Shepherd
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Cruiser that the dog did everything with her. She continued to own and train German
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Shepherds for the rest of her life. Sharice did go to veterinarian school, although it's not clear whether she
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completed her degree. In her early 20s, Sharice met and married a man named Eugene Bingham, Jr.
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who was known as Bo Peep, according to Sharice's family. They were married for 28 years.
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Eugene was born on March 14th, 1961, so he was just a little younger than his wife.
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So, we have Reese and Bo Peep. That's right. Now, Eugene is 6-ft tall and about 200 lb.
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Before Sharice's death, he had worked part-time at UPS and also had a job at the Indianapolis Water Company.
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He had since retired from UPS and then he lost his job at the Water Company. This is because the company had been
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sold and the new corporate owners required drug testing of their employees. We have been told that Eugene could not
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pass the drug test. Sharice's family tells us that Eugene was a pot smoker. Sharice did not share this hobby with
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her husband. In fact, she was extremely health-conscious. She watched what she ate, she exercised,
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and she worked out regularly. Now, Sharice and her husband Eugene, they had no children. So, Sharice was
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crazy about her two dogs, treating them like they were her kids. She worked full-time at a couple of
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different long-term positions throughout her adult life. Now, just months before she took a
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position at the Gatorade bottling plant. This is in Indianapolis. She was a member of the New Haven
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Missionary Baptist Church. Where she was very active in the community there. Now, Sharice would be described as tall,
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attractive, with short hair. According to Sharice's aunt Deborah McMurray, she had a way about her that when she
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walked into a room, she made people turn their heads. The general known facts of December
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12th, 2012, the day in question, is that Sharice Bingham was out walking her dogs,
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presumably alone. Now, even though it was after dark, it was still just evening time, fairly
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early, and this is in a big city on a well-traveled path, and her two German Shepherds are with
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her and are trained to protect. This is like a walking path or biking path, right?
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Correct. So, this is around 6:30 p.m. when a passing cyclist found her body, bloodied and prone, with her two dogs
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circling her in distress. What happened and why would someone kill this warm, beloved, church-going,
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hard-working woman? Let's get into the details of that day to try to figure it out.
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Right. So, the 12th of December 2012, it was a cold Wednesday evening. Sharice was
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scheduled to work the overnight shift at the Gatorade bottling plant. She was going about her typical routine
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that evening, which involved walking her two dogs. This is Mayday and tsunami. She set out with them for a walking
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trail along the White River. This is right near the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis campus IUPUI.
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About 3 miles from Sherice's home. Sherice drove to this location in her truck and parked it in a small lot along
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the North White River Parkway West. She then proceeded to cross the White River on the West New York Street Bridge
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and then turned onto the White River Trail. This, as the captain points out, is a
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trail that is popular for biking, walking, and running during the daytime because it connects the IUPUI campus to
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some of the dormitories. But it would have been dark or nearly dark by this time when Sherice started
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out on her walk. The trail at this time of day would be much less populated after sunset.
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Right, but she's in shape. She has her two dogs with her. Now she's taking the dogs on a walk, but
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the dogs are also a form of protection for her and she also carries a gun with her when she walks.
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Most of the time. Keep in mind she works at night. This is part of her daily routine. This is morning for her, but
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it's evening for the rest of us. In Indiana on December 12th, sunset is right around
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5:00 p.m. or so. Right. So it would be dark or nearly dark by this time. Now we are not certain how far along on
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her walk Sherice got to whether she was just heading out or actually on her way back.
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Right, and that's because they don't have a definitive time of when she started or how long she was walking for.
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Detective Les Norvell of the Indiana State Police who worked the case told us that based on the timeline, it seems
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that Sherise was just starting out on her walk, but the timing is not known for certain.
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A cyclist later told authorities that he had passed her along his ride and that she had to corral the two dogs
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who were off of a leash in order to let him pass. The cyclist noted that Sherise was
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walking with the leash slung around her neck. You know, so she had a leash with her in case she should need it, but was
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not using it at the time that the cyclist passed. Sometime later, the cyclist was on his
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way back when he came across Sherise's body with the dogs circling her. Sherise was lying on the paved trail
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face down. This was near the intersection of West New York Street and Limestone Street.
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Close to where she had parked. There was blood on the concrete beneath her. Indiana State Police officers were
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dispatched to the scene at approximately 6:30 p.m. This according to the press statement.
