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[music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks
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for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who told you not to swim in the Potomac River. Here
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is the captain. >> I'm also here to remind you that soup [music] is not a meal. It's good to be
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seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. This week we are very excited to be
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featuring Duel at Dawn by the bright and shiny folks at Wonderful Sun King Brewery. Duel at Dawn is a revolutionary
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era American ale, also described as a historical beer. What does that all mean? Nobody knows. But it was brewed in
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celebration of Broadway Indianapolis' presentation of the world-famous Hamilton. I love Hamilton and I'm also
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digging this beer. It's got an old-school look and taste. It reminds me of my days of hunting small-batch and
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import beers way before the explosion of craft beers. It's aromatic, it's wheat,
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it's sweet, and just like the captain, it's a little nutty. Garage gives three and three quarter bottle caps out of
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five, and let's raise a glass to some of our bright and shiny garage friends. First up, it's cheers to Louisiana in
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Minnesota. >> And a big we like to give goes out to Andrew in [music] Louisville, Kentucky.
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Double fisted two tall cans in the air. Here's a cheers to Trip and Hazel from Lawrence, Kansas. [music]
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>> Yes, and a big shout out to Heather in Norcross, Georgia. >> And here's a cheers to [music] Parker
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and Karen hiding out in Minneapolis. And last but certainly not least, we have Aaron and Ken in McMinnville, Tennessee.
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Everyone we just mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com, donated to the beer fund, and for that,
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we thank you. Yeah, b w e n b b n Yeah, b w e d o u n beer run. For everything true crime, check out
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truecrimegarage.com and Colonel, that's enough of the b s ness. >> All right, everybody gather around, grab
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a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. There are few bonds that run as deep and
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enduring as the connection between sisters, even when the two share only one common
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parent, for example, a father. The relationship can often transcend [music] blood and evolve into one of
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mutual affection, respect, and lasting friendship. It was surely this sincere, loving union
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that 26-year-old Nikki Collingbourne >> [music] >> was seeking when she opened her heart
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and her home to her much older half-sister, [music] Yvonne Caylor. Aside from a brief and unsuccessful
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period >> [music] >> of less than a year when Nikki moved to America to get to know her sister,
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the two remained largely estranged. That is until 2015 >> [music] >> when Yvonne Caylor returned to her home
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country of England >> [music] >> and big-hearted Nikki couldn't resist offering her sister [music] a place to
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stay. This is True Crime Garage. >> [music] [music] >> Nicola Collingbourne was [music] known
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to friends as Nikki. Friends and family calling her Nikki, she was born in 1989 to parents Renee and Leonard.
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A kind, loving woman, the 26-year-old would do just about anything for her extensive family, which included
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sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews, along with her mom and dad. She had a half-sister
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Yvonne Caylor, who is 27 years her elder, with whom she shared her father. But she had scarcely known her sister
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Yvonne, who was already an adult when Nikki was born, and Yvonne had moved to America while Nikki was still a toddler.
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Sadly, the two half-siblings lost their father in 2012, a loss that felt keenly by Nikki, who had been raised by him and
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her mother. Nikki worked as an assistant at a local preschool. She loved working with
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children and was a natural with them. She was kind, funny, and loving. Nikki's naturally bright and sunny
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nature drew all of the children in the family to her, and she was a central figure to her large extended family.
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Nikki also cared for her mother Renee Hibbert Jones, driving her to and from her regular medical appointments at
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Lister Hospital. The hospital was about 5 miles from Nikki's flat in Ivel Court in Letchworth Garden City. Renee, her
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mother, she struggled with severe respiratory illness and was in poor health, depending on her daughter to help so she
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could attend her appointments. This is just further proof here, Captain, that this young woman she's always reliable
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and she's selfless in nature. Yeah, she tries to do right by others and but you have to remember, no good deed
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goes unpunished, my friend. >> And we should note that Nikki was particularly close to two of her adult
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nieces. This is Jodie and Leanne. In addition to a 5-year stint as an assistant at the Tiny Hands Preschool,
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Nikki's Facebook profile list her as having been a shop assistant and something known as a fire watch / hole
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watch, which are apparently separate attendant positions designed to protect workers in high-risk environments such
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as welding, cutting, or grinding. In essence, Nikki served as an emergency lookout for steamfitters and
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welders, identifying potential hazards and initiating an emergency response should one be needed. Perfectly on brand
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for her protective and giving nature. >> I just want to point out these are two places I wouldn't work. Somewhere you
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could mangle your hands and someplace known as Tiny Hands. >> Earlier we mentioned Nikki's
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half-sister. This is 53-year-old Yvonne Caylor. So, we're going to go back a bit here, Captain, and set the
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table for our beautiful listeners. Yvonne Caylor was born in Britain in the early 1960s.
