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GameChanger [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:42
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a guy that has more of a winning culture than the entire
00:01:48
Cleveland Browns organization he is the captain and a man that's 0 and9 in your hearts the colonel it's good to be seen
00:01:57
and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend this week we are drinking Blue
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Mountain brewery's classic logger by the good people at the Blue Mountain Brewery
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in Virginia garage grade 4 out of five bottle caps this is exactly what I was looking for a crisp clear lightly hopped
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about any meal and this great beer was brought to us by these glorious guys and girls first up we have Christopher in
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Syracuse New York next up we have Alexander in London London next up we have a big thank you to Holly in Parts
00:02:43
Unknown where newly elected mayor Captain is making Holly the parts Unknown Queen for a Day also in Parts
00:02:50
Unknown we have Rebecca and Peter am I allowed to make people uh Queen for the day is that a a power that I I have well
00:02:58
you're the first mayor so there's really no there's really no rule book or textbook on how you're supposed to
00:03:05
handle this job I just hope I don't end up on CNN news or something oh oh it's going to
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happen thanks thanks there goes the garage all right we want to give a shout out to lawence in Montreal Quebec and we
00:03:17
also have Danielle in Columbus Indiana to our friend Mike our thoughts are with you and your family here's one for your
00:03:24
father Alex everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:28
crime Autumn school is in full swing the leaves start to change colors and the nights start to get
00:03:42
cool and every Friday night students everywhere gather at high school football stadiums to experience the
00:03:50
magic of the Friday Night Lights and cheer their team on to [Music] Victory on October 4th
00:04:00
2002 at G high school that Friday night the students faculty and family members gathered around the field and under the
00:04:10
lights to cheer on the mighty maroon tide one of their favorite student athletes was a gentle giant 320 lb
00:04:20
senior football star Brandon Billings Brandon was dedicated to his fellow teammates his friends and his his
00:04:30
family and every Friday his parents attended the games on Saturday October 5th 2002
00:04:39
Brandon celebrated his 18th birthday for Brandon everything was falling into place he's halfway through another great
00:04:48
football season the exciting times of his senior year a milestone birthday and planning for
00:04:55
college that Saturday night Brandon went out to celebrate his 18th birthday with
00:05:01
his friends his parents were shocked when Brandon failed to return home that night what was even more
00:05:09
uncharacteristic he didn't even call to say he was staying at a friend's house it was a day that was supposed to
00:05:16
bring joy and happiness and only left Brandon's family and friends heartbroken this is the case of Brandon
00:05:25
[Music] Billings [Music] Kyle Brandon Billings was born October 5th 1984 he lived with his mother and
00:05:53
dad this is Sher and Kyle Billings and his sister Angie in Virginia we have two in our story Captain we have Kyle
00:06:01
Billings the father and his son Kyle Brandon Billings right and that's why everybody calls the son Brandon Billings
00:06:08
and not Kyle Brandon Billings mhm now our story starts in 2002 in 2002 the Billings family was living in the GX
00:06:17
area full disclosure here Captain the newspaper articles on this case named several small cities and two or three
00:06:23
counties and I'm not super familiar with that area so forgive me if I sound like
00:06:28
a nitwit here but uh we are saying that the Billings family lived in the G area but the key
00:06:35
thing here is Brandon attended G High School Brandon is a star on the football team uh we're going to say star because
00:06:42
that seems to be one if not the most important thing uh to Brandon and Brandon was a big dude yeah big boy over
00:06:50
300 pounds he played I believe it was on the offensive line uh he also played a little bit of linebacker yeah it was
00:06:58
weird cuz it seems like uh some reports would say he's a linebacker some people would say he's a
00:07:03
lineman obviously there's you know there's a big difference but I mean 320 PB linebacker coming at you that's uh
00:07:10
that's a scary sight yeah and I tend to lean with the thought here that he might
00:07:14
have been offensive line because of one his size and two his number number 79 that's typical offensive line number um
00:07:22
but Brandon's dad Kyle he never missed one of Brandon's games he was at all of the games and he was also one of those
00:07:30
fathers that would attend a lot of the practices whenever he could the Billings family they sat in the stands at G High
00:07:37
School countless nights watching Brandon take to the football field the school's
00:07:41
team is called the maroon tide and this is a very small area I mean the counties
00:07:46
would have less than 20,000 people so October 4th is a Friday and just like most or all of the Fall Friday nights
00:07:55
Brandon played on the varsity football team so Brandon had a football game game that night the next day is Saturday
00:08:02
October 5th this is Brandon's birthday Brandon Billings turned 18 years old on this day so a mil a milestone birthday
00:08:11
yeah well on that Saturday Brandon let his father Kyle borrow his pickup truck that morning there was something called
00:08:19
the G Lords acre sale um some type of community event right Kyle Billings had a funnel cake stand so Brandon let his
00:08:28
father the truck so he could pull the stand to this event later that day once Brandon got his truck back he loaded up
00:08:36
the bed of his truck and he delivered a bunch of firewood to his grandmother's house so probably exchange like hey
00:08:44
deliver this firewood I'll give you the truck so I think just you know looking at that Friday and Saturday we get a
00:08:50
pretty decent idea of what kind of dude we have here in Brandon Billings a a dedicated football player and someone
00:08:57
that could have you know he could have been out running around with his friends or just doing whatever on that Saturday
00:09:03
however we have him helping out his father and then later helping out grandma Yeah and normally when it is
00:09:10
your 18th birthday I mean he might have partied a little bit on Friday night after the game uh there was normally
00:09:16
always somewhere to go after the games um in my town anyways and then uh but we see him that he wakes up at a decent
00:09:23