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This was Indiana State Police jurisdiction, not Indianapolis PD because the trail was technically state
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park land. Right. Students from IUPUI nearby who saw the police cars and heard the sirens, they
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were shocked. This was normally quite a safe, very public space. Right. One of the students who was interviewed
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by the local Fox station after biking by the crime scene said he could see two German Shepherds standing over a body
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before he was ordered away by the police. Yeah, the her her dogs were protecting
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her. When Detective Norvell arrived on the scene, He was told that when medical personnel arrived, Sharice's two dogs
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were guarding her and would not permit the EMTs to get anywhere near her. Yeah. They could not even approach her to
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check for vital signs. The dogs were This is their words. People are very sensitive about how you describe dogs
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and their actions cuz we love them so much, right? But the words that we've been told was
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the dogs were too threatening for EMTs to approach Sharice. Yeah, which is interesting to me because
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she's walking the dogs without a leash. So, we could just assume that they're they're trained dogs, they're
00:16:02
well-behaved dogs. She babied them, but they're probably Most people don't take their dog for a walk and take it off the
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chain if they don't think the dog is going to be able to control themselves. So, obviously, she's walking
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with the dogs without the leash, leash being around her neck, and then this attack happens, and now
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they're trying to guard her or protect her, and anybody who gets that gets near, they're almost acting in a in a
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vicious manner. Well, the dogs are on edge, obviously, because something went down, and that's
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what we're trying to figure out. And then on top of that, they're the probably the person that they love
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by far the most Right. is obviously hurting, and they they are aware of that. The Indiana State Police press statement
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indicated that the canines appeared to be protecting to be protective of the decedent and
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would not let investigative personnel approach. Another officer at the scene said that the dogs were circling the
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body and being aggressive toward anyone. The Indianapolis Animal Control was called in and did tranquilize the dogs
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and remove them. Now, Detective Norvell said that he found the victim lying on her back.
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She had been turned over by EMTs who were checking on her injuries. There was blood and foam on her face and
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blood beneath her body. She was later identified as 51-year-old Sharice Walker-Bingham.
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Strewn about Sharice's body, police found some very important things. Okay, so they found her flip style cell phone
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which was beeping at the time. This, according to the detective, indicating it needed to be charged.
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An Indiana firearm carry permit was found. A pair of black winter gloves, a small caliber semi-automatic handgun.
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It was determined that Sharice Bingham had been shot. Detective Norvell told us that one thing
00:18:09
that was strange was that Sharice's personal items were scattered around the ground near her body.
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As if she or someone else had pulled them out in an attempt to get at her phone or something else in her pocket.
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Now, I know that everyone is thinking what are we going on what's going on here, right? We have
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a woman found dead in the park. Her firearm is found near her. She was determined to be shot. Was this an
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accident, a suicide, a homicide? I think we should go through each of these scenarios
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Well, I think investigators originally thought because it it was her own gun that that it was a suicide.
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One thing the police spent a significant amount of time looking into early on was if this could have been an accident.
00:19:03
Sharice owned a gun Mhm. and one had been found at the scene. Sharice's husband, Eugene, suggested
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that perhaps the dogs had jumped up on her causing the gun to go off. And Sharice he said had been considering
00:19:18
carrying her gun with the round chambered. Eugene told her that this was a bad idea.
00:19:25
Right. But if this is how this went down, she may not have listened to him. So, you're going to carry a gun for
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protection, but you're not going to have any rounds loaded in it. Is what he's saying.
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Well, for safety purposes most people do not round a do not put a round in the chamber.
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Not in the chamber, but there's still bullets in the gun. Correct. Okay. On the night that she died,
00:19:51
she would have carried her gun in the right breast pocket of her coveralls. As we know, she did not have her gun
00:19:59
pouch with her. This All of this stuff is going to become very important to how a lot of stuff figure we're able to
00:20:08
figure out a lot of this stuff here. Okay, so pay attention. She You pay attention.
00:20:13
She would have carried the gun in her right breast pocket of her coveralls. We know this because she did not have
00:20:21
her gun pouch with her. And the coveralls had holes in the hip pockets. So, it would have been impossible to
00:20:27
carry the gun in there. So, the gun had to be placed in the chest area pocket. Police conducted test
00:20:35
on the gun and determined that it required 10 lb of pressure to pull the trigger.
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Keep that in mind when we're considering that one of the dogs managed to jump up
00:20:45
and somehow wedge down the trigger shooting Sharice in the chest. Right. But we also need to account for how the
00:20:53
gun got out of her pocket and into onto the ground. Perhaps she had been holding it
00:21:01
and somehow fired it at herself accidentally. This seems incredibly unlikely. Police didn't actually spend too much
00:21:10
time on this accident theory in light of other information which surfaced during
00:21:17
the investigation. Uh and I wouldn't rule out the the possibility that the dog would be able
00:21:24
to create 10 lb of pressure. Just the likelihood that their paw or something would be able to fit
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you know, to pull the trigger. That to me that seems more unlikely. Well, there's a there's several problems
00:21:38
with that and I agree with you 100%. I I actually think 10 lb of pressure might be a little light considering how large
00:21:45
I'm assuming these dogs are. Right. German Shepherds are not small dogs. Well, and if a dog jumps up on you when
00:21:52
they're excited, you know, sometimes they can knock you back a little bit even if they're not that big of a dog.