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She moved to the United States in the early 1990s. She found work there as a welder, a
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physically demanding job where she met the man she would eventually marry. Now, for decades America was Yvonne Caylor's
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home. Caylor spent most of her adult life abroad before returning to the UK in 2015.
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Given the vast age gap between these two half-sisters and the fact that Nikki was
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just a toddler when Yvonne left for the United States, it's unlikely that they had formed any
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real meaningful relationship before Yvonne headed across the Atlantic. So, while Yvonne was making her young
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adult life in the States, we have little Nikki growing up in the UK. As said, the two shared a father but were
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separated by a 27-year age gap and the vast ocean between them. Far across the Atlantic,
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again, we have Nikki, the much younger half-sister, growing up in the UK. They were, for all intents and purposes,
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strangers. A strange by circumstance and Yvonne Caylor's decision to live abroad. This
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disconnect no doubt weighed heavily on the younger sister. Nikki yearned for a connection,
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a situation that Nikki would seek to correct the first chance she got. In September of 2011, the sisters would get
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that chance to reconnect when Nikki traveled to the United States. In an effort to get to know her
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half-sister she barely remembered, she traveled there. And filled with hope, Nikki made the journey to the
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United States to live with Yvonne, dreaming of finally building that sisterly bond that the two never had.
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The reality though fell devastatingly short of the dream. The reunion quickly deteriorated.
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So, before long here, Captain, this reunion soured and a bitter fallout shattered any chance of a relationship.
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Some speculated that Yvonne Caylor was jealous of Nikki's life in the UK, particularly the strong relationship
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that she had with their father, a bond that Yvonne Caylor herself never had the chance to develop. But, whatever
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the reason, the rift was so profound that in August of 2012, less than a year after arriving,
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tensions had escalated and the two clashed to the point that Nikki returned home to the United Kingdom. Then 3 years
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later in 2015, Caylor is going to return at 52 years of age to England. And this will bring us closer
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to the start of our timeline here. So, that's your background information. We now have both half-sisters living in the
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UK. There was some thought here, Captain, that Yvonne Caylor possibly may have returned due to some
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sort of back injury from her demanding job as a welder. Now, despite the previous tensions
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between the two and the unresolved nature of their relationship, Nikki, ever hopeful and very giving kind
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person, she opened up her home to her older sister. And they initially stayed together at
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their late grandmother's house, but Nikki soon found her own place. This was a small apartment at flat number 16 in
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the Ivel Court block at Letchworth Garden City. And so she invited her half-sister Yvette Keylor to move in
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with her there at her flat. The peace between the two, this uh glorious living situation,
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maybe predictably, it didn't last. Just a few months into their new living arrangement, a ferocious argument
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erupted, leading Nikki to make the difficult decision to evict her half-sister Yvette from the flat.
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The conflict escalated dramatically on the evening of October 3rd, 2015. Yvette Keylor, thrown out of the
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apartment, went directly to the local police, accusing Nikki of assaulting her. Though officers
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suspected the complaint might be bogus, they were obligated to investigate the claim.
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So in the early hours of Sunday, October 4th, this is at 2:07 a.m., Nikki is arrested. During her interrogation, she
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gave a starkly different account of the evening's events. She explained to police that Yvette
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Keylor had become highly agitated, and their argument spiraled out of control when Yvette destroyed Nikki's iPad,
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smashing it to the ground. Nikki described her own attempts to remain calm as Yvette Keylor lashed out,
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pinning her against a wall and threatening to kill her. This was the final straw. Nikki gathered her sister's
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belongings, took them to the front door, and told her to leave. In response, Yvette grabbed a mop, threatened to
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shove it down Nikki's throat, and then grabbed Nikki's laptop and stormed out. As Nikki slammed the door shut, Yvonne
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Keyler began beating on it trying to get back inside. >> Now, first of all, I don't want to die
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by having somebody shove a mop down my throat. But, if I'm following what's happening, so
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Nikki gets her own place, she invites her her half sister to stay with her. Mhm. I don't think a lot of people would
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know this, but in England, you have to have the right to rent. So, it also could have been a situation where Keyler
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just didn't go through the necessary steps to be able to rent a place on her own, so that's maybe why
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Nikki felt obligated to give her a place to stay. And then, I think there was also, like,
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whatever she was paying, she wasn't paying, and they weren't getting along. So, this just escalates things even
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further. Yes, and the result, according to what Nikki is telling police, is this
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violent altercation between the two, resulting in a busted iPad, and then Yvonne Keyler
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beating on the door after storming off with Nikki's laptop. So, obviously, this is a direct
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contradiction to Yvonne's story, which she had told police, and they painted Nikki as the aggressor.