time and he starts doing some chores and whatever he needs to do because he he does want to hang out for his birthday
00:09:30
that night mhm well after delivering the firewood to his grandmother's Place uh he came home Brandon came home and he
00:09:36
took a nap apparently according to Brandon's parents Brandon must have overslept because when he woke up he was
00:09:44
he was in a hurry to leave the house okay he basically went running out the door despite hearing his parents calling
00:09:51
for him to you know wait a minute where you going those typical questions right Brandon just simply saying I can't I got
00:09:57
to go and with that he was off well Brandon may have been late to join some friends for a birthday dinner would be
00:10:06
my guest right because we have a friend of his his name is Jason Cole a good friend of Brandon's they had dinner
00:10:12
together that night at a Mexican restaurant so we we know that Brandon hung out with several friends that night
00:10:19
uh Jason Cole who he had dinner with we also have Seth Greer and Joseph Wright two other close friends of Brandon's and
00:10:27
Brandon hung out with his girlfriend that night as well and her name is Elizabeth Edwards they were going to be
00:10:34
partying that night and in part two celebrate Brandon's birthday at some point Elizabeth his girlfriend takes a
00:10:41
photo of Brandon that evening wearing a party hat Brandon is going to be hanging
00:10:46
out well past midnight that night so now it's early morning hours of Sunday October 6th mhm Joseph Wright says that
00:10:55
he saw Brandon Billings at the on the way way that's the name of a a small convenience store uh he saw them and he
00:11:04
talked to Brandon briefly he said that Brandon Billings appeared to be in a good mood he didn't say anything out of
00:11:11
the ordinary and after they talked for a little bit Brandon got in his truck and
00:11:16
he pulled out of the parking lot and he headed west on us58 towards independence
00:11:23
well now a lot of these small towns they have a strict curfew so normally the curfew for anybody under is I think
00:11:30
midnight uh you can actually get pulled over and arrested for being uh out past curfew but now you know Brandon's an
00:11:37
adult now so maybe this is one of the reasons why he chose to hey I could you know I can stay past curfew mhm well the
00:11:45
thing here is like you said Brandon Brandon is by himself reportedly by himself according to this Joseph Wright
00:11:51
who saw him at the on the way convenience store and this is 3:40 a.m. so it this is very kind of out of the
00:12:01
norm out of the norm for Brandon and at this point we kind of lose track of Brandon Billings but there seems to be
00:12:10
like you said some questionable things going on here first this seems late right late late at night for a young man
00:12:16
that reportedly from both of his parents stated that he observed the curfew laws
00:12:22
and he would call if he would be late or if change if plans were to change and he
00:12:27
was going to stay the night but like point out here we have something interesting going on because this is the
00:12:32
first night that he's 18 who who knows what who knows what's you know what has changed for him maybe he thinks you know
00:12:40
I don't have to call anymore I don't have to observe the curfew laws how were your parents in high school um so my I
00:12:48
lived with my father when I turned 18 and he he spoke with me and he basically said this he's like look you're 18 now
00:12:56
you can kind of come and go as you please um you know if you come in late at night
00:13:01
I'm that's not going to bother me as long as a you don't wake me up you know and you know as long as you're not rude
00:13:09
about it um what about changing your plans calling and changing your plans do you have to call um no I didn't I didn't
00:13:16
have to call for for that once I once I was 18 now when I was under 18 I I was to kind of keep the parents involved in
00:13:24
what I was doing and and you know up to date yeah cuz I was lucky just to I mean
00:13:29
I could call at any time and they would just you know what whatever I said was fine like never question it I remember
00:13:38
one time I you know I I got hammered and I shouldn't have been that drunk and I I
00:13:45
remember calling my father and saying I'm drunk and uh and I was real nervous too cuz it was like you know 11:00 at
00:13:52
night and I was like oh God but I felt like I got to call him cuz I'm not obviously coming home mhm and it was
00:13:58
simply you know I'm drunk and he was like okay uh uh are their parents there and I was like no he goes well just
00:14:07
don't leave they hung up the phone never talked about it after that that was it well that's what's strange here though
00:14:14
Captain because the Brandon's parents they're concern that he's not home but maybe this just kind of slipped through
00:14:21
the cracks maybe it didn't occur to them hey son's turning 18 this is a conversation that we need to have or or
00:14:29
maybe they expected him to be out a little bit later you know and maybe they're already in bed they're already
00:14:34
asleep so they don't even know that he's not back yet but we should also point out that his according to his friend
00:14:41
Joseph Wright Brandon Billings didn't appear to be speaking or doing anything out of the norm well and this is 2002 so
00:14:49
I'm assuming that Brandon doesn't have a cell phone right especially because it's
00:14:53
a small town so even back then uh it would it would have been odd for any of my friends to have a cell phone um maybe
00:15:00
a a pager or something uhhuh well and the other thing that I want to point out here is that according to this report uh
00:15:07
by his friend that Brandon would have been heading would have most likely been heading in the opposite direction of his
00:15:14
home so it doesn't look like he was planning on returning home at 3:40 a.m. now on Sunday October 6th we have a man
00:15:23
this is Ricky Stewart he's in his 30s he's with his wife arleene they are on the property of Larry carico a property
00:15:31
off of Rockhouse Lane this is a very rural area now Ricky and his wife are there with Larry's permission to deer
00:15:39
hunt on the property this is something that Ricky had done many times now Larry lives in a house at the top of the hill
00:15:47
Ricky and his wife are they're not on the top of the hill they are down by the creek mhm this is around 11:30 a.m. to
00:15:56
about noon on that Sunday Ricky said that he didn't see anyone else in the area and for whatever reason
00:16:06
I found this to be a strange observation but like I said Ricky had hunted in this
00:16:10
area many times and he said that he found the area to be unusually clean I guess there were usually you know like
00:16:19
trash strewn about um they were out looking for deer for about two hours or so and Ricky Stewart said that he and
00:16:28
his wife decided to head back toward the road this is when he saw what he thought