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The problem then becomes two different issues here. One, if the gun is secure in her pocket,
00:22:07
how is the the math of of in the angles of getting a dog to accidentally clip that
00:22:17
trigger seems incredibly almost impossible. Yeah, it seems seeming like the magic
00:22:25
bullet theory. So, then then you wonder like, well, would her gun have been out for some
00:22:29
reason? And then and then the accident occurs. Because if the gun's not out, it seems very
00:22:38
unlikely that a paw or claw or you know, the dog's nail or whatever would would cause the trigger to be pulled.
00:22:46
Right. And if that is the scenario, then how did the gun end up on the ground next to her?
00:22:53
But It should have still been in her pocket when she was found dead. Which I look, I I don't mind the idea of
00:23:01
carrying a weapon with you to protect yourself, but tell me in what scenario is she walking down this path with her
00:23:08
dogs and just she just decides to pull out the gun to look at it? Like cuz you're not going to fire it in
00:23:15
this area, even if you were going to practice shooting, you don't fire it in this area. It's downtown on this this
00:23:22
bike running walking path. Right. So, it just seems odd to me unless she got startled by something and then she
00:23:30
pulled it out. Right. One would have to believe that that something would have to have gone
00:23:35
down for her to pull that gun out of her pocket. And then now this is where it gets too weird because now you get into
00:23:42
just this long trail of consecutive events that all seem unlikely by themselves,
00:23:50
let alone in sequence. Let's get into the the suicide thought because like we said, police didn't
00:23:59
spend a ton of time on the accident theory and it's a lot of that is just because the math of it doesn't seem to
00:24:07
work out. And we'll go through that a little more in just a bit. Now, according to the early reports, the
00:24:14
coroner's office initially was not certain whether Sherrice's death was a homicide or suicide. On December 14th, 2
00:24:23
days after her body was found, the coroner issued a report stating that Sherrice Bingham died after being shot
00:24:29
in the chest, but the manner of death was still to be determined. Detective Norvell stated that the
00:24:37
initial thought at the onset of the investigation was that the victim might have killed herself.
00:24:43
Right. The Walker family, however, was adamant that Sherrice would not have killed
00:24:49
herself. And soon it became clear. Detective Norvell said that the evaluation of the entire scene and the
00:24:58
circumstances of such led them to the conclusion that Sherice did not kill herself.
00:25:04
When did they be able to prove whether or not she shot the gun? We had that conversation and you and I
00:25:10
will get into that in just a bit, but what they how they arrived at this conclusion is actually not from
00:25:17
gunpowder residue test on her person. They base this on the fact that Sherice most likely did not shoot herself and
00:25:29
leave the dogs unattended roaming free. This would be very out of character. She
00:25:35
cared about these dogs like she would have her own children. You wouldn't go to an area with the purpose of killing
00:25:43
oneself and leave your your most beloved of anything on this planet out there unsafe. After after you kill
00:25:54
yourself. cuz if you if you're planning to end your life, then what does it matter what happens to the dogs?
00:26:00
You didn't love them enough to stick around, but but but I see that as being a point that
00:26:05
somebody would make. I I think the other point too is she's heavily involved in her church and that would probably go
00:26:11
against her religious beliefs to to take her own life. Well, what you're going to have is
00:26:15
you're going to have a mountain of these these little different items and thoughts and theories that make it
00:26:22
unlikely that she killed herself and regardless of how you feel or if you agree or disagree, it would be generally
00:26:29
considered strange for somebody that cared about those dogs so much to take them with them to and kill themselves
00:26:36
and leave these dogs out running around. Who knows what could have happened to them after
00:26:40
it would be very strange to go and commit suicide in a park, you know, especially a heavily heavily
00:26:48
traveled area and you decide, "Oh, I'm going to shoot myself in the chest, so chances are
00:26:55
I'm going to bleed to death. And by doing it in a park, you're going to have more people that possibly would see you
00:27:02
and and call for help. So, a lot of things don't line up here. She also brought along with her fruit.
00:27:11
She brought a snack with her for her walk. You wouldn't likely do that if your intent was to kill yourself.
00:27:19
Yeah. Suicide snack. She also locked her vehicle and secured the steering wheel with an anti-theft
00:27:25
wheel device. Right. And investigators found Sherrice's flip phone open. This leading them to believe
00:27:32
that she had attempted to make a call for help after she was shot. As the investigation progressed,
00:27:40
physical evidence proved that this was no suicide. According to the family, there was only one shot to to Sherrice's
00:27:48
body, and it was at close range. Lab techs found a bullet hole in the right sleeves of her two outer layer
00:27:57
garments Sherrice was wearing. Then an additional bullet hole was found in the clothes covering Sherrice's chest. This
00:28:06
is where the bullet was lodged. This means that Sherrice was standing with her arms, or at least her right arm, out
00:28:15
in front of her in a defensive posture when the gun fired. The bullet shot through the sleeves of her extended
00:28:24
right arm and went into the sternum area, killing her. So, once investigators examined the
00:28:31
trajectory of the bullet, Detective Norvel told us that they ruled out suicide. It's
00:28:39
when you follow the path that that bullet took, given the evidence that you find on her person, the bullet holes in
00:28:45
the sleeve, and then the bullet hole in her chest. It would be impossible for her to have
00:28:51
killed herself. So, Captain, this is a murder. All right, we're back, you filthy
00:29:10
animals. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to all the filthy animals. Now, let's talk about the gun found at
00:29:17
the scene. Ballistics gun. Yes. Ballistics matched the bullet found in Sherrice's body to the gun found next
00:29:26
to her. As the Captain said, it was Sherrice's own gun. She was shot with her own weapon.
