00:00:00
[Music] building a business may feel like a big jump but on Deck small business loans
00:00:04
can help keep you afloat with lines of credit up to $100,000 and term loans up to $250,000 onc lets you choose the loan
00:00:12
that's right for your business as a toprated online small business lender onex's team of loan advisers can help
00:00:18
you find the right business loan to fit your needs visit on.com for more information depending on certain loan
00:00:24
attributes your business loan may be issued by onc or selty Bank onc does not lend in North Dakota all loans and
00:00:28
amount subject to lender approval hey green gobler here so you've got a clog drain in your bathroom water in the
00:00:35
sinks overstaying it's welcome you're spitting today's toothpaste on top of yesterday's toothpaste you hope did it
00:00:41
go away yeah clogs don't just go away I make them go away I'm green gobler the only Clogg disola you need I'm bleach
00:00:50
free safe for your pipes and I work guaranteed or your money back cuz I never met a claw that was going to
00:00:57
unclog itself green gobler let the gobler get it [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
00:01:44
you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
00:01:48
as always is a man whose stolen bike is rumored to be in the basement of the Alamo here is the captain well I guess I
00:01:56
have to walk everywhere now it's good to be seen and good to see you thank thanks
00:02:00
for listening thanks for telling a [Music] print this week we are very happy to be
00:02:08
featuring Lone Star original Lone Star beer uses the finest hops with hearty grains from the Central and Northern
00:02:16
Plains added with molted barley and corn give this beer its full natural flavor Choice hops lend complexity and Aroma to
00:02:26
the solid balance of alcohol body and character this is the National Beer of Texas ABV 4.7% garage grade 3 and a
00:02:36
quarter bottle caps out of five and how about a cheers to our extended garage Family First up a shout out to Shannon
00:02:44
Hower in Springfield Ohio and a big we like you jib to Matthew in New Britain Pennsylvania next we got a shout out to
00:02:52
Jen in Middleboro Massachusetts and a big shout out to another Jen in Blues Creek North Carolina here's a long
00:03:00
distance cheers to Brian in Phoenix Arizona I love Arizona I'll be in Phoenix in October and last but
00:03:07
certainly not least we have a double fisted cheers to Aon and Carrie in Port St Lucy Florida that's our good buddy an
00:03:16
awesome wife from crimecon cheers and thank you to everyone who contributed to the Beer fund yeah BW R in beer run go
00:03:26
to True Crime garage sign up on the mailing list and will love you forever and Colonel that's enough of the be
00:03:33
Nails all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some
00:03:38
true [Music] crime right now at this particular time everybody's hurting we all hurting and
00:04:00
uh you know we're all concerned Rodney Johnson says he's trying to stay strong and I spent the day with on Wednesday
00:04:07
and I never thought that that would be my last day that I would see my niece on Thursday night 21-year-old qara Johnson
00:04:13
was found dead inside her home she lived there alone her body discovered lying in
00:04:18
the hallway her family says they found no blood or obvious signs of a violent struggle why you know Qatar was a very
00:04:26
uh beautiful person she loved everybody everybody loved her I mean I tell T everything that was my girl for real I
00:04:33
mean that was my only friend that I had really Tisha Brenson worked with qara at
00:04:39
this nearby Taco Bell that's where qara was last seen driving home from her job as a manager on Wednesday night but
00:04:47
neighbors say her car disappeared outside her house only hours after she got home presumed stolen by her killer
00:04:53
it was eventually found by detectives late Thursday but investigators are not saying where Taylor's been good to I
00:04:59
mean for this to happen here in tayor it's unbelievable it seems like a nightmare a bad dream investigators must
00:05:05
now piece together who is responsible family and friends say they have no idea who would want to do her harm you know
00:05:12
my mother's on one side of her and I'm on the other side of her and she's right in the middle I mean if you know if that
00:05:16
have been some noise or something like you know we would have heard she was the type of person that kept us going and
00:05:22
kept us happy like I said she was special and and she's going to be missed she's definitely going to be missed this
00:05:27
week we bring to you A True Crime Story that is what many would call a small town murder unfortunately not many
00:05:34
people outside of that town of about 15,000 have had much awareness of the murder of qara Johnson qara was a
00:05:42
hard-working young woman many would say that she had her whole life ahead of her
00:05:47
I say that she had her whole life right in front of her she was a decisive individual she knew what she wanted and
00:05:56
she was willing to work hard for it she set goal goals made a plan did her darnest to make it
00:06:04
happen so what happened to Qatar who killed her and just how many people in and around that town know the truth
00:06:12
today multiple agencies are working together to get those answers the Taylor Police along with the Texas Rangers and
00:06:21
the Department of Public Safety are investigating this homicide and now many of you will be hearing it for the first
00:06:30
time this is true crime garage and this is the still unsolved homicide case of qar
00:06:39
[Music] Johnson this week we are heading down to the great state of Texas we wish we were
00:06:56
here for happier reasons but we promised to try to do some good while we're here
00:07:00
if we can this week we explore a still unsolved homicide case out of Taylor Texas Taylor is near Austin about 45
00:07:09
minutes Northeast of Austin Taylor is in Williamson County today the population of Taylor is about 16,000 and at the
00:07:17
time of our case we are looking at close to 14,000 people we are taking everyone
00:07:23
back to August of 2004 I think we should start the timeline off for today today's
00:07:29
case on Saturday this is Saturday August 21st we have 21-year-old qara Johnson she is living
00:07:40
out on her own and on this Saturday this is where we get the first part that's a
00:07:46
little bit difficult to report in our coverage here on this unsolved case well that's because the details from
00:07:52
everybody are a little wonky donkey on the Saturday August 21st it's been reported a few different ways that there
00:07:59
was either a party an event a gathering and you can look and Define those words any way that you please but the general