00:16:34
was the reflection of either sunlight off of a windshield or sunlight off of a tail light this caught his eye through
00:16:42
the brush then when he studied it more he was sure he was seeing a section of a vehicle so Ricky Stewart said that he
00:16:51
went down through the brush to what he could clearly now see was a pickup truck as he got got closer he saw a body
00:17:01
partly hanging out of the driver's side door the person was obviously dead but Ricky Stewart did not know who this
00:17:10
person was he said he was incredibly startled and shaken by this discovery obviously I don't think anyone leaves
00:17:18
the house expecting to find a body he tells his wife to call 911 but her cell phone would not get any service
00:17:27
down there by the creek so they drove up to his boss's house uh Larry's house at the top of the hill and
00:17:36
he asked Larry's wife to call 911 which she did well they stayed at the house for about 5 or 10 minutes and then they
00:17:43
went back down to where they had found the truck right so first on the scene was uh EMTs then we have officer
00:17:52
Barett he says he reported to the scene about 10 minutes after the call came in the first thing that the officer noticed
00:18:00
was that the truck that held the body of the at this time Unknown man it was sitting in the soft dirt of the creek
00:18:08
the tires were sunk into the dirt almost almost all the way up to the steel rims
00:18:13
of the tires there were some tracks around the truck but they were quickly able to
00:18:20
determine that those were from the First Responders here's one thing that's going
00:18:25
to upset you a little bit Captain there was there was one what they're labeling as one good footprint in the soft mud
00:18:33
that was of interest to the investigators but before they could take an impression of this it was
00:18:40
accidentally stepped on by the medical examiner FY Malik Jesus no uh but small town so I
00:18:49
mean uh you know probably not that many murders take place in this County so uh you got to give them somewhat of a
00:18:57
leeway on not knowing how to um you know they might know how to investigate a scene but that doesn't mean that they've
00:19:05
done it enough where it's going to be you know 100% to the book well and the other thing here is the the medical
00:19:11
examiner is not showing up hoping to destroy evidence uh the medical examiner probably hopefully not yeah the what I'm
00:19:19
assuming is 99.9 times you know it it sounds it sounds bad that that he or she was the one that stepped on the the
00:19:27
footprint mhm but let's keep in mind somebody else one of the investigators or somebody already on the scene could
00:19:33
have pointed it out hey don't step there yeah or you know roped it off yeah there
00:19:39
you go how that's an idea yeah there here you go okay so officer Barnett uh he didn't get much of a chance to
00:19:47
investigate the actual scene where they found this truck in the body because he was sent to interview people up and down
00:19:54
the street up and down the road there to see if they knew anything regarding their findings but no one that lived on
00:20:02
that street had seen or heard anything uh that seemed of any of importance nobody heard any gunshots we we'll get
00:20:10
to that because there's some information here but nobody saw anything that day is
00:20:14
what you're saying correct as far as officer Barnett goes while he's investigating and talking to these The
00:20:20
Neighbors in this area they've not seen or heard anything now they asked Ricky Stewart and his wife the two that had
00:20:27
found the body if they had seen or heard anything of importance now Ricky said that when they were heading out of the
00:20:34
Creek area to go up to the house to call 911 they saw a little silver or gray Nissan coming into the area so a small
00:20:46
car but they had just glanced at it what does that mean into the area into the area where the truck was yes yes because
00:20:54
that this area that the truck was in um this was kind of kind of known to the kids as like kind of a make out alley
00:21:01
type thing yes it's not really alley but it's kind of like a country road but you
00:21:05
know hey we can go by the creek and uh it's a secluded spot back there do some uh tongue battling so I maybe I'm not
00:21:12
describing it good enough but we have the truck that was found with the body in it is basically in the Creek area
00:21:20
okay and they had to Ricky and his wife who found the body they have to leave the area they have to go back up to the
00:21:26
house so they they can call when they're heading up to the house this little car is driving in toward the
00:21:33
creek toward the truck but it could just be somebody turning around yeah there was a turnaround in that area now he
00:21:40
said that he couldn't tell um he couldn't recall anything about the people inside the TR inside the Nissan
00:21:48
or even how many people were in the car uh he said he just glanced at it he also
00:21:54
said that when they went back down to the area of the crime scene he did not see the Nissan again but the sheriff's
00:22:01
depuy's car was already there by this point so Ricky Stewart told the officers that when he got closer to the truck
00:22:11
that he had spotted he could see the driver side door was slightly open not this the door wasn't open all of the way
00:22:18
just a little bit yeah and he also said that driver was hanging out he said that
00:22:22
there was nothing in the way of the door so it could have been opened all the way
00:22:26
but it had not he said that the young man's body was partially outside of the truck on the driver's side and Ricky
00:22:34
actually went up and he checked the body for a pulse but he said that there was none as for the small Nissan car now
00:22:43
Ricky when questioned about this car he said that he tried to actually flag down
00:22:48
the car he wanted to you know kind of warn them right about what they had seen he said that the vehicle was going too
00:22:56
fast that they they may not have noticed that he tried to wave at them he decided
00:23:01
not to follow the vehicle not to follow the Nissan because they wanted to call 911 as soon as possible now at this
00:23:08
point after having called 911 remember at the scene we have EMTs there we have the officer that responded first um uh
00:23:17
officer Barnett right and we have the medical examiner dancing all over evidence actually I don't think by this
00:23:23
point the examiner has arrived but we have another officer that arrives at the scene his name is Terry Anders MH now
00:23:31
Terry Anders very quickly tells officer Barnett this thing looks like a homicide
00:23:38
and not like a traffic fatality to him the thing here is you got to keep in mind Captain we have a truck with with a
00:23:45
body in it that's down in the creek basically it could have potentially been a traffic accident or a traffic fatality
00:23:53