00:29:32
Sherrice and her husband, Eugene, each owned a gun. They had the same model of handgun. This
00:29:38
was a .25 caliber Sterling semi-automatic. She often brought the gun with her to
00:29:45
walk her two dogs. But, Sherrice seemed to be a little more concerned about her safety than usual just shortly
00:29:54
before her death. This is according to her relatives. Her aunt, Deborah McMurray, told
00:30:01
interviewers that Sherrice seemed to believe that someone was following her. She specifically said that it was a dark
00:30:09
blue blazer that was following her. So, we have banned the van, Captain. Now, we have banned the blazer.
00:30:17
Yeah. I'll work on those t-shirts. Yeah, and and don't forget the tan VW bug. Yeah. Ban Well, don't ban the
00:30:25
the cute ones, just the tan ones. Only motorcycles are safe. The strange thing about the gun
00:30:34
Look, Sherrice was known to keep the gun in a special carrying pouch that was designed to hold it.
00:30:40
Right. Reporter Russ McQuaid, who works for Fox 59 and who wrote extensively about this
00:30:47
case, told Crime Watch Daily that Sharice always kept this gun in that pouch. The pouch was discovered at home and the
00:30:59
gun was discovered by her side. Sharice's family backs this statement up. They say Sharice kept the gun in the
00:31:08
carrying pouch when it was at home, when it was on her person. The gun in that pouch should have been
00:31:16
together that day by just about everybody's accounts. But that night, the gun pouch was not
00:31:24
only not found with Sharice, but it was later found at the home that she shared with her husband of 28 years, Eugene.
00:31:34
This, as said, was highly unusual. The gun should have been in its pouch if she brought it along with her that
00:31:42
evening. Not only that, Eugene Bingham was the one to call Detective Norvell this about
00:31:49
2 weeks after Sharice's death to tell him that he found the gun pouch at their home.
00:31:56
According to True Crime Daily, when detectives processed the gun, they found no usable prints on it.
00:32:05
It could have been wiped down. Mhm. It certainly seems that Sharice's prints at least should have been on the gun,
00:32:12
right? Let's talk about that for just a second here. If in fact she accidentally shot herself
00:32:19
or suicide or even if she took it with her just for protection and somebody approached her and something went down,
00:32:27
why would her fingerprints not be on the gun if she in fact brought it with her that night?
00:32:33
Right. She would have had to pick up the gun, place it in her pocket, and then if she
00:32:39
did pull the gun out, now she's using her hands again. We did say that gloves were found at the scene, but they were
00:32:46
not found on her at the time. Right. So, that's that's pretty alarming right there.
00:32:54
Correct. How could someone take the gun from her, shoot her in the presence of these
00:32:59
two protective dogs, too? That's the other question that you have to ask here. Yeah, I mean, fact that EMT can't even
00:33:06
get to the body because of the the dogs, you would think that somebody any kind of confrontation between her
00:33:14
and another individual, these dogs are going to become very protective, very vicious, very quickly.
00:33:21
Something that was found on the gun was DNA. DNA belonging to Eugene Bingham. Eugene told police that of course his
00:33:31
DNA would be on the gun as he regularly cleaned the gun for his wife. But, again,
00:33:39
it's still interesting that why would you have Eugene's DNA on the gun and not the killer's?