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Right, and all you have to see as the police is the busted iPad and the missing laptop, and you go, well,
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somebody might not be telling you the whole truth here. And I don't know if they interviewed other persons
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to sort out what happened here, but the result is going to be that the police found Nikki's version of this
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story much more credible. And the reason why I question if they had talked to other people as we do know
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that these two half sisters are described as almost polar opposites where Nikki is described as this person
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who is caring. She's she's a caregiver by nature. She likes helping other people.
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We see her inviting her half sister into her flat to live there. And Yvette Kayler is described as
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somebody who is quick-tempered, easily agitated, and gets upset quite easily to the point that she has been
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known to lash out. Yeah, some people would say a real bitcherini. Remember Nikki was picked up based off of
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Yvette's complaint to the police. After they hear her side of the story, find her version to be much more credible,
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Nikki is going to be released by police and was back at her flat by 8:00 p.m. that same evening. Now, when she gets
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back to her apartment, upon returning, she made a chilling discovery. The door frame was damaged, a clear sign of
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forced entry. Right. And of course, she's suspecting her sister was responsible.
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So, she checked her belongings and realized that some of the items some of her items had been stolen.
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On October 6th, Nikki filed a formal complaint accusing Yvette of burglary. Yvette Kayler was arrested, but denied
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but denied everything. The investigation, however, quickly uncovered a link. Okay, so cell phone
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records connected Yvette Kayler to a locksmith, a local locksmith named Barry Crosby. When police talked to Barry
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Crosby, he tells them that on October 4th, a woman had contacted him claiming to be locked out of her flat at Ivel
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Court. He had accompanied this woman to the flat and then forced the door open at this woman's request.
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>> [laughter] >> He shouldn't have done that. Well, he stating he believed that it was her
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home. Now, >> Right. months later, this we're going to go out to December 30th, 2015.
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This Mr. Crosby positively identified Yvon Kayler as being the woman that had hired him to
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force open the door to this flat. So, he he identifies Yvon Kayler from an identity parade
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as that very customer. Right. So, so Nikki is trying to charge her with burglary,
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but she's not charging her with assault? >> Correct. That's my understanding here. I love the term
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identity parade. It sounds like like Mardi Gras compared to here, obviously, we have a police lineup or a
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photo lineup. Yeah, or maybe it sounds like a Midwest emo song. More evidence regarding the situation came forward.
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Nikki's mother, Renee Hibbert Jones, informed police that she had received a call from Yvon Kayler on October 6th.
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In that call, she says that Yvon had asked her to lie about who owned the property that Nikki had
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reported stolen. And phone records confirm the call took place despite Yvon later telling police
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that the call did not happen and that she did not ask Renee to cover for her or lie about the property. Right. So,
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basically what law enforcement is getting a sense of is Kayler's not going to tell us the
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full truth on on any situation. Exactly. On on three different occasions regarding three different scenarios,
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they believe she's lied each time to them. Well, like I said, she's a real bitcherooniedoonie.
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Now, even while out on bail, apparently Yvonne Kayler could not stay away because in November of 2015, she
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violated a strict no contact order by calling her half-sister Nikki saying, "We need to talk." Before a frightened
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Nikki hung up the phone and then immediately reported the breach to police. Yvonne Kayler was subsequently
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charged with that burglary charge and attempting to pervert the course of justice. We're going to hear
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some fantastic terms like that here in this international true crime story. Yeah, and I I know there was a court
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order not to make contact, but they had a falling out before in America, so maybe this is just another falling out.
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And sometimes even with family members you know very well, sometimes there takes a
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readjustment. So, sometimes there's some misunderstandings and with family members people go too far.
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So, even though you have a court order, I'm I'm going to say hey, I I I understand why somebody would reach out
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even if there is a court order just to say, "Hey, can we fix this situation?" >> I get it.