we don't see any signs of a wreckage on the vehicle right and well but we also don't see any bullet holes in the
00:24:00
vehicle either there was some damage to the truck my guess is that it wasn't until after this officer Anders arrived
00:24:09
that officer Barnett would have been sent off to interview people up and down the street what kind of damage are we
00:24:14
talking about see I don't know that all I know that there was damage to the vehicle there's normal wear and tear
00:24:21
damage I mean uh trucks are notorious you know anybody that owns a truck knows that people like to hit you
00:24:28
like you know normally when somebody's backing out like in a parking lot or something they'll hit the bed of the
00:24:34
truck so you'll see a lot of trucks that have little dings and stuff on the bed because somebody wasn't paying attention
00:24:39
and didn't see the bed well some of the first observations that this officer Anders makes the driver was wearing a
00:24:47
t-shirt the deceased was wearing a t-shirt and it had been pulled up over his head the seat belt on the driver's
00:24:55
side appeared to have been cut he saw what appeared to him to be two gunshot wounds behind the deceased ear the truck
00:25:04
itself he figures out that it's registered to a Kyle and Sherry Billings so I'm assuming the officers are going
00:25:12
to call the Billings house well let's go to the Billings house so we have we have
00:25:18
Sher and Kyle Billings who they're concerned because they've discovered that their son had not come home from
00:25:24
that Saturday night right Sher Billings she started to call around to Brandon's friends the morning after to find out
00:25:32
where he was they're probably pretty worried but not probably super worried because it was his birthday so you got
00:25:40
to kind of take that into account it sounds like the and this is kind of a typical situation I'm guessing it sounds
00:25:49
like Mom was pretty concerned and it sounds like Dad had just thought well it's his birthday he probably just got a
00:25:56
little wild maybe a little crazy and he went and did something that uh he normally wouldn't have done at some
00:26:03
point that evening a vehicle drove up to their home and it parked behind the home just where
00:26:10
Brandon would always Park his truck well at this time Sherry called out to her husband Kyle and said hey your son's
00:26:17
finally home so they they both walked to the back door where they didn't find Brandon as they had expected but they
00:26:25
found Sheriff Wilson along with him investigator Glenn hayatt Sher sher's mind immediately leapt to a car accident
00:26:34
yeah she was totally unprepared for what they were about to tell her that they had found Brandon he had been found shot
00:26:41
to death around 2:30 p.m. on that Sunday October 6th just one day after his 18th
00:26:50
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2023 [Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers let's get into this investigation
00:29:05
Captain because we have this situation where we have 18-year-old Brandon Billings he's been killed he's been
00:29:10
found dead in his truck in a creek near the New River well by a creek by the creek and now they've identified their
00:29:19
victim and now we have an investigation that's going to take place we mentioned that they went to the Billings home and
00:29:26
told the parents that Unfortunately they had found their son dead now they're going to ask them of course when was the
00:29:33
last time they had seen Brandon right they're going to tell the investigators the story of Brandon oversleeping the
00:29:40
day before waking up saying he was running late for something and basically rushing out the door right but we're
00:29:47
assuming that's his birthday dinner correct because later his parents said later that day they had seen his pickup
00:29:55
truck parked outside of a Mexican restaurant in G that evening so this obviously is where he was having dinner
00:30:03
so I think this is important for a couple of reasons one the parents having seen Brandon's truck parked in the
00:30:09
parking lot so obviously it corroborates the story of Brandon having dinner with
00:30:14
his friend but we also have a situation where Kyle Brandon's father said that he
00:30:20
could see the truck clearly and it did not appear to have any damage on the vehicle at the time that he saw it in
00:30:26
the parking lot right now we we do have some witnesses you asked about if there were any Witnesses or if people had seen
00:30:33
or heard anything the witness we have this is Albert Barkley Jr he's 68 of Huntersville North Carolina M he and his
00:30:43
wife were camped across the river from the scene of the crime in their RV Barkley said that he had heard what
00:30:50
sounded like three gunshots around 4:00 a.m. which he knew because they checked the time when they were startled awake
00:30:58
by the noise so these gunshots startle you awake and you don't call the cops but maybe you don't call the cops
00:31:05
because this is an area that people hunt in so maybe you're just assuming that there's Hunters out early on the weekend
00:31:13
well yeah I found that a little confusing too um now Barkley said that after hearing the first set of shots he
00:31:19
then heard a second round of shots this time two gunshots and he saw lights in the dark across the river at what would
00:31:28
later be identified as the actual crime scene now he went back to bed after this
00:31:33
second round of shots and while in bed he heard a final shot he got up again so he he hears a total of how many shots
00:31:41
three and then another round and then another single shot correct so so by this point he hears three then two then
00:31:49
one according to his account so a total of six shots yeah maybe you don't call the cops just because you hear the
00:31:55
gunshots but once you see the lights from a vehicle I would assume at that point that you would call the cops yeah
00:32:02
he told them he that he saw again he saw lights from what appeared to be a vehicle they asked him if he could
00:32:08
describe the vehicle he said that all he could say is that he saw lights he couldn't tell you what it was he thought
00:32:14
that it might be a truck but he wasn't he couldn't say for certain now Albert Barkley and his wife they said that
00:32:20
later that morning they left to go visit some friends in the Elk Creek area when
00:32:25
they came back by this time it was the afternoon and this is by then they had already stumbled upon the crime scene so
00:32:32
the crime scene was being investigated at that point and that's when he reported having heard these shots in the
00:32:39
wake of Brandon's death the police pursued leads and interviewed more than 100 people looking for Clues while they
00:32:47
awaited for the autopsy report investigators met daily to discuss their findings stating that we we answered all
00:32:55
the tips that were coming in at the time anytime anyone calls they went out and checked out the tip meanwhile friends
00:33:02