00:33:46
Right. Unless they're the same. Or why would you have Eugene's DNA on the gun, but not have Sherice's
00:33:51
fingerprints? Or somebody else's fingerprints? It's all very strange. The thing too with with the dogs, now
00:34:00
with both of their owners, with Eugene and Sherice being gun owners themselves, and I can't say this specifically to
00:34:09
these two dogs, Mayday and Tsunami, but one thing I have experienced in my life is that
00:34:18
dogs that are familiar with guns, that have been around guns, sometimes they they will flee at the
00:34:26
sight of one. And that's because typically dogs don't like loud noises. Right. Guns can be very loud. Usually are very
00:34:37
loud. There are many situations that I've witnessed where even just target shooting or just
00:34:45
seeing the gun, they identify that object with a loud noise that they do not like. And sometimes they will, in
00:34:52
fact, flee the area. So, that could explain how someone was able to approach Sherrice
00:35:02
and not be attacked by the dogs. Yes, we know the dogs were with her body when she was later found, but this
00:35:09
meaning they returned to her. Right. But I also, going back to the DNA being found,
00:35:16
uh the husband's DNA, Eugene's DNA being found, the tricky thing for me there is, let's
00:35:22
say there was a attacker, right? The attacker takes the gun out, shoots her, then knows he's going to wipe it down,
00:35:32
wipes it down, throws the gun down. Okay, so now we don't have any fingerprints. Maybe we don't have her
00:35:40
DNA on it. But if he is cleaning the gun, his DNA could be inside the cracks and crevice, you know,
00:35:48
crevices of the gun. Correct. And so that's So, it's not clear in the investigation
00:35:55
of did they just pull it out and just wipe the handle or wipe the uh you know, wherever, you know what I
00:36:02
mean? Like did they wipe the trigger or did they have some kind of solution on um like a Q-tip and and went inside the
00:36:12
cracks and crevices, and that's where they found the DNA. I wish it was a little more clear, and it's not clear to
00:36:18
me in this investigation. Well, I think you're probably spot-on with your assessment of their words, and
00:36:25
often we have to do that. We have to read between the lines to come up with what is actually going on in the
00:36:31
investigation. We were very fortunate that Detective Norvell and very fortunate that the Indiana State Police
00:36:38
spoke with us regarding this case. And they did tell us some things that were have not been released to the public
00:36:44
yet. When this comes out, now they're released. There were questions they did not answer, which is totally fine and
00:36:53
more than acceptable. The the thing here is they were involved with us because they want this case
00:37:01
solved. They have poured a lot of effort and a lot of heart into this investigation.
00:37:08
And so it was it was great. It's good for True Crime Garage that we get some insider information, but it's also good
00:37:15
for their investigation. The The thing that we have to worry about here, Captain, is the threat of this case
00:37:22
going cold. That's what everybody is in fear of. Yeah. And so I think you're spot-on with your
00:37:28
analysis of their words and their actions. I believe that you're correct that that they probably were going to
00:37:36
those cracks and crevices and to the the small little parts of that gun to recover anyone's DNA. And the DNA
00:37:45
that they came up with was Eugene's. Because what it looks like to me is that whoever used that gun to shoot Sharice,
00:37:55
they wiped it down and they were probably wearing gloves at the time of her murder.
00:38:00
Right. So all I'm saying is that I don't think that makes Eugene my number one suspect
00:38:07
because of his DNA being found. was probably right where it should have been if it's from her him cleaning the
00:38:14
gun. Right. But I'm not going to rule him out because we don't find anything on the
00:38:18
gun, really. Right. That's the That's the biggest problem. There should be something else,
00:38:24
and there's not. And that's why I think the assumption of Sherrice bringing the gun with her that
00:38:30
night is a dangerous one to assume. I think that the evidence points that to that she did not bring the gun with her
00:38:38
that night. Right. And then that makes it even more diabolical. Right. Then you start going, okay, is
00:38:44
Eugene responsible or somebody else that's close to her or is it uh a hit and and Eugene is is giving the
00:38:55
the perpetrator her weapon to make it look like possibly a suicide or accident. Well, let's go back to the question
00:39:04
about Sherrice's dogs. Because regardless of what I said about seeing a weapon, seeing a firearm, and then they
00:39:10
might they might flee or they might cower. According to Sherrice's family, they firmly believe that these two dogs would
00:39:19
attack any stranger who was attempting to harm Sherrice. Her family says the dogs were not friendly with people that
00:39:27
they did not know. And we know that they weren't on a leash that night. So, they would have been able to chase
00:39:34
and or bite somebody. Yeah, right. Again, that's I don't want to say that her family is
00:39:41
lying. I'm just saying that kind of contradict the two. Uh their dogs weren't friendly with people that
00:39:48
they didn't know. But they had to be at least friendly enough or obedient enough to be off their leash.
00:39:58
Because, you know, Sherrice didn't seem like a irresponsible dog owner. So, the general rule that I apply with
00:40:07
my dogs is I leash them in situations where I believe they will not uh respond to my commands.
00:40:17
Okay? And so, there are times that I do not leash them because I am of the belief that they will respond
00:40:26
to my commands. Meaning, I still have control over my dogs even though they are not leashed.
00:40:33
What I'm getting at here and where I think the the family's heads are at with this situation is
00:40:41
they're not leashed because they're out walking. This is supposed to be something good for them.
00:40:46
And if it's just a passerby, if it's just somebody walking or cycling and she needs to throw a command to the dogs,
00:40:54
she believes that they will respond to that command. They are still under her control.
00:40:58
Right. In some type of situation where we have an aggressor, where we have an attacker
00:41:04
what they're saying is you wouldn't command your dogs in that situation. You wouldn't attempt to
00:41:10
control your dogs in that situation. You would attempt to defend yourself. And therefore, they are saying that these
00:41:17
dogs, had they seen her in any kind of distress, would have attacked or chased whoever did that.