00:08:08
statement is that she was at an event or gathering that took place at a park down
00:08:14
the street from her house some of the reports state that Qatar was the host of this get together I am honing in on this
00:08:24
part of our timeline because it seems to have some relevance or at least law enforcement believe that this could have
00:08:30
some big time relevance to the case well it's strange because people don't know if she was the host or if she was just
00:08:36
there and some people at the party don't even know why the party was happening was it somebody's birthday was it an
00:08:42
engagement party was it a baby shower nobody knows so she attended or maybe she hosted this party on Saturday but
00:08:50
let's go to the following Wednesday the day of the crime yeah we are going to go
00:08:56
to Wednesday August 25th 2004 at midnight that night this is when the report is that she is last seen she's
00:09:05
alive well and fine at midnight on August 25th qara was working the late shift at
00:09:13
the Taco Bell in Taylor Texas she was incredibly athletic at one time was even offered a basketball scholarship but the
00:09:22
school was too far away for guar she didn't want to be that far away from her parents so she turned down the
00:09:28
basketball scholarship sh she goes on to have her own place she's living in a trailer home but it's not like last
00:09:36
week's case where we're talking about a trailer park this seems a lot more rural
00:09:41
to me and we'll get into that here in a minute but back to her working life so she's doing her thing she's a manager at
00:09:48
this Taco Bell she's closing down the shift for the evening and she's last seen getting into her vehicle leaving
00:09:57
the Taco Bell parking lot at approxim imately midnight that night the following day on Thursday is when the
00:10:05
alarm Bell is rung multiple times family was having some issues because they say
00:10:13
that they drove by her home and her vehicle wasn't outside now we want to point out here that her grandmother
00:10:22
lives on one side of her and her uncle lives on the other side of her but again it's not a park like setting these are
00:10:30
more spaced out based off of what I've seen the videos I have seen Yeah so basically the family owned a plot of
00:10:37
land and they had three different trailers on that plot of land she was living alone in the middle one her
00:10:45
family becomes concerned because they are used to seeing her car parked out front her car is nowhere to be seen and
00:10:52
people have tried calling her cell phone she's not answering it's around 700 p.m.
00:10:57
that night when they get in increasingly concerned this is because by this point
00:11:02
she's not shown up for her shift at the Taco Bell again she's a manager she's quite responsible it's unlike her to not
00:11:09
show up for work at 8:40 p.m. that night qatar's family is so concerned because that they have not heard from her she's
00:11:16
not answering her phone she didn't show up for the evening shift at Taco Bell her 73-year-old grandmother this is
00:11:22
Helen rants she lives next door she and a six-year-old go over to qatar's home knock on the door the front door is
00:11:32
locked so the grandmother decides to open up a window and send the little one in to unlock the front door and this is
00:11:42
where things go from bad to worse grandmother Helen goes into the trailer home and finds
00:11:51
qara lying there lifeless and she calls the police and now we have Taylor Tex PD on the scene well not only do we have
00:12:03
a murder victim but we have her car missing this is where the evidence gets a little strange okay so we have the car
00:12:10
missing like the captain had said and with that we got the car keys missing and qatar's cell phone is missing as
00:12:19
well now her family is on record later saying that other than that they didn't find anything else to be missing from
00:12:27
the home again reported a few different ways here it's it's stated in some reports that guitar was found in a hall
00:12:34
way leading to the bedroom other reports it seems like the most reliable reports
00:12:39
here Captain are saying that she was found in the bedroom which would make sense based off of the description we
00:12:44
get from Grandmother with sending in the the little kid thankfully he didn't see
00:12:50
her if she was in the bedroom before unlocking the front door and allowing Helen to come in the police immediately
00:12:57
call in other agents they do their due diligence by calling in other agencies here this keep in mind
00:13:05
we are at August August 26th of 2004 this is their first reported homicide in tailor of that year the last
00:13:14
time that they had had a homicide in Taylor Texas was around Thanksgiving the year prior so murder is not a
00:13:22
commonality here in this city they call in other agencies and one thing that they decide to do is we are going to
00:13:30
keep the way that she was killed close to the vest we're not going to give out those details until a later date
00:13:38
eventually what we learn is that she was shot and unfortunately was killed with a
00:13:44
large caliber handgun we don't have any better of a description than large caliber handgun and it's been reported
00:13:52
that it may have been one shot there there are some reports out there that say shot multiple times with large
00:13:59
caliber handgun again with this being a detail that law enforcement doesn't want
00:14:03
to go into great detail about we do not know the exact specifics at this time in
00:14:09
those reports we also learn that when she was found that she was there was blood on her face neck and hands and a
00:14:18
blue and white night gown Laying across her body so the speculation here by her family is that she would have been in
00:14:27
the process of getting ready to go to bed which makes sense it's late at night she's done working for the day she's
00:14:33
back at home her Mitsubishi Lancer is missing this is a maroon vehicle at the home again Keys missing
00:14:44
cell phone missing car missing there's no weapon found the murder weapon is not found inside the home yeah no gun found
00:14:51
at the scene of the crime but I think a a big thing for law enforcement is where
00:14:56
did her car go if we know know that she worked that night well let's just talk to people at her work did she drive home
00:15:05
and once they find out oh well she left the shift and she was driving her car then you go well now this car becomes
00:15:12
our best lead and what have we said a million times on this show lot easier to find a vehicle than it is a person and
00:15:20
the thing here too Captain is this is going to be something that wipes away a big
00:15:26
question mark for her family think about this in the moment on that Thursday in the early goings of that Thursday when