and family began raising money for the funeral turkey knob Church where Sherry Billings was a member held a bake sale
00:33:10
to raise money family friend Sherry bear began another fund drive setting up donation jars at businesses to collect
00:33:18
money her daughter Holly was a classmate of Brandon's at GX High School the delps
00:33:25
studio this is one of those photo studios donated a 16x2 portrait of Brandon to the Billings family and the
00:33:34
owner provided photos of Brandon to all members of the G football team and the senior class let's get into some of the
00:33:42
evidence Captain so Brandon Billings was found shot to death shot to death from multiple
00:33:49
gunshots but his truck had no bullet damage right the truck was in a small Creek near the New River on Rock House
00:33:57
Road off of Patton Mill Road by a creek cuz we keep saying in a creek but it was
00:34:02
just by the creek well I think I actually think that both descriptions might be correct just depending on who's
00:34:09
giving it and that sounds like can't be both correct yes I I think they can it sounds confusing but this is a confusing
00:34:15
crime scene and actually the way that it's described in the newspaper accounts doesn't help to clear much up in my mind
00:34:22
here here's what I can gather okay so we know that the tires were found in reported as the soft mud or soft dirt
00:34:30
near the creek yeah see I wonder if it's like a service road that you have to go
00:34:35
down and that you know because like I said I mean this was kind of known as like a make out area for the local kids
00:34:41
or like the high school kids would you know you don't have a place to go make out at your parents house or whatever so
00:34:46
you go to the these Service Roads and that's kind of what I'm envisioning in my head because I know in my town we had
00:34:52
a couple Service Roads that people would you know go do naughty stuff stuff there
00:34:58
well my parents always made sure that they had a special spot at our house for children to make out now so so bad the
00:35:06
way that it sounds to me Captain is okay so we know the truck was off the road um
00:35:11
it was it was in the dirt or mud however you want to describe it where some people may say to be in the creek you
00:35:17
have to physically be in the water right it wasn't in the water however it may have been damn near close to it where
00:35:25
others might describe that as well the truck was found in the creek mhm uh so I think that's the reason for the
00:35:31
confusion and I think that maybe um we can use some of this this autopsy that the police are waiting on to help clear
00:35:40
up some of these questions that you and I have so as you had said this was a favorite Party location for the local
00:35:48
teens oh Party location also that's what the the locals refer to it as Party location now the police state that they
00:35:56
didn't know whether the vehicle had wrecked before or after Brandon was shot okay so this would be clear because I
00:36:02
wasn't clear before there was definitely some sign of wreckage there was some sign of wreckage to the vehicle there
00:36:08
was no uh bullet damage found on the truck itself I'm unclear as to what the damage the wreckage de damage was on the
00:36:16
truck right this was a tough case I mean there there was a lot that was not clear
00:36:21
but we do know that it was wrecked because the police outwardly say we don't know if the wreck occur before
00:36:27
after he was shot because he could have been in the driver's seat the vehicle on
00:36:33
in drive you get shot and then you let your foot hit the pedal and take off or you or you let up off of the brake and
00:36:40
the vehicle heads down towards the creek right all these things are possible the
00:36:44
police also said that there is no evidence that Brandon was abducted or forced to drive to Rockhouse Road okay
00:36:54
they said that yeah because the big question here you you got to start with why was Brandon out that late what the
00:37:01
heck was he doing and he was by himself like I could understand if he was with his girlfriend or with some buddies that
00:37:07
would make sense to me but it sounds to me like he's driving away from his home and he's by himself yeah he's heading
00:37:13
somewhere where is he heading to and he wasn't this is not a kid that was reported to
00:37:19
have any Mis dealings you know it said you know all of his family and friends basically said he was a gentle giant he
00:37:27
was the kind of dude that if he saw trouble he would just turn and walk away and I'm not trying to I'm not trying to
00:37:33
throw shade but you see this happen a lot of times in cases where somebody Is tragically murdered and and they were an
00:37:40
angel in the community and they were the perfect person and then sometimes if you
00:37:45
do some digging that you find out not so much in this case though there's no wavering on this this guy was uh you
00:37:53
know basically a big teddy bear well and it's not just his parents saying that he
00:37:57
was an awesome guy it's his friends as well you know his his contemporaries are saying he didn't do drugs and he yeah he
00:38:05
did party a little bit they said he would attend parties and he probably I'm guessing would consume a little alcohol
00:38:10
at these parties but what the friends had said was he was the type of dude that only went to the parties to be with
00:38:16
his friends he wasn't like the Wild guy that was leading the party or showing up
00:38:21
with bottles of booze right you know he wasn't that guy um what else did the police find so they found that his body
00:38:28
was bruised and I don't know the locations of these of the bruising but the police did say that these bruises
00:38:36
could have resulted from either a truck wreck or from Brandon having played a football game that Friday night right so
00:38:45
I'm I'm assuming that these bruisings are on his chest or shoulder so again anybody that's been in a pretty
00:38:52
difficult car wreck you'll like a couple days later you're going to see like bruising AC cross your chest from the
00:38:57
seat belt but also anybody that's played you know Sports you know you wake up on
00:39:02
on Monday and kind of notice bruises uh especially football you know you get hit
00:39:07
with a helmet and the ribs and then next thing you know your whole side is is is
00:39:11
bruised well we both played a little football growing up and I we were pretty good oh man I was like I was like the Bo
00:39:18
Jackson of Columbus Ohio The Glory Days no but um he would run up walls and stuff it was great but the thing is when
00:39:26
when you play football not just the bruising of the ribs but remember that you would you'd wake up bruising of the
00:39:32
ego you'd wake up a couple days later and you would have like purple and blue marks and black marks on your on parts
00:39:38
of your arms and your forearms yeah yeah that you don't even they weren't things
00:39:42