00:41:24
Right. Where they have the biggest problem is they say that the only person that the
00:41:29
dogs were comfortable with to the level that they were comfortable with Sherice was Eugene.
00:41:36
As Eugene lived with the dogs, he was an owner of the dogs, he was a caretaker at
00:41:42
times for the dogs, helping with walks and feeding them and such. So I I I think we need to be clear here and
00:41:53
clear up one thing saying, we actually don't know for sure that the dogs did not attack the shooter.
00:42:00
Right. It's possible that they chased away or even bit Sherice's attacker and then
00:42:06
came back to her body. Mhm. Detective Norvel told us that there was an indication that the dogs were {quote}
00:42:16
having a reaction to ingesting blood from the scene {end quote}. It's not clear what this means, whether
00:42:23
they licked Cherice trying to heal her Right. or perhaps they got a piece of someone.
00:42:30
Detectives checked area hospitals but found that no one came in the days after the shooting to be treated for a dog
00:42:39
bite. But the fact that it was her gun that was used to kill her indicates that either the shooter got very close to her
00:42:48
risking a dog attack or the gun was in the possession of someone else. One of the questions I want to know is
00:42:55
remember how you said that that biker saw Cherice walking the dogs and she had to like um
00:43:02
Corral them was their word. Right. So they could pass by. What I wonder is how far the dogs were
00:43:11
away. Because I think if this is a a planned attack by somebody um let's let's say somebody's following
00:43:20
her this blue blazer or this is a planned attack from her husband you could if you knew
00:43:29
I mean you're you don't know that the dogs are going to be off the leash but you might know her behaviors, her habits
00:43:35
of walking and you go okay. The dogs are going to be on off their leash. There's going to be a uh
00:43:42
distance between them and that gives you a window. uh in in order to to attack the person because the other
00:43:50
thing that people aren't putting I think into play is it's great to say well see Eugene Eugene can be uh he could get
00:44:00
close enough. But you also have to have a situation where you get close enough, you're not
00:44:09
seen by anybody else, and then you have to leave the scene by by not being seen by anybody else.
00:44:19
Am I making any sense there? Well, yeah. That So, that puts a lot of different scenarios into play, but it
00:44:25
also takes some of them out of play when you really try to analyze it. Not just for the fact of the dogs, but from the
00:44:32
fact that any attack that would take a a decent length of time, you risk detection from possible
00:44:41
eyewitnesses. So, under those scenarios or or playing to those thoughts, you have a couple of
00:44:48
couple of ideas here. A person attacks Sherri's, wrestled the gun from her, shot her, and the dogs ignored it, and
00:44:57
this was not seen by any eyewitnesses, all of this seems unlikely because as said, the dogs had to be tranquilized
00:45:05
later. Right. The other idea is a person attacks Sherri's, wrestled the gun away from
00:45:11
her, and shot her, and then the dogs did attack, but the shooter was able to run
00:45:16
away. And then the other scenario would be someone shot Sherri's from a little bit
00:45:21
of a distance, already having the gun in their possession when they arrived at the park. That scenario to me seems to
00:45:30
be the most likely because it it you want as you said, if there is a bit of distance between you and the dogs, or
00:45:38
if giving the scenario, the lay of the land and where everybody is at that time,
00:45:44
giving the opportunity for someone to approach her, not having to wrestle the gun from her.
00:45:51
This also would take the least amount of time, which would which would prevent or really at least
00:45:58
just make it less likely that somebody would see you in the act of shooting her.
00:46:03
Right. Sharice's family tells us that that things were not right between Sharice and
00:46:11
Eugene for some time. We need to take a look at their marriage. They were married for quite a long time.
00:46:17
28 years. Yeah, no kids. Sharice I I According to her family, they didn't tell She didn't tell them
00:46:25
about any specific problems. But they say they were aware that Sharice was hard-working, church-going.
00:46:34
She was not down with Eugene smoking pot and drinking all the time. According to her aunt, this is Deborah
00:46:41
McMurray who we've referenced earlier. She said years into the marriage Eugene moved into the basement. Living
00:46:52
on the downstairs level while Sharice lived upstairs. He's like Right. She's saying basically
00:46:59
This marriage ain't working and I'm going to move down to the basement. I'm taking my act and I'm going
00:47:03
downstairs. I live in the basement. Um she says that basically she believed that the two cohabitated
00:47:11
together rather than living as husband and wife. Right. Let's get into what the police were able
00:47:19
to learn from Eugene himself. So while the Indiana State Police was his um uh nickname again?