00:15:35
qara is missing an action vehicle can't be it's not seen at her home as family would expect she's not answering her
00:15:43
cell phone as a parent as a grandparent as a her uncle anybody involved in this situation their worry is going to be
00:15:53
that oh she's working late she never made it home that night well we unfortunately now know that she did in
00:16:00
fact make it home that night so it stands to reason that her car made it home that night as well but now she is
00:16:07
having been murdered in her own home and the vehicle is gone Keys gone cell phone
00:16:14
gone so of course police are going to want to look for and find that vehicle and see what the missing vehicle has to
00:16:21
do in relationship with our homicide victim here they do locate the the ve vehicle it's eventually found
00:16:29
at a public pool so this would be one of those community pools that you could pay
00:16:34
to have a day pass maybe you have a season pass to go into is found in the parking lot for this community pool in
00:16:40
another town yeah it's about 12 miles away from her house and this town I believe it was Thornville I've been told
00:16:48
that it's it's located between Round Rock and Taylor where she lived and so Round Rock would be like the closest Big
00:16:58
City right about 100,000 people live there this vehicle is found there now here's the problem cell phone never
00:17:06
located I'm curious what did they find in the car what didn't they find in the car and we know that they're going to
00:17:14
keep a lot of that close to the vest they're going to keep that Under Wraps because of what we saw with how she was
00:17:20
killed they kept that detail away from the public for a good period of time they wanted to interview people sit down
00:17:27
and interview people and talk to people and figure out who knew what before they
00:17:31
started releasing details well if you're law enforcement you're going how how is
00:17:35
this victim connected to this pool if she is or is there somebody in the victim's family or Inner Circle that's
00:17:43
connected to this pool or connected to that town I don't believe law enforcement found a connection to
00:17:51
anybody that she knew to that town if they did they're not saying so and here's the thing too that you have to
00:17:56
wonder with this type of setup and and where the vehicle is found could this just simply be a convenience spot to
00:18:03
drop a car that you want to get rid of well here's what we don't know did she pick somebody up the the person commits
00:18:11
a crime then takes her vehicle to escape or did somebody follow her back home did
00:18:18
she meet somebody at home was she expecting someone you have this car being placed 12 miles away how did this
00:18:27
person get home did they H call somebody to get a ride was this close enough of a
00:18:34
location that they could walk home well I love the tree that you're barking up here Captain
00:18:40
because one of the statements here with this situation is that there was no signs of forced entry into her home
00:18:48
there are some reports that state that the back door to her home was found unlocked which seems a little odd
00:18:55
knowing that grandmother had to go to the L that she did to get in to get access to that home herself but it may
00:19:03
just be a situation where she didn't think to check the back door however what we do know from her sending the the
00:19:10
little boy in through the window that window was unlocked as well yeah now you have to question the crime scene and
00:19:17
you're looking at the crime scene and you're going okay did qara let somebody into her home did was she expecting
00:19:24
someone did somebody just show up on a drop in and she' chose to let them in or did somebody somehow gain access to her
00:19:32
home and it was somebody that she wasn't expecting at all that speculation has not been
00:19:38
expanded upon by law enforcement now another very strange detail so that I find the vehicle to be a strange detail
00:19:48
in this case absolutely parked at the community pool but now this is one of those details that you you don't forget
00:19:55
right unfortunately there's there's a thousand unsolved cases and we've covered as many of them as we can to
00:20:03
date but this is one of those details in a case that you just don't forget because it's a
00:20:08
rarity at some point qatar's mother calls her cell phone and somebody answers the cell
00:20:17
phone and all we have to go on is a description provided to us by her mother which says that when I called her phone
00:20:27
someone answered in an unfamiliar high-pitched voice saying this is qara and obviously mom knows it's not her
00:20:39
daughter yeah it makes me wonder is this a female voice or is this somebody trying to
00:20:46
disguise their voice to to make it sound like a female voice and unfortunately qatar's mother this is case is coming up
00:20:52
on the 20th anniversary okay 20th anniversary of the sad day of when this young woman was killed no one's been
00:21:01
arrested and unfortunately her mother has passed away since and what I would love to know is some more detailed
00:21:08
information we know the police have this but exactly what the captain wants to know was this a male voice pretending to
00:21:16
you know doing some absurd high-pitch voice uh weepy voice killer we covered that case was it did the voice sound
00:21:23
female and just putting on a put on voice for for to disguise their voice here's the thing though mom also says
00:21:29
that she heard laughing in the background before before the phone hung up does that mean that this person
00:21:35
answered the phone in the presence of others and these other people in their presence are laughing giggling at the
00:21:44
person answering the phone hello it's aqara the phone hangs up Mom tries back now she's getting voicemail phone
00:21:54
doesn't get answered again going to voicemail I do want to point out something something here that is of
00:22:00
interest to me and of the the investigation at large police do say while we've never recovered that cell
00:22:09
phone we do have her cell phone records we do have detailed information about that cell phone I'm assuming since we
00:22:16
have some information about that cell phone and we have records do we also have voice mails or those lost with the
00:22:25
phone the problem is we're going all the way back to 2004 uhhuh right the the phone information and what they could
00:22:32
pull back then is certainly different than it is today so I can't tell you how extensive the information is that they
00:22:40
have but they are on record saying that we do have that cell phone information so think about this for a minute here we
00:22:50