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And I know what you're talking about, but I also feel like there's misunderstandings and there's
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fallings out fallings outs and there's [snorts] and then there's violent altercations
00:21:03
with the the threat of killing someone and ending one's life. Yeah, yeah, very bad that you break the iPad. Very
00:21:12
bad you steal a laptop. But when people threaten other people's lives, and I know some people just go
00:21:20
and and fights, you see it all the time on YouTube videos where some guy that doesn't even know the other
00:21:25
guy, they get into a bar fight, and the one guy's going, "I'm going to kill you." And does he actually mean that
00:21:30
he's going to kill him? Probably not. But I think what we've learned over the years, just take every death threat to
00:21:41
the the most extreme serious level you can, right? Start there to at least protect yourself. And if
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Kaylee was really sorry, she could have contacted her mother. There's probably other people that she could have
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contacted and said, "Hey, I'm sorry that it went down this way." I would just be
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curious of where Kaylee was staying at the time. Cuz like I said, I think there's
00:22:09
certain rules. And maybe because she was a citizen of England, she probably still had her
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status that maybe she could rent from some other place. Well, and you know, we've had a lot of discussions about no
00:22:25
contact orders, strict no contact orders, especially lately here in the garage. And
00:22:32
this is certainly, as you pointed out, Captain, a unique situation because they are blood relatives. I mean, they are
00:22:39
sisters, half-sisters, but they are sisters. And we all have experienced, I I would believe most of us have
00:22:46
experienced times where some family members don't get along. And I think the the thing here is, though, regardless of
00:22:54
how strict the no contact order is, there are means and ways and avenues for proper communication, right? That you
00:23:05
could you could extend the olive branch without getting yourself in trouble. You
00:23:10
know, if you call if you were to contact the police or attempt to get I don't know how or who is in charge of signing
00:23:19
off on these strict no contact orders in England, but here it's often a judge and
00:23:27
you can contact law enforcement. You can contact or attempt to contact a judge and say, "Look,
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I would like to I know that we have a no contact order, but I would like to apologize or I would like to try to mend
00:23:41
fences here. I would um can we get can we set up a mediator and talk through a mediator? Can we have some kind of
00:23:49
sit-down meeting where maybe there is a member of law enforcement present so the
00:23:53
other person doesn't have to feel threatened and we can talk like civilized individuals." And for whatever
00:24:01
reason, Yvon didn't choose to use those avenues. And so, what I think we're seeing here
00:24:10
is while Yvon may have wanted to talk to cool things over, I don't suspect that's what she was
00:24:18
attempting to do, but what we can see and surmise from these actions of these two
00:24:26
is that Nikki did feel threatened by her much older half-sister. And threatened to the point of she didn't
00:24:36
want to talk to her, hangs up the phone, and immediately reports the breach to the local authorities.
00:24:42
>> Yeah, none of us were there the time that they got into a physical altercation. We weren't there
00:24:49
when Kaylee threatened Nikki. And so, we won't know the severity of that or or how Nikki felt about about
00:25:00
that attack or confrontation. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> All right, we are back.
00:25:40
Cheers, mate. Hey, you know, if if you asked me to get a pair of underwear, I'm back in 2
00:25:46
seconds. Cheers to you and the back and cheers to you, Colonel. Cheers to you as
00:25:50
well. I'm not sure what that means, but We venture on here. Hey, if you have questions, you can ask them to the
00:25:58
table. >> It is what it is. It is No, but so when I was looking into this case because like you said, Kayler
00:26:06
moves to America and she works in America from for a time period and she's married. So then I'm assuming at some
00:26:13
point she gets a divorce or at least they're separated. And what I've kind of gathered from this it seems like Nikki
00:26:20
wanted to have some kind of relationship like you said, she had a relationship with her mom and father, which Kayler
00:26:26
didn't have. But I I almost assume this is just maybe maybe I'm assuming too much, but it
00:26:33
seems like a situation where Kayler's life wasn't going the way Kayler wanted her life to go. And she saw this young
00:26:42
family member that I think she felt like okay, I maybe exhausted all my resources
00:26:49
and burned all my bridges here in America and I've used as many individuals as I could. So, now I'm
00:26:56
going to try to use Nikki as a gateway to all the other family members so I can then use them and sponge off them.