00:47:28
Bo Peep according to her family. Bo Peep is going to live in the basement. Unfortunately, you know, you never know
00:47:35
when somebody gets when they acquire their nickname. Yeah. Unfortunately, some people get a
00:47:41
nickname when they're like two or three years old and it and it just sticks with
00:47:45
them for the rest of their life. Uh the Indiana State Police when they were processing the scene, the
00:47:53
murder scene and Sharice's truck, which was still parked by the river, Eugene Bingham
00:47:59
arrived on the scene. A detective recorded his arrival time as 11:23 p.m. Detectives spoke with him, and he told
00:48:08
them that he was asleep on the couch at home. And he woke up around 9:30 p.m. and noticed that Sherice wasn't home.
00:48:16
This, he says, was unusual for several reasons, but mainly because she was a routine person and she did in fact have
00:48:23
to be at work at 10:30 that night. He tried to call her phone and had no success. So, he left the
00:48:32
house to go look for her. He says he needed to go to three different locations. These were all
00:48:39
locations where he knew she would typically walk the dogs. The White River Park was the last place
00:48:46
that he checked. When he arrived, he said he saw I don't know. This seems a little fishy.
00:48:53
But, go ahead. Sorry. When he arrived, he said that he saw crime scene tape around his wife's
00:48:58
vehicle. That alerted him. That made him approach the detectives. On December 13th, this is the day after
00:49:07
the murder. The Indiana State Police detectives, uh this is Les Norvell and Matthew Lawrence, they conducted a
00:49:14
thorough interview with Eugene. Some things that he told them the previous night at the scene of the crime seemed
00:49:21
off. In the interview, Eugene stated that Sherice was a creature of habit. On the
00:49:27
days when she was working the night shift, she would get up late, do some stuff around the house, exercise,
00:49:33
shower, take the dogs for a walk, and then go to work. On the 12th, the detectives said that
00:49:41
Eugene and Sherice did have a conversation that day. Then Sherice left to walk the dogs.
00:49:47
Eugene says that he stayed home to watch the Miami Heat Warriors NBA basketball game.
00:49:55
Uh-huh. He reportedly told investigators that Sherice did not leave the house until after the game
00:50:05
started, which was around 7:30 p.m. Which her body was found at 6:30. Yeah, this is beyond strange. It's what
00:50:15
you would call impossible. Yes, but again, it's like he lives in the basement, you know,
00:50:21
there might be some fumes. So, he might he might not be good at telling time. Yeah, he doesn't need to tell time. He
00:50:30
it it's a fact of when the game started. If his if he's basing this time off of she left before the basketball game
00:50:38
started, we can all figure that out. And as you said, Captain, the police not just was she found her body found before
00:50:46
this time, the police they were dispatched to the scene at 6:30, a full hour before Eugene says his wife left
00:50:54
the house. Not only was she dead, she was found. Police confirmed that the game the
00:50:59
basketball game coverage TV coverage began at 7:38 p.m. and the tip-off was 7:41 p.m.
00:51:07
Well, it's almost like he's trying to establish an alibi for himself. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, "Oh, I was
00:51:13
watching the game and and I can prove that because uh this is when the game started."
00:51:19
Yeah. But as as this timeline points out, one would have time to to attack her, flee the scene, and make it home in time
00:51:31
to watch the basketball game. Now, he says she left as the game was starting. So,
00:51:38
back to his alibi. Let's continue with what he says he was doing, right? Eugene said that he fell asleep on the
00:51:44
couch, and he didn't wake up until 9:30 or so. Because Sherice and the dogs should have
00:51:49
been home and she needed to leave for work according to him at 10:00. He became concerned then. He tried calling her
00:51:58
from the home phone and got no response. Of course he's concerned. He doesn't have a job if she doesn't go to work.
00:52:05
Their bills don't get paid. He says he got dressed and then after getting dressed tried calling her from
00:52:12
his cell phone as he was leaving to check these walking locations. Again, he got nothing with this phone call. He
00:52:20
wasn't as concerned about her not answering the phone is what he tells police. Eugene specified that Sherice
00:52:27
usually carried her phone with her, but she almost had it off. She you know, some some people turn the phone off. She
00:52:35
was one of those types. She would power on only if she wanted to make a call. So,
00:52:43
they pulled Eugene's phone records and what they found did not mesh with what Eugene was telling them.
00:52:51
The home phone called Sherice's cell at 11:02 p.m. The call from Eugene's cell to his
00:53:00
wife's phone was made at 11:09 p.m. These calls were made an hour and a half after Eugene said he woke up and noticed
00:53:09
his wife was missing. And well after he said he made the calls. So, right. So, you have
00:53:15
multiple lies from him. And then that makes you want to question about the gun when he says, "Well, I
00:53:23
cleaned her gun for her." Well, is that a lie as well? I mean that this is evidence that he's a lying
00:53:30
crotch sniffer, you know? Yeah. One thing that I would question, this is not going to be any proof of anything,
00:53:37
but there are some gun owners that don't shoot their guns. They just don't shoot them.