have a young woman who we're told doesn't have enemies she didn't have be with anybody that anybody knew of she's
00:23:01
murdered in her home which is located between her uncle's place and her grandmother's place in the middle of the
00:23:07
night we have to assume in the middle of the night right because the car's gone by Thursday and none of the family see
00:23:14
it so it would stand a reason that she's killed before the car disappears grandma and Uncle both say we
00:23:21
didn't hear anything we didn't hear a scuffle we didn't hear an argument we didn't hear a scream we didn't hear a
00:23:26
gunshot which the uncle's on record saying that you know he thinks that if there was something crazy going on that
00:23:33
they would have heard something again it it looks to me the spacing of these trailers would have been great enough
00:23:42
that potentially if whatever went down all occurred inside qatar's home that they may not have heard anything here's
00:23:49
the other thing too unfortunately while a gunshot might be loud if it's just one
00:23:55
or two unfortunately they're quick yeah they're quick and if they happen at an hour when everyone's sleeping it might
00:24:03
not even wake you up if you're a neighbor it might not and if it were to wake you up you may not know what woke
00:24:10
you up it's too fast too quick so we have Grandma and we have uncle on record saying they didn't hear anything that
00:24:17
night but what we learned months later is that she was in fact killed with a large caliber gun
00:24:33
are you the type of person constantly thinking about the safety of people and things you value most trust Simply Safe
00:24:41
to protect your home you'll sleep better every night knowing that Simply Safe 24/7 monitor agents are standing by to
00:24:48
protect you and if someone tries to break in they can send emergency help when you need it most the best part is
00:24:55
the exclusive liveu protection Simply Safe agents can act within 5 Seconds of receiving your alarm and can even see
00:25:03
and speak to Intruders inside your home warning them the police are on their way
00:25:09
it's no surprise that Simply Safe has been named best home security systems by US News and world report for 5 years
00:25:16
running and the best customer service and home security by Newsweek build a force field around your home or your
00:25:24
business with Simply Safe you get 24/7 monitoring agents are standing by to protect you you get peace of mind and
00:25:32
you know that your home your family your business your pets are Simply Safe protect your home this summer with 20%
00:25:40
off any new Simply Safe system when you sign up for fast protect monitoring just
00:25:45
visit simplysafe docomo that's simplysafe docomo there's no safe like Simply Safe this show is sponsored by better
00:25:56
help do you have self-care non-negotiables I didn't it's something that I struggle with something that I'm
00:26:03
working on every day every week and every month and it's getting better with better help when your schedule is packed
00:26:10
with kid activities big work projects and more it's easy to let your priorities slip even when you know what
00:26:17
makes us happy it's hard to make time for it but when you feel like you have no time for yourself non-negotiables
00:26:24
like therapy are more important than ever if you're thinking about starting therapy give better help a try it's
00:26:32
entirely online it's designed to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief
00:26:39
questionnaire to get match with the licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge
00:26:44
never skip therapy day with betterhelp visit betterhelp.com garage today to get 10% off your first month that's better
00:26:53
help hp.com this show is proudly sponsored by better help if you've heard of OIC or
00:27:02
wovi you've probably heard three things they're effective but they're expensive and they're hard to get that's where row
00:27:10
comes in through row you can access prescription compounded glp 1s with the same weight loss ingredient as brand
00:27:16
name glp ones at a fraction of the cost row has compounded glp 1es in stock now and if you qualify your medication ships
00:27:26
in just one to four days don't have time to schedule a doctor's appointment no problem with row you can see if you
00:27:34
qualify from the comfort of your own home go to r.co garage memberships start at $99 for
00:27:43
your first month medication cost are separate that's r.co garage go to r.co garage for blackbox warning and
00:27:54
full safety information compounded medication is not required to and does not receive FDA review or approval RX
00:28:02
only the medication must be paired with diet and exercise modifications in order
00:28:07
to achieve the stated [Music] results all right we are back cheers mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to
00:28:22
you Captain cheers to people on the other side of the pond we will be hopefully seeing some of your beautiful
00:28:30
faces soon crime con UK we're going to drink as if we have no livers yeah we're going
00:28:37
to drink like the United States lost the War uh that we are still under the King's Command and paying uh tax taxes
00:28:46
without representation yeah so this case man a lot of questions and I I thought initially looking at this
00:28:53
case it's simple right we just figure out who picked up this individual at the pool and case solved oh yeah but then I
00:29:04
was like wait a second dum dum head it's possible that they just drop the car off
00:29:10
there and it's it doesn't have to be two killers the person could have again lived close enough or doesn't have to
00:29:18
get picked up at that pool could have walked down to the nearest gas station got a ride there so it's it's not as
00:29:26
simple now I I think it's probably likely that somebody did pick them up and whoever picked them up knows or has
00:29:34
some suspicion that there's something weird that went down and probably just hasn't come forward to law enforcement
00:29:42
maybe they're scared themselves but there is a possibility that this this killer just disposed of the car in this
00:29:52
location without having anybody else know about it well these community pools I'm glad you brought that up because
00:29:58
these community pools this complicates your investigation because I guarantee you law enforcement was looking at that
00:30:04
same angle early on so you can call yourself dumb Dum if you want but I think I was and everybody else would
00:30:09
have been looking at that same angle it's still very much a possibility and I think actually that's the right road to
00:30:14
go down but to explore the other option here is these community pools they're in
00:30:19
a community you can park in the parking lot and be in the community on foot rather quickly and in your own