that hurt at the time during the game or during practice you didn't even recall that and why would it have bruised so
00:39:49
much um but but I'm assuming when they say bruising on the body I'm assuming chest or stomach area uh not so much the
00:39:58
arms because I think they would have stated as such well you you could be right but the reason why I went ahead to
00:40:04
point that out was that these could be taken either way the these are very obvious bruises that I would expect to
00:40:11
see someone having played a football game that Friday but they would also be obvious bruises of someone I would have
00:40:17
expect for like defensive wounds if there were some kind of altercation if he was in some kind of fight well or or
00:40:23
the wreck if there was a wreck that could you could have sustained those injuries so there's three options and
00:40:31
that makes it even more difficult here's another here's a weird thing and I'm telling you Captain I the last couple
00:40:37
nights I've laid in bed and I've thought about this crime scene and it just doesn't make there's I can't make any
00:40:42
sense of it m all right sorry I just I let you in my head there for a minute but I don't want to be in your head
00:40:48
Brandon's wallet was missing but police did come out and said that they they did
00:40:53
not assume robbery was a motive Mo for his murder well his parents would know if he had a bunch of money on him or
00:41:00
like birthday money on him mhm but uh you're talking about a 18-year-old kid I mean why would you rob a 18-year-old kid
00:41:09
you're you're not hit in the lottery with that mhm well the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Brandon
00:41:17
Billings uh stated that Billings had sustained two bullet wounds on the left side of his head and one on the right
00:41:25
side as well as a shot to the neck three see that doesn't make any sense three of
00:41:31
these shots were from an indeterminate range she estimated that one that the one on the right side of Brandon's head
00:41:40
was fired from a a distance of about 6 to 12 in so we have we have four bullet wounds we have three that they cannot
00:41:49
determine the distance from which the the bullets were fired right and one that appears to have been shot at close
00:41:56
close range 6 to 12 in the back of his left well and which one was the 6 to 12 in uh that was the
00:42:05
one on the right side of Brandon's head so he's in the driver's seat 6 to 12 in you either have a pretty long arm cuz
00:42:15
this is a Ford Ranger so it's it's not a huge truck so you could actually reach in with your arm and shoot somebody and
00:42:24
be 6 to 12 inches away you could reach in through the passenger side window right so then my question would be is
00:42:30
that window was it open or shut and determined on how much his his face was turned his head was turned it the shot
00:42:38
could have come from the driver's side window or remember he was found partially outside of the the vehicle
00:42:44
door right and him being partially outside of the vehicle door may explain why there was no bullet damage to the
00:42:52
truck that's the problem I have here I can't I look at this crime scene and I go through the autopsy and we got plenty
00:42:58
more to get to here I can't determine if he was in or outside of the truck at the
00:43:02
time that the shots took place yeah because he could have been shot by uh you know an individual or two
00:43:09
individuals and they and they Place him back into the truck or half back into the truck mhm you know what I mean you
00:43:15
know he could have been standing by his truck when this attack takes place and he's a big boy yeah but and maybe that
00:43:25
is one of the reasons why he only got half back into the truck mhm you know what I mean cuz cuz he was such a big
00:43:31
boy the back of his left hand had gunpowder grains on it so this suggesting that his hand was possibly up
00:43:39
when he was shot you know maybe kind of trying to defend himself okay so or Shield himself in some way just to throw
00:43:46
this out there and tell me if I'm ludicrous uh okay so he has gunpowder residue on his hand mhm is there I mean
00:43:55
did they do any testing to see if he fired uh anything uh it's it's actually described as gunpowder grains which I
00:44:04
don't know if that's different than gunpowder residue but I'm guessing that it is because it's described as such um
00:44:12
we should have called our buddy Austin he would have told us yeah so my guess is that they seem pretty certain the
00:44:18
medical examiner she seems pretty certain that that this would have been him kind of shielding his his face or
00:44:25
his head okay from from possibly somebody approaching him with a gun now she surmised that Billings was first
00:44:34
shot on his left side and the neck wound was probably the last and that one was coming from his right
00:44:43
side um well here's what they State they state that he his head was probably in a
00:44:50
downward position when he was shot in the neck um and the medical examiner believes that the first shot that hit
00:44:58
him was one of the shots on the left side of Brandon's head so if and if anybody close to Brandon out there if
00:45:05
you're listening you might want to tune this out for for just the next couple minutes here CU I kind of want to clear
00:45:10
this up the way that it sounds like the medical examiner understands this to have gone down so she states that one of
00:45:18
the first shots would have been those two shots to the left side of his head which we already know is from an
00:45:26
indeterminate range so we don't know the distance of where those were fired from
00:45:32
but then we have the next shot would be the one to the right side of his head which is estimated to be from a distance
00:45:39
from 6 to 12 in right and then the final shot would be that of the one that hit him in the neck while his head was down
00:45:48
so the way that I'm guessing that this goes down according to the way that she has kind of figured this out and pieced
00:45:55
it together all these shots came from the same gun so it sounds like he was probably fired
00:46:01
upon twice the gunman then approached him to get closer to to hit him from that 6 to 12 in range I'm guessing at
00:46:10
that point is when he probably put up his hand and received those gunpowder grains to the hand when that close-range
00:46:19
shot hit him he may have been dead before he was even hit that fourth time or or in the process C of that and
00:46:27
that's where he was slumped down and then shot in the neck okay so we have the autopsy coming in and and they're
00:46:35
saying that they believe that this all these shots came from the same gun right so what does that tell us do we then
00:46:44
assume there's one individual I would guess so I'm guessing that this went down fairly quickly and here's why we
00:46:52
know that he was reported to have been leaving the on your way way convenience store at 340 and that's not just that's
00:46:59