00:27:05
Real sponger. Well, on April 16th, 2016, Yvette formally pled not guilty at Cambridge Crown Court. Remember,
00:27:18
she's still facing those charges. So, that case is placed on an 8-week warned list, meaning her trial could begin at
00:27:30
any point starting from May 23rd. For Nikki, this seems to be of no comfort to her. The knowledge that her
00:27:40
sister was free on bail left her terrified. She began barricading herself inside of her home, piling furniture
00:27:48
against the door each night. Keep in mind, she is has accused her older sister of forcefully entering her home.
00:28:00
And so, she has while she's afraid of this woman, she has that in the back of her mind that she made her way in here
00:28:09
once, she could make her way in again. And she even sent photos of her makeshift fortress, if you want
00:28:17
to call it that, to her nieces. Remember, she's very close to Jodie and Leanne. She said to these nieces
00:28:26
that she could only hope and pray that it would be enough to protect her if Yvette decided to return to the flat to
00:28:35
exact revenge. Well, I agree with you. It's the her breaking into the apartment that's of concern, but again, we have a
00:28:43
physical altercation. We weren't there. We don't have video footage of it. So, I think
00:28:49
that was probably a lot more violent than what the the police have said it was or what Kaylor even says it was
00:28:57
because it it struck That to me is what really struck the fear into Nikki. Mhm. Yeah. I'm just picturing Yovan Kaylor as
00:29:08
the big bad wolf huffing and puffing and blow your house in. The morning of May 23rd,
00:29:16
2016 arrived. This would be the first day the trial could be called. Nikki started her day off
00:29:25
by taking her mother Renee to her regular doctor's appointment. This is at Lister Hospital. Again, this is very
00:29:30
close to her home. Of course, promising to return later that day to pick her mother up. After dropping off her
00:29:38
mother, Nikki returned home to her flat number 16. Later that afternoon, a worried Renee called her granddaughter
00:29:47
Jodie. Nikki had not returned to pick her up from the hospital. And also, she's not answering her phone. And of
00:29:56
course, this is completely out of character for the otherwise dependable and thoughtful Nikki. Jodie tried
00:30:04
calling and texting her aunt, but there was no response. So, then she drives to the flat that evening. Right.
00:30:11
>> But upon seeing the Nikki's car parked in its usual spot, she Not good. >> believes She believes that everything is
00:30:20
fine and that maybe her aunt just needed some space. So, she decided to give her
00:30:25
that space and she leaves. But, the next day, with still still no word from Nikki, the
00:30:34
family's concern turned to panic. Three family members used a spare key to enter
00:30:41
Nikki's flat that evening, they were met with a horrifying sight. Nikki's lifeless body was on the kitchen floor
00:30:50
clad only in her underwear. Nikki was found lying face up on the floor of her kitchen
00:30:57
and a grotesque amount of blood pooling around her. The 26-year-old is positioned on her
00:31:05
back, her feet facing the door, a discarded bath towel on the floor in the hall. Scattered on the floor around
00:31:13
her are numerous shards of ceramic pottery. A knife is also found in a bottle of
00:31:21
bleach, and Nikki's wrists were scored with deep deliberate wounds, leaving family members to wonder whether
00:31:30
their beloved Nikki could have possibly taken her own life. Curiously, Nikki also held a small brush
00:31:38
by its handle in her right hand, the type of brush that comes with a dustpan and brush
00:31:44
a dustpan and brush set. The family members dialed 999, the British equivalent of 911,
00:31:51
and police arrive at the scene just minutes later. Well, if you're ever visiting the UK, you can call 911
00:32:00
and it will work. So, that's a good thing. So, you don't have to remember what What
00:32:06
did you say? 999? We will be visiting the UK for Crime Con UK in October. Our promo code TCG save some cash, save some
00:32:16
some pounds, if you will. Well, so back to Nikki's case, you have if it was the Ellen Greenberg case, Mhm. they would
00:32:25
have just ruled it a suicide and moved on. Moved on, yeah. It looks like a suicide to me. That's how we do it in
00:32:32
the states. But, like you said, there's these shards of glass, and I have a couple of thoughts on the bleach. It
00:32:39
makes you wonder was Nikki going to take a shower, was she cleaning the bathroom, or was this a homicide
00:32:49
scene that somebody was trying to use the bleach to clean up? If they were trying to clean up, they weren't
00:32:55
doing a good job or didn't do a good job. And this ceramic shards of glass, this is coming
00:33:00
from a cooking pot that was shaped like a chicken. And I believe law enforcement actually pieced
00:33:08
back the the pottery back together. Yes, they did. Almost like a jigsaw puzzle. And from my understanding here,
00:33:17
Captain, at the scene we have a bathtub that is partially filled with water or filled
00:33:22
with water, and the thought was that she would have been attempting to get ready to take a bath. And like you
00:33:32
had said, the broken pieces would turn out to be fragments of a chicken-shaped kitchen pot or casserole dish. So, we
00:33:40
have Detective Inspector Graham McMillan of the Beds uh short for Bedfordshire Police
00:33:48
Department arrives on the scene after the family calls emergency services. He takes one look at Nikki lying on the
00:33:56
floor, wrist brutally slashed, and concurs that it might be a suicide. Given the brush in Nikki's hand, law
00:34:06
enforcement also surmises it could possibly be that she accidentally cut herself while attempting to clean
00:34:14
up. thankfully, police investigate the crime scene, recovering ceramic shards and
00:34:21
other evidence for forensic examination. The body is removed and sent for autopsy.
00:34:28
But the postmortem told a different story and the evidence found would reveal a very different
00:34:37
outcome than suicide or accidental death. Yeah, again in the Ellen Greenberg case like
00:34:44
the the autopsy was that done correctly? Don't think so. Here they're saying, "Well, we're doing
00:34:52
the autopsy and so now we're getting evidence that she most likely didn't take her own life."
00:34:58
But the other key piece of evidence that they didn't have in the Ellen Greenberg
00:35:02
case is we have CCTV footage of the the hallways of the apartments on that floor.
00:35:10
Where they they did have some surveillance in the apartment of the Ellen Greenberg case but not on that
00:35:17
floor. Yes, and we're going to dive into that. I want to get into this pathology
00:35:22
report that the pathology report is inconclusive in terms of pointing to a single injury that caused Nikki's death,
00:35:30
but it absolutely indicates foul play at the hands of another. There there was a
00:35:37
gash on the back of her head approximately 4 cm in length with a few parallel cuts along the back
00:35:46
of her neck. So, her skull had been fractured but it could not be confirmed that it was severe enough to kill her.
00:35:54
However, Nikki was hit with such force that it was enough to render her unconscious.
00:36:01
Pathologists suspect that she had been attacked by a third party who picked up something ceramic with both hands and
00:36:09
wielded it as a weapon striking her forcefully on the back of her head. Additionally, the postmortem reveals her
00:36:18
wounds were not self-inflicted. It is concluded that someone had possibly staged
00:36:26
the scene to make it appear as a suicide or possibly an accident. In the end, it
00:36:31
was determined that Nikki had suffered fatal wounds by the violent actions of a third party as stated in the report. In
00:36:41
other words, Nikki Colvinborn had been murdered. Yeah, so if I'm picking up what you're putting down,
00:36:50
these marks or cuts to her wrist are possibly done after the initial attack. Correct. So,
00:36:58
they determine what what they couldn't see at the scene is this trauma to the back of her head, to
00:37:06
the back of the skull. Right. >> And again, they're able to determine that she would have been knocked out and
00:37:14
therefore she didn't accidentally cut herself, she didn't purposely cut herself. Someone had knocked her out and
00:37:21
then used the knife on the wrist. Yeah, and I think if you're an investigator, you go into this scene
00:37:29
and you see her laying there, like you said, she's only in her underwear, and there is a towel nearby, so you have
00:37:38
again, some possibility that it could be a suicide or is it a homicide, and then because
00:37:45
she's found with basically no clothes on, you you think maybe it could be a sexually
00:37:51
motivated crime until you see that the bath water, to me anyways, right? And the towel, yeah. Right. And so, to
00:38:00
me it's like, okay, and then the location of her is basically in the entranceway of her
00:38:08
apartment. Mhm. So, you can go, okay, well, now we're putting the pieces of the story together. She looks like she's
00:38:15
about ready to take a bath and she hears something at the door or somebody's knocking at the door, so now
00:38:22
she has to answer the door. And so that's where you need to start asking for ear witnesses and eye
00:38:29
witnesses and then collecting any camera footage that you can. And and I don't want to try to I'm not trying to make
00:38:35
light of this at all, but this like is so much like out of a Matlock, an old Matlock storyline, where you show up to
00:38:45
the scene and you're trying to piece together what happened, pun intended, because they
00:38:50
have to piece together this chicken pot casserole dish. But you're looking at the scene and
00:38:57
you're like, "Okay, what's going on here? Was she filling up the tub?" And a lot of times, unfortunately, when people
00:39:04
take their own lives, slit their wrists, they they do it in the bathtub. And so was that what our victim here was
00:39:12
doing? Or did she drop this, knock this pot over, she's attempting to clean it up,
00:39:20
and then accidentally cuts herself? You're You're trying to sort it out without the knowledge of that massive
00:39:26
wound or that that that terrible head injury. And then once you discover that head injury, you're now going, "Well,
00:39:34
she probably was in the process of getting ready to take a bath and some something interrupted that. What could
00:39:40
have interrupted that?" So let's get into this investigation and and down the road that you were going here, Captain.
00:39:46
We We have the Beds I'm going to shorten these uh nicknames here. The Beds, the Cams,
00:39:52
and the Herts Major Crime Unit. This is a tri-force collaboration of regional police departments. They take over the
00:40:00
case. Forensic analysis began to piece the puzzle together. Blood found on shards of the broken
00:40:08
ceramic pieces that were found at the scene, the chicken pot, contained DNA from two
00:40:15
people. So one sample, of course, matched our victim, Nikki, and four other samples matched an unknown individual. A
00:40:26
tiny amount of DNA that did not belong to the victim was also found on that knife that was in the bleach bucket. And
00:40:34
police recovered a letter that was discovered in the flat in which Nikki had told her doctor she was living
00:40:42
in extreme fear of her half-sister, Yvonne Kayler. Now, the breakthrough in this case came
00:40:49
from the CCTV footage, the closed-circuit TV footage that the captain had referenced.
00:40:58
Well, also, law enforcement is going to find out pretty quickly all there's a protective order against
00:41:05
Kayler. And that Nikki basically said she "burglarized my apartment, so now we have these charges." So, they're going
00:41:15
to get this connection to Kayler pretty quickly. >> Investigators watched footage from the
00:41:21
morning of the now determined to be murder. And what are they seeing on this footage?
00:41:28
They see shortly before 8:30 a.m. a figure appeared in the lobby of Ivel Court. It was apparently a man dressed in a
00:41:39
high-visibility jacket with ginger hair, glasses, and a beard. He walked directly to Nikki's door and
00:41:49
knocks on the door. Nikki answered the door and as we now know, she was getting ready for a bath, answers the door
00:41:57
wearing a towel. Nikki probably startled, so she frantically, I'm guessing, tries to slam the door shut,
00:42:03
but it's of no use because the larger and stronger figure forced their way inside the home.
00:42:11
Now, this same individual is later seen leaving Nikki's flat. This would be several hours later. This time
00:42:21
carrying a bag with them, which they did not have on the way in to the flat. >> Yeah, so this individuals
00:42:29
they're at the time of the murder. They have taken items with them. >> [clears throat]
00:42:36
>> Not only just this the still images, but even the video footage, like to me it just looks like a
00:42:45
a guy in his maybe I'd say mid-40s, a little overweight, wearing a work boots, almost like a work
00:42:54
outfit. >> If you had me, and I think you'll agree with me, Captain, if you had me look at
00:43:00
it through very blurred vision, I would say it's a man. Right? And then when you
00:43:06
look at it clo- more closely, it appears to be a person in disguise. That's going to be
00:43:16
really the driver for this investigation as to where it's going to take them, the
00:43:23
investigation's going to take them. Like you said, they already have a lot of things to point them in the direction of
00:43:29
the sister, of the half-sister, with the exception of well, this for most parts appears to be a man on
00:43:36
the CCTV footage. Yeah, but then once you start looking at the build of this individual
00:43:43
and the height of this individual, you start going like you said. And also like you have
00:43:50
almost like reddish hair, like reddish-brown hair, like a wig, and then like this really dark brown
00:43:59
beard, and then these weird glasses. So, I think once you start looking at the height and the weight and comparing
00:44:07
that with Kayler, you start going, is this not a man, but is this Kayler in disguise? Well, what what they get is
00:44:17
they call in Nikki's nieces, the two that she's close to, Jody and Leanne. The police show the CCTV footage
00:44:26
separately to both of these women, and both of them have a very similar reaction, like immediately. So, Leanne
00:44:34
instinctively says, that's not a man I'm seeing, that appears to be a woman in disguise. And then Jody is even more
00:44:42
certain about what she believes she's saying seeing. She says that not only is that a man
00:44:49
a woman in disguise dressed as a man, she said that's my my aunt, Yvonne Kayler, padded up and masquerading as a
00:44:58
man in the video. And so, police are going to arrest Yvonne Kayler on suspicion of murder. Now, while she's
00:45:06
in custody, they're going to talk with her. A search of her phone and laptop revealed she had been looking up flights
00:45:13
to America via Spain, so probably planning to flee the country. And when she's confronted with the CCTV footage,
00:45:24
they show her the same video, and they say, you know, we got people telling us that that's you in this video.
00:45:30
And she says, not this is not me, and her words were, quote, I may be fat, but I'm not bowlegged.
00:45:38
I may [laughter] be fat, but I'm not bowlegged. And she insists it's weird because she
00:45:43
she has a British accent, but she kind of sounds like a hillbilly version of a British accent. I was going
00:45:50
to attempt to do that until you said hillbilly version. I have no idea how I I I I I I I I I
00:45:55
>> Anyway, to spare the listeners my poor but I'm not bowlegged. >> but I'm not bowlegged. Now, so she
00:46:03
insists that what she's seeing on the in the video is a man. Yeah. And she says that if it were her,
00:46:11
you know, cuz they're like no no this is you. Come on now. We know this is you. And
00:46:16
she goes no, if it if it were me the boobs would be sticking out on the figure that you're seeing here.
00:46:24
Yeah. But she can deny deny deny like she has before before before but her denials
00:46:31
crumble quickly because lab results are going to come back. They got blood on four pieces of that
00:46:39
ceramic chicken pot which was matched to her to Yvette Kaylor. Right. And they theorize
00:46:47
that while she was smart enough to remove pieces of that ceramic casserole dish the chicken pot that she
00:46:58
believed may have contained her blood she was dumb enough to leave a few pieces behind that did in fact
00:47:04
contain her blood placing her at the scene of that attack and therefore the murder. But this drives me
00:47:12
a little crazy. Because we know that she had to put some time and effort into gathering up items to
00:47:24
create a disguise. Mhm. And it's one thing to go hey well I got some black pants I'll put those on but you you got
00:47:30
to get some kind of worker vest. You got to get a wig. You got to put your hair up. You got to get some
00:47:35
glasses. You got to get a beard. And then you commit this crime and we got this bottle of bleach.
00:47:42
So by if we view that as evidence that she's trying to clean up the murder scene.
00:47:50
It seems like she went to all these great lengths to get in and I don't even think that
00:47:56
the the disguise was to have a ruse against Nikki. No, I think it was just to dress herself
00:48:04
up just to dress herself up enough for the cameras. Exactly. And that's what police would later say. You're spot on
00:48:11
here, my friend, because police would later say like we think that based off of what we could see when Nikki answers
00:48:19
the door and her reaction to what she's seeing that she must have realized, "Oh,
00:48:25
snap. I just opened up the door and this person's in disguise. Why would they be
00:48:29
in disguise? Oh, not only are they in disguise, but it appears to be my angry, violent
00:48:37
sister in a strange disguise." Now, this is going to lead to what's what's very quickly becoming one of my favorite
00:48:47
things. Another identity parade. I hope they throw candy at these. So, on August 25th, so let me go back just a
00:48:57
second here. I'm jumping the gun. On May 28th, 2016, Yvonne Caylor is formally charged with
00:49:04
the murder of her half sister. Tragically, in the weeks of follow her the murder, Nikki's mother, Renee
00:49:13
Hibbert Jones, passed away. On August 25th, 2016, the owners of the Harley Quinn Costume Hire,
00:49:22
name of a store, this is Susan Jones and Richard Rosendale, they pick Yvonne Caylor out of an
00:49:30
identity parade as a woman who was a customer in their store and they say she was in there buying the disguise
00:49:41
that she would use to commit the murder back in April back on April 22nd. Wow. >> So,
00:49:49
yeah, so So here's the a little more context for that story. So apparently Yvon Kaylor is making
00:49:58
preparations. So this is an indicator of first-degree premeditated murder. Right. Because this takes place in
00:50:09
April. On April 22nd, 2016, the owners of the store say Yvon Kaylor walked into their Harley Quinn Costume
00:50:18
Hire. This is a fancy costume {slash} dress shop. And she tells them that she's looking
00:50:26