00:30:26
neighborhood fairly quickly as well so it's not inconceivable that the killer didn't drop the vehicle and just simply
00:30:35
walk away my big question for detectives would be did did you find the keys what
00:30:41
did the vehicle look like when you're when you're there tearing that thing apart and you are processing the vehicle
00:30:47
cuz you know they're dusting it for prints if they didn't dust it for Prince they didn't do their job all right so
00:30:52
when you process this vehicle what did it look like to you nobody knows what a boosted car stolen car looks like better
00:31:01
than police was this thing all busted up and torn up was there was there an abundance of evidence inside were there
00:31:09
items inside of that vehicle that you could show to her family and say does this belong to qara obviously it
00:31:15
complicates thing that she doesn't live under lock and key of mom and dad's house she's an independent woman so they
00:31:21
may not be able to give great answers maybe yes no and a maybe are all involved in and did this hoodie did this
00:31:29
shirt did this bracelet flip-flops whatever you find in this vehicle did they belong to her we know the cell
00:31:36
phone was never found so if killer is completely operating alone they dropped the car and took the cell phone with
00:31:43
them how long it remained in their possession that's anybody's that's anybody's guess but the car should
00:31:52
provide you some evidence here I'm curious to find out what was in that vehicle and if the keys were ever found
00:32:00
absolutely the other thing too let's go back to that phone call we talked about was the voice mail was it female what
00:32:07
was Mom's speculation about that phone call because here's one thing we know for sure whoever answered that call
00:32:14
whether they're the killer or not they were in possession of one of the very few things that was taken from her home
00:32:19
from the murder victim's home in short time short proximity from when our victim was killed well and if going to
00:32:28
pretend to be the victim then guess what use a piece of [ __ ] the other thing here
00:32:33
where I go to the idea that there are probably a few different people that may know or have Insider information about
00:32:42
either what happened to qara or who was involved is that giggling in the background that Mom heard when she
00:32:49
called the cell phone that almost seems to me like this crime feels very juvenile very juvenile that that
00:32:58
somebody you said dum dum earlier I think we I think we called the whoever answered that cell phone let's call them
00:33:04
dum dum because dum dum scum buum they clearly didn't understand that that could that puts them on the radar
00:33:12
whether they're the killer or an accessory to murder and then you have the people in the background
00:33:18
giggling and laughing yeah that's another one is it simply that we have somebody at a party does the other
00:33:26
people around this person that answered the the call do they even know what is being said on that call or is this a a
00:33:37
TV in the background or a radio in the background I mean that's some of this stuff seems so simple in this case and
00:33:44
you go so this should be solved by now but there I think there's twists and turns to every piece of evidence again
00:33:53
did somebody pick up the killer at the pool somebody should know contact law enforcement somebody else could go well
00:34:01
I was actually with this guy that answered the phone and said the victim's name pretended to be the victim right
00:34:09
that's strange let me call law enforcement and this like you said this is not you know this is a if anybody's
00:34:18
ever seen Friday Night Lights the movie or the TV show this reminds me of of East Dylan and uh but probably a little
00:34:27
bit more of a rural area well that's very strange and ironic that you say that if you look up Taylor Texas yeah
00:34:42
one thing that they will tell us is as small as this town is Right currently 16,000 people one thing and I and I
00:34:51
think if you live far from this place at all like us Ohio boys here we would have
00:34:57
no way of knowing this but notable movies filmed in and around Taylor Texas there's some big ones here uh the movie
00:35:06
Michael Suburbia Varsity Blues I don't want your life the life of David Gale The Texas
00:35:14
Chainsaw Massacre Friday Night Lights here's God in football and in 10 years from now Street good friends live in
00:35:23
large in Texas Texas forever Street yo everybody listen up let's do it let's touch God this time Texas forever street
00:35:33
so I had forgotten all about that until till you had had dropped that uh title there but yeah when you see photos of
00:35:41
this town because they talk about this party and so let's go back to this party a little bit strange it seems like so
00:35:48
simple okay so she's having a party she's a host well what was this party for nobody knows the sister was there
00:35:56
her sister goes to the to the party doesn't even the sister remembers talking to her her sister but doesn't
00:36:02
remember why they had the party that seems strange to me is this the same sister that said that she thought police
00:36:10
thought of her as a suspect could be could be so one of her sisters kinat is on record telling the
00:36:21
newspapers and media that she thought that police thought that she should be a suspect and look she's very upfront she
00:36:31
says look I have a police record I was arrested one time for assault right and she says none of us are perfect this was
00:36:39
a mistake I would never ever harm my sister at all and she says I I really I would never kill anybody right but I'm
00:36:48
not I wouldn't hurt my sister the assault wasn't on my sister and in the defense of law enforcement they do
00:36:56
everyone's a suspect until you're not no [ __ ] so I don't know that I didn't get
00:37:01
the vibe from the sister that they were you know up in her face grilling her and
00:37:05
threatening her with uh spending the rest of her life in prison I didn't get that Vibe I think because what she says
00:37:12
to the media is that based off of the line of questioning it would seem like they
00:37:18
thought I was a suspect police did give a direct response to that statement saying we've not named a suspect at this
00:37:25
time right we have interviewed over 50 people we have administered several polygraphs we have also sent physical
00:37:33
evidence off to be tested yeah but but think about this if you're law enforcement you you go so qara has a
00:37:41
party and then you start asking people about the party and you're getting these wishy-washy answers it makes it feel
00:37:51
like people are covering up something how can you not know who the host of the party is how how can you how