not just the uh his friend saying he left at 340 we have surveillance footage of him leaving at 340 what did he buy
00:47:07
there that I don't know they didn't give they didn't give the particulars of that
00:47:12
in this statement right because he's not old enough to buy buy booze so yeah and
00:47:18
the thing too is you know sometimes they call these things convenience stores and
00:47:23
you know different parts of the country seem to call different things you know where here like we might say somebody
00:47:29
may have stopped at a convenience store but you and I know if there's a gas pump
00:47:32
in front of that convenience store it's a gas station to you and I we don't care
00:47:36
how big the store is inside and how many things they sell we would always refer to that as a gas station right so is it
00:47:44
possible that he that he filled up some gas is it possible he just stopped in there to get something to drink that I
00:47:50
don't know but we do know he left at 340 what we also know is that these shots were first heard by the guy that
00:47:57
was camping with his wife in the RV at 4:00 right so a 30 minute window 20 minute window what oh yeah 340 sorry
00:48:06
yeah and the you can't feed me beer and expect me to do math well and the the I don't have this right on me right now
00:48:14
we'll get to it later because I know it's in the notes somewhere but the drive time this would not have left a
00:48:19
whole lot of time for something to go down so whenever he arrived at this location he was shot fairly quickly
00:48:26
after arriving at this location so okay a couple questions that I have and that we have so far is where
00:48:35
was he heading why was he out that late um was there more than one individual was he in the truck or out of
00:48:43
the truck uh and why did he pull off that road mhm you know and then I guess the other question is was the damage um
00:48:54
before the attack or was it after the attack the damage to the vehicle yeah yeah and that's one thing that the
00:49:01
police seem to really be focusing in on because they questioned the medical examiner quite a bit about this they
00:49:08
wanted to know that would he have lost Consciousness after the first shot or the first two shots they're trying to
00:49:16
determine if the crash if he crashed the truck before after he was shot mhm the medical examiner could not necessarily
00:49:24
clear that up for the det Ives she simply reported that he most likely would have lost Consciousness he would
00:49:31
not have been able to be alert or to do anything with purpose and what she's stating there is he could have been
00:49:40
operating the vehicle in some form some fashion after having been shot but he would not have been doing it with any
00:49:46
purpose or or he would not have been a alert doing this meaning like we said earlier his foot could have just simply
00:49:54
came off the break or went to the gas pedal and he moved the vehicle after being shot after attacked well I wonder
00:50:00
if the vehicle was found in park or not that's a good question that that's a really good question something that they
00:50:08
left out of the report um the pathologist also found that Billings had suffered blunt force
00:50:17
trauma and El laceration to the face stating that he struck an object or an object struck him
00:50:26
okay again you wonder I because we don't know what the injury is is this possibly
00:50:32
an injury that could have taken place during during a game MH um I'm I'm guessing I'm guessing not but no this to
00:50:40
me sounds like something that happened that night that that either and probably during this attack or the result of the
00:50:47
truck uh wrecking right I failed to mention this earlier but when they were going through the crime scene after the
00:50:56
police had been there for some time remember the homeowner the Larry who had let the people hunt on his property him
00:51:02
and his sons eventually came down to the crime scene at some point and one of his
00:51:07
sons uh noticed that there was a rock that had what appeared to have been blood on it uh and they clear this up in
00:51:14
the in the lab test in the autopsy reports it was a blood it was actually blood that was on that rock and the rock
00:51:22
is reported to have been found about 100 feet from where the truck came to rest okay so we should point out point out
00:51:30
that the medical examiner is not a blood spatter expert but she stated it was possible that one or two wounds may have
00:51:39
occurred at the location of the Rock The Blood On The Rock was later identified as that of Brandon's right or The Rock
00:51:47
was a weapon mhm I mean he got smashed in the face with something they also found a cigarette butt in the area um
00:51:54
this was found at the scene this had Ricky Stewart's DNA on it uh Ricky Stewart had been smoking and in his
00:52:01
statement said he had been smoking and tossed the cigarette out before he found the body that's always something that I
00:52:08
think about is if you do find if you stumble upon a crime scene and you're the one that reports it to the cops that
00:52:16
you're going to be the one question obviously yeah and I can't remember there is a there is a certain percentage
00:52:23
that comes with that that people having report finding a body or actually the one that
00:52:28
put it there right um but how about this Ricky Stewart don't Litter buddy yeah all right don't throw your cigarette
00:52:35
butts in the woods and you can prevent forest fires there Ricky Stewart yeah and how about your buddy is nice enough
00:52:42
to let you hunt on his property and you're out there flicking your cigarette butts all over the place litter bug yeah
00:52:48
I'm going to make a call to Larry I'm going to make a call to Larry we're going to shut this Ricky guy down yes
00:52:53
tell him hey yeah and you know no remember when uh he was saying uh I noticed it looked very clean that's cuz
00:53:00
you haven't been on the property littering everything that's exactly littering everywhere you litter bug uh 5
00:53:07
days after Brandon's body was discovered a fisherman putting a boat in the New River this is near the crime scene he
00:53:15
looked down and he spotted two items in the water all right there there are almost always these strange stories and
00:53:23
coincidences in these cases that just make you scratch your head and this is one one of them you I read scratching my
00:53:30
head I read this report and it really screwed me up and I had to do some really interestingly boring fact cheing
00:53:38
here how can it be interesting and boring well it was tedious my friend because listen to this okay it's
00:53:45
something that really doesn't matter at the end of the day but well thanks for wasting everybody's well I mean it kind
00:53:51
of It kind of matters but let me tell you this okay okay just tell us what the situation is the fisherman that spotted
00:53:58
these items in the New River his name are you ready for this yeah is Ricky Stewart what yeah Ricky Stewart this is