00:53:43
You know, some people regularly shoot guns and people that regularly do need to clean them. People that don't
00:53:50
shoot them usually don't clean them. So, I would be curious as to what their family thought her
00:53:56
activities were with that firearm. Immediately when you said there's gun owners that don't shoot their guns, I
00:54:01
was like, that seems so stupid, but I know a lot of people that own guitars that never
00:54:07
that never play them. So. Yeah. I have a guitar that I need to restring. You have a nice guitar collection for
00:54:14
somebody that doesn't play. Right. And I In fact, I have one that I need restrung and it's been in that
00:54:20
state for like 2 years now. So, one day Get it together, Colonel. One day I'll have strings on that
00:54:26
guitar. Does it still And she will play like never before. You used to have a guitar that smelled
00:54:31
like onions. That's the same one. Oh, great. Yeah. Um so, the other thing with his phone
00:54:38
calls, Eugene's cell received a call at 7:41 p.m. This is from a friend. This call went to his voicemail. This friend
00:54:47
was a chiropractor who later told police that he called Eugene because he had heard about a woman's death on the news
00:54:54
and wanted to be sure it was not Sherice. It's not clear if this chiropractor is
00:55:01
female or male. Mhm. But we do know that not only is Sherice a friend, but a client and and this
00:55:09
person knew uh Eugene and Sherice equally as well. Correct. Yeah. The The cell tower information
00:55:19
showed that when this call came into Eugene's cell phone The pingy ping. The ping Yeah, the phone pinged off a
00:55:27
tower that was near the murder site. Specifically, the tower Eugene's phone pinged with this 7:41 call was east
00:55:36
of a different tower that was closer to his home, which Eugene's phone would most likely have pinged off had he been
00:55:45
at home of at the time of this call. The call hit the sector of this further tower
00:55:53
that correlated with where Sherice was killed. The southern sector of the tower,
00:55:58
whereas if Eugene had been at home and for some reason the call pinged the further away tower.
00:56:07
Okay, that's It's all Right. So, there's a there's a All right, I I wasn't clear with that.
00:56:12
What I'm trying to say is there's a southern sector tower and there's a western sector tower.
00:56:18
All right. Tower A and Tower B. Correct. It hit off of the opposite one. It hit the off of the one closest to
00:56:24
where her body was found, not the tower that was closest to his home as what detectives were originally told would be
00:56:32
the situation had he been at home. So, this as you pointed out, he's lying already about some things and we know
00:56:39
this from the phone records. Now police believe he's lying even more because we have the phone records that don't
00:56:46
match with his story and we have this cell phone tower ping information that do not match with his story.
00:56:54
All right. So, Eugene Bo Peep, we know he's a lying [ __ ] princess. But But, what does this mean?
00:57:02
Is he just lying or or is he misremembering or Well, it's a little more damning than
00:57:09
that because that was a really long way of saying this, okay? According to the cell tower data
00:57:16
Eugene's phone was not at his home at 7:41 at the time that that call came in from
00:57:22
the chiropractor friend. Right, about an hour and a hour and 10 minutes after Sherice was found.
00:57:29
But, even more damning than that according to this the cell tower data, the phone was down near the White River
00:57:36
and the West New York Street Bridge. This is near where she parked her car, near where her
00:57:42
body was found. Right. And Eugene did tell police, of course they're going to ask him this question
00:57:49
once they have this other information, he tells police that no one else would have had access to his phone. Meaning by
00:57:58
his own admission that if in fact his phone was there in the area that she was killed at 7:41,
00:58:05
the phone was with him. Right. So, Eugene told detectives that the cell phone records could not be accurate when
00:58:13
they confronted him with this information. This is in regard to the 11:09 call. He
00:58:21
says that that can't be accurate because he was already at the scene at that time
00:58:26
learning about his wife's death from a detective at 11:09. Right. Again, that doesn't gel with the
00:58:34
information that we have on record. The record shows that he actually didn't arrive on the scene until 11:23 p.m.
00:58:42
He, Eugene, reiterated that he had tried to call his wife beginning around 9:30 when he realized she wasn't home yet.
00:58:51
He also said that at least one of the deleted calls was from his wife. So, they found three deleted calls. He
00:58:58
states one of the deleted calls was from his wife. All of these statements they're
00:59:06
they're contradicted by the actual phone records. Eugene continued to talk to investigators and in summary,
00:59:15
he told police that his wife would not have killed herself. The two had just joined a new church and
00:59:23
they were baptized again. Also, Sherri was a happy person and they enjoyed each other although their
00:59:31
marriage wasn't perfect. He said that there was no way that Mayday and tsunami would let anyone near Sherice. He said
00:59:40
there was no way a stranger could harm her and those dogs still be around. He said he didn't believe that there was
00:59:48
anyone who would want to harm his wife. And it seems to me he inadvertently is pointing the finger at himself.
01:00:04
We want to thank everybody out there for listening. We want to thank you for telling a friend. Also, thank you to
01:00:10
everyone who shares these cases and these stories on social media. These cases need people's attention,
01:00:17
especially this one. Join us back here in the garage tomorrow. Until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.