00:38:00
can people not know why there was a party because because you can you can have a party
00:38:07
just to have a party but people at the party would know oh well what's the what's the occasion no nothing just to
00:38:17
just to have a get together right but they've been investigating this for 20 years that's that's where another speed
00:38:23
bump comes up for me in this investigation yeah where I have to wonder when did police when did law
00:38:30
enforcement think that this Gathering right should could I should say could rather than should hold
00:38:39
some significance to the murder yeah was it months afterwards was it was it a week afterward or was it years because
00:38:48
if it were years or even months it it's not out of the realm of reason that people that attended didn't fully know
00:38:55
what it was for especially if it was for no reason reason at all other than just
00:38:58
to get together but the sister not knowing does complicate things as well here's the thing though Captain so this
00:39:06
is one thing that I want to point out the reason why and and this is a call to action to all the listeners out there
00:39:14
because what I'm hoping is that with the unfortunate 20th anniversary coming up with this unsolved homicide that we can
00:39:24
get some renewed interest in this case one with the anniversary two with our coverage too law enforcement have said
00:39:32
that they want to know more about this gathering in fact one thing that law enforcement did very well in this case
00:39:39
circling back to something we we said at the beginning they brought in other agencies bigger agencies with more
00:39:46
resources and one of those agencies was the Texas Rangers and it's a Texas Ranger that is on record saying that we
00:39:55
want to know more about this Gap gaing that took place the Saturday before she was killed because we have concerns that
00:40:03
there could be there could be information details about that Gathering that could give us or provide a lead
00:40:13
here in this case according to detective hunter that event may be crucial in finding out what happened to qara and
00:40:21
investigators are urging anyone who may have seen or heard anything during that party to call police now that statement
00:40:31
that's why I question when were they asking individuals about that Gathering because that statement to the media that
00:40:37
where they're calling and asking for the Public's help that was 15 years after she was killed maybe they stumbled onto
00:40:43
something that made them think wait a second we got to go back and examine not just the the day leading up to to to the
00:40:50
night that she's murdered or the movement of the vehicle or the movement of the cell phone and and who may have
00:40:55
had been in possession of the phone or the car both maybe we need to go back early in our timeline to that Saturday
00:41:01
to that Gathering maybe they stumbled onto something and to expand on the car too so that car it's reported that the
00:41:08
car was found on Friday morning it's found here we go August 27th 2004 Friday a.m. qatar's Mitsubishi Lancer is found
00:41:19
at the Thorndale community swimming pool this swimming pool is approximately 12 miles from qatar's home she's alive and
00:41:27
well Wednesday at midnight after her shift at the Taco Bell seen getting into her car we know she makes it home safe
00:41:38
she's killed after that her car disappears why why does that car disappear was she murdered for the car
00:41:47
unfortunately it wouldn't be the first time Michael Jordan's father was killed by two teenage [ __ ] boys that just
00:41:53
wanted to steal his his vehicle and and go joy riding did somebody just go out and joy ride in
00:42:00
this thing for a day and when was it dumped at the pool just because it was found Friday
00:42:05
morning doesn't mean it was gone the entire time it's not terribly far from her home it's found relatively quickly
00:42:13
that makes me wonder that the car is not not the answer it might be the answer to
00:42:18
finding out who's involved who's responsible but I don't I don't feel like that that she was killed for the
00:42:26
car no but the other tough thing is like we said she she lives on this property owned by the family two family members
00:42:36
live on each side of her mhm but we have no family member coming forward and saying that they even saw the car at her
00:42:45
trailer that night right which now again they they might not have been looking or
00:42:50
might not even have the Viewpoint or the vantage point to be able to see that unless they get in their car and drive
00:42:58
ways and I'll make a couple of assumptions here and I'm underlining that they're assumptions so don't don't
00:43:04
take this as fact but I'm going to make the assumption that Grandma is not hanging out at 1:00 a.m. on a Thursday
00:43:13
and grandma likes to party grandma likes to get down especially on a Wednesday night then we have the uncle living on
00:43:20
the other side it's the middle of the week right very likely he's got work in the morning
00:43:26
so I'm picking up what you're putting down we we don't have anybody saying that they saw the vehicle there that
00:43:32
night but I also don't think that I don't think I would expect them to have seen it I'm going to assume that that
00:43:39
car made it back to her trailer at some point oh yeah after work absolutely so but we but our timeline becomes shorter
00:43:49
and I'd like to talk I wish they had more information that they're releasing about the shift that she worked
00:43:59
beforehand what were her responsibilities was she closing the store that night yes and who was she
00:44:06
closing with and what were her responsibilities because was she supposed to take a
00:44:12
deposit and does and does she take a deposit home with her or or is that something that she did that she
00:44:20
shouldn't have done are you the leader of the blood hound Gang because I I feel like you are you're taking us down the
00:44:27
perfect path here well I do sit down to pee I I was talking about the ones that solve Mysteries not the not the
00:44:33
musicians um that's where I'm at If This Were if this were the case that you and
00:44:38
I caught and and we are driving around in the old the old uh patrol car talking about where what what lead do we want to
00:44:46
look at first after we interview everybody her immediate family and friends and everyone I'm looking at this
00:44:52
thing going and I'm of course I'm trying to relate it to my own life EXP experiences but sometimes that there is
00:44:59
value in that right I look back at the old Colonels being 21 years old living out on my own and my life looks very
00:45:06
similar to what her life looked like to me I was 21 living in a tiny little apartment with an okay car and I had a
00:45:13
decent job right qara living on her own in a small place doing you know doing her thing
00:45:23
she's building her life she's really starting out and building her life here she's got she's got a car and she's got
00:45:30
a job and she's got her place and you know what if her life was like mine after those three things I didn't have
00:45:37
anything I was broke you you come into my place remember Captain you come to my place you open up the fridge what was in
00:45:43
there some beer and some condiments and that's about that's about it maybe some uh I kept slices at that young age I
00:45:52
kept red wine in the fridge too but the thing here is where where I'm going is where you're going the three things
00:45:59
missing from this young woman's home her cell phone her car which implies her keys were missing and guess what could
00:46:07
be on that key ring along with the key to her car did she have the key to that Taco Bell or did somebody think she
00:46:15
didn't have to have the key somebody could have just thought that she had it but if I don't think this seems like a
00:46:20
sexually motivated crime doesn't seem like a any type of Revenge well we're BAS in that off of the description that
00:46:28
we're getting of the murder scene right there doesn't seem to be a huge scuffle now the uh no forced entry might imply
00:46:36
that it was somebody that she could have been you know could have been somebody of the opposite sex showing up that she
00:46:43
either wanted to or didn't want to show up or a friend or family member that's why I don't think it's out of look law
00:46:50
enforcement has to question the Inner Circle it's somebody that knows her 100% yeah I'm thinking here C
00:46:58
mhm the car's taken out of happen stance if you're if you go there looking for the key to that store and you take the
00:47:07
keys again I go back to the impulsivity of the juvenile nature that I feel like we have here in this case the juvenile
00:47:18
tendencies in nature was to answer that cell phone when it rang the first time too dumb too impulsive to know better
00:47:27
answer the phone make a joke this is Qatar whatever voice male voice female voice we don't know giggling in the
00:47:33
background this feels very juvenile to me did she close the store that night and did somebody have a window of
00:47:40
opportunity to attempt to return to the store to open it up or as you said was she in charge of a deposit did she take
00:47:48
the deposit home for some reason and that is actually missing and it's been proven and law enforcement are aware of
00:47:54
it but they don't want to release that detail her killer knew her I feel like many people when I say many it could
00:48:01
just be two or three other individuals I think know what happened here I'm hoping
00:48:07
with the how young the killer could be and it could be as simple as somebody that knew
00:48:13
her brought a bad element along with them we we're we're just going to we're just going to go get the money from the
00:48:20
restaurant that's all we're going to do yeah again but it still bothers me that we don't have much information
00:48:27
even from people that went to this party or this Gathering seems like I don't know I I
00:48:34
think if I'm the lead detective and I start asking people about this event and I'm getting these dumb answers I'm going
00:48:41
to go this it should be pretty pretty [ __ ] simple well and you're right and that's what they did right because
00:48:47
they're asking the public for help on that front saying hey we we want to know more about this Gathering because we
00:48:54
think that there could be some some clues or it could hold significant information as to the murder of this
00:49:00
young woman yeah I I'm I'm a little clueless on the vehicle the cell phone I get it you know was
00:49:09
2004 a much a much higher percentage of the population didn't have cell phones then that do today I don't think she was
00:49:17
killed for the phone I think it was taken as maybe an afterthought I just really wonder if unfortunately with her
00:49:24
responsibilities and her duties as a manager manager of that restaurant was it just an did somebody
00:49:31
see what they thought was an opportunity to collect thousands of dollars from the
00:49:36
place and she was forgive me for saying collateral damage just just they killed her to try to gain access to either the
00:49:47
deposit for that day or access to that restaurant and 2004 the thing that you would be hopeful of is well can I I
00:49:58
think rather than her friends and family I would be looking at people that worked
00:50:04
under her absolutely more so I feel like that there's a lot of ties to this restaurant here that's the last thing
00:50:12
that we are aware that she did in her life and in 2004 you're probably hoping surveillance maybe we if if the Taco
00:50:20
Bell didn't have it could we pick up surveillance from neighboring businesses or on the route from her place to the
00:50:30
restaurant to see if we can see her vehicle heading in that direction yeah or what happens when you're younger at
00:50:37
work that doesn't really happen so much when you're older at work your friend stopped by is there somebody that
00:50:45
stopped by during her shift riding shotgun and saw something yeah or just or is there somebody that went through
00:50:51
the drive-thru just to say hello where's the bad element On The Fringe of her acquaintances or friends or Associates
00:51:00
where's that bad element because that might be your person responsible or the center of this investigation now one
00:51:08
thing we should point out here too Captain is that the family has voiced some concerns over the years that they
00:51:15
didn't think that law enforcement was so um forthcoming to them keeping them up to speed and up to dat on the
00:51:23
investigation itself I wish that they didn't feel that way I wish that they had a different feeling and that their
00:51:29
experience was different I will say this though what we can say is based off of The Limited information that they've
00:51:34
released to the public it makes sense that they've not released a lot of that information to
00:51:40
the family as well and and I and I I want to be able to share in your your hurt and your
00:51:47
anger in that regard I will say this though we we know the NAACP was brought in for for a brief period of time here
00:51:56
to take a look at the case and I'm glad that they were but I will say this multiple agencies were brought in Texas
00:52:03
Rangers were brought in Taylor Texas PD is still involved in this case and this is one that this is one that pisses them
00:52:11
off this is a case that when it first happens you think all right we're going to be able to get some justice for this
00:52:18
young woman because we have some leads with the vehicle with the cell phone and when it starts to fizzle out and you
00:52:24
start to not get answers or you start getting push back from from persons I I what I'm trying to say I think here
00:52:31
captain and not so eloquently is that I understand the frustrations of the family and I'm glad that the NAACP was
00:52:38
brought in I applaud you for that you I I would do the same thing but the flip side of that coin from what I've
00:52:46
observed it looks like they were they were working this one real good and continue to work it over the years you
00:52:51
know periodically we've had statements from police and the Texas Rangers and in other agencies at the one-year Mark at
00:52:59
the at the 2-year Mark at the 5year 10 year 15 and I'm sure we're going to see it again at the 20-year Mark I spoke
00:53:04
with two individuals at the Taylor police department and they agre I said here's my guess this one pissed you guys
00:53:11
off they said yes this one pisses us off we want help with this one we want help
00:53:17
with this one they still think that they can get it done and I think the other agencies think that they can get it done
00:53:21
too the other thing too is when you're not getting answers or you don't feel like you're being brought up to speed
00:53:26
keep in mind there's multiple agencies working the case agency one might not have all the information that agency 2
00:53:34
has and so on and so forth uh in a manner that they can deliver them to you I'm hopeful about this case as sad as it
00:53:42
is that we're reaching the 20th anniversary as sad as it is that qar is no longer with us she seemed like a
00:53:49
bright hardworking young woman who cared about her family she loved her family so
00:53:53
much she turns down a basketball scholarship she she didn't want to be away from from her family she in
00:53:59
distance she was she was working hard she was building her life and someone came and snuffed it out for reasons
00:54:06
undetermined by us here in the garage today but I tell you I I can't get over the simple fact garage task force gut
00:54:18
check here tells me that this has to do with that restaurant I just feel I can't
00:54:23
get over that like I I can't move past that Town not a dangerous Town pretty safe
00:54:31
and I think that's one of the problems when this is not a crime that you investigate often but I do think they
00:54:39
are steadfast and I do believe that they want this crime solved and they want Justice to be served absolutely 100%
00:54:49
they've worked it I believe the best that they can right because they're up against a brick wall with some of this
00:54:55
if you if you're reach out to people and you can't get information or they're dodging your questions and we probably
00:55:02
have a situation too where a few of the people that they would like to talk to they may not have awareness of hiding
00:55:09
behind a veil of of friendship or Allegiance with with other persons here so we have a case where we know that
00:55:19
they've interviewed over 50 people and that's that is within the first few years of the case polygraph test
00:55:26
administered evidence sent off to Crime Labs I'm curious what new evidence could
00:55:32
be collected off of those same items today or that we could yield different information today than it did 20 years
00:55:41
ago we may have technology on our side here but we do need police need your help with this and and this is a
00:55:49
situation where it doesn't have to mean that you know who did this or why or other players in involved or that you
00:55:57
know why the car was moved or the details of that or or information about the cell phone maybe you know about the
00:56:02
cell phone call police but here's an opportunity if you were at that Gathering that event that party whatever
00:56:09
you want to call it or if you heard people talk about it investigators want information about that event about that
00:56:16
Gathering that took place on Saturday August 21st they want information about that as well that could give them the
00:56:24
lead or the breadcrumb trail that so needed for 20 years now qara Johnson was taken away far too early she was only 21
00:56:34
years old building her life she loved her family deeply her sister said to the perpetrator or perpetrators she didn't
00:56:44
deserve what happened to her if you don't turn yourself in God is going to deal with you anyone with any
00:56:51
information at all regarding this case and the Gathering that took place days before her murder is encouraged to
00:56:59
contact the Taylor Police Department at 512 35 25551 or if you want to remain anonymous
00:57:09
you can call Crim Stoppers at 1 1800 253 7867 or for some reason you are uncomfortable speaking with law
00:57:16
enforcement at all you can contact one of us here at the garage want to thank everybody for joining us
00:57:37
here in the garage each and every week Colonel do you have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this
00:57:42
week Captain it's a little self- serving I'm doing it again but it's because of the garage sale going on going to
00:57:50
recommend my book the deli murders the quest to find the man on the bridge we have autograph copies for limited time
00:57:56
available back on our website true Crim garage.com you can tell from this episode we're doing everything we can
00:58:02
just to get you to go to our website but no we have limited copies autographed copies of the deli murders the case is
00:58:09
heating up again should be going to trial here soon so if you need to get up to speed if you want to get all the
00:58:16
information as I saw and as I explained it as one man's obsession with an American murder investigation check out
00:58:23
the deli murders book The ques toy the man on the bridge by Yours Truly of course you can get that on Amazon you
00:58:30
can get it on Audible or Kindle but if you want an autograph sign copy go to our website truecrime garage.com and not
00:58:37
only is it signed by the colonel but it's also signed by Bo Jackson and until next week be good be
00:58:45
kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] building a business may feel like a big
00:59:26
jump but on Deck small business loans can help keep you afloat with lines of credit up to $100,000 and term loans up
00:59:33
to $250,000 onc lets you choose the loan that's right for your business as a toprated online small
00:59:39
business lender onex's team of loan advisers can help you find the right business loan to fit your needs visit
00:59:45
on.com for more information depending on certain loan attributes your business loan may be issued by on or cty Bank onc
00:59:51
does not lend in North Dakota all loans and amount subject to lender approval