00:54:06
Ricky Eugene Stewart Ricky r i c KY as compared to our other Ricky Stewart which is r i k
00:54:15
Ki okay so two different completely different Ricky Stewarts are involved in the same so
00:54:23
that you get now why the the factchecking was pretty boring on that one yeah but was Ricky Stewart like some
00:54:30
kind of race car driver like he's like a famous guy in there like back in the day
00:54:35
and then like a bunch of people named their kids after wa way to put me on the on the put me on the spot here to to
00:54:42
name I'm wrong I think you know I know there was a Jimmy Stewart there you go anyway so the items that Ricky Stewart
00:54:50
found in the water 5 days after Brandon's body was found well it was Brandon Billings driver's license and a
00:54:57
credit card okay so he decides to place these items on the front of his boat and
00:55:03
he continued to fish for about 15 minutes or so while he was trying to figure out what he should do yeah stop
00:55:10
fishing he decided that he was going to get the boat out of the water and he was
00:55:14
going to call in the evidence that he had found well when he's exiting the water he ends up finding another item
00:55:23
and this is Brandon's run tide ID card from his uh High School yeah so Ricky Stewart drove up the hill to get a
00:55:32
cellular signal and called his brother who in turn called the police I'm surprised with you know these counties
00:55:39
being such a small County and it's also like I said uh you know this is time I'm
00:55:45
familiar with most my friends and most people I knew didn't have a cell phone so there's a lot of cell phones in this
00:55:50
case so the the officers having this information and this new evidence uh they they went the next day
00:55:59
to where this item where these items were recovered yeah and they were searching the area and they ended up
00:56:05
finding Brandon's wallet in the river uh it stated that it was found quite a ways away from the crime scene
00:56:14
but not in a direction that it would have been carried by the river itself right they also used metal detectors to
00:56:21
search part of the New River for a gun or other evidence but did not find a gun or any other evidence I'm assuming there
00:56:29
was no money in the wallet yeah I I don't think there was anything in the wallet there was nothing reported as
00:56:35
having been in the wallet so it almost looks like somebody had the wallet pulled out the ID cards and through them
00:56:42
and then then through the wallet so they probably weren't thrown together right they somebody was going through it
00:56:49
somebody took the time to go through the wallet discard these items it looks it sounds to me like they threw threw them
00:56:55
all out roughly in about the same place and the same location but this shows us we have
00:57:01
somebody who is discarding evidence um how did they get that wallet they must have pulled it from either his
00:57:09
truck or from his pant pocket after having shot him and now they're a ways away quote unquote a ways away from the
00:57:17
crime scene and they're disposing of evidence and I'm sure some people were scratching their heads you and I had
00:57:23
this conversation off of uh you know in the garage when the mics were not turned
00:57:28
on a lot of well I have uh surveillance on you at all times but the you know people probably scratching their heads
00:57:35
wondering okay this fisherman finds these the ID the driver's license of a guy that is known to have been killed in
00:57:43
the area and then he gets in the boat and he goes fishing for a few minutes while he decides what to do fish on man
00:57:51
fish on well I actually don't find any problem with that I think I think it's I look it's not ideal right you would you
00:57:58
you would think that in in that situation all of us would immediately rush to call the authorities he then
00:58:06
calls his brother instead and then brother calls the authorities I don't find anything wrong with that just
00:58:12
because I think some people get scared I think some people they they stumble across something they didn't expect to
00:58:18
find and it just it startles them it just it it unnerves you a bit and you don't think clearly for a few minutes
00:58:25
well it's probably the reason he called his brother first to go hey I found this
00:58:28
what what should I do just to get some confidence yeah I don't know what to do here bro tell me what to do now the
00:58:33
other thing uh I'm actually happy that he waited a few minutes just because he ends up finding more evidence when he's
00:58:41
exiting the water so who knows had he not found that if he would have chose to do
00:58:47
differently the the um Brandon's Funeral was one of the largest ever accommodated
00:58:54
at the local Funeral Home in Independence with an estimated 1,200 people attending for Christmas that year
00:59:02
the family received a headstone that they placed at their son's grave this was a gray granite in the shape of a of
00:59:11
a football MH the twin County Crimestoppers this is unfortunate the twin County Crime Crimestoppers did not
00:59:19
have enough funds on hand to pay a $1,000 reward to offer a reward for information in the case but not a lot of
00:59:27
crimes in this area right so I mean it is a shame though they appealed to the County Board well but here's what's more
00:59:36
sad is why we need to put a dollar amount on you know doing the right thing if you have information on somebody's
00:59:43
death you come forward and if you don't then I just question your morals in general or your character yeah they they
00:59:50
appealed to the county board for money for a reward uh the board decided against using public funds for a reward
00:59:58
and they kind of threw it back at the public to make donations and that's why it's so important you know we mentioned
01:00:05
some of the donations and the fundraising earlier uh but friends planned a benefit for the reward fund
01:00:12
this started in January the January after Brandon was killed and many local businesses and individuals did donate to
01:00:20
this fund while the County's decision not to contribute to the reward board fund was upsetting to the Billings
01:00:26
family Brandon's mother Sherry said that her biggest fear was that without an arrest another teen could die or be
01:00:34
killed yeah stating that the killer may think hey I got away with that one Brandon's mother said she wanted closure
01:00:42
she wanted to know why her son died and who was responsible for killing her son Brandon
01:00:49
[Music] Billings [Music] all right a lot more to get to in part two of the case of branding Billings and
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01:01:34
listening and for telling a friend and for the five-star reviews we will see you back here tomorrow bring your butt
01:01:40
back to the garage until then be good be kind and don't Litter yeah rookie [Music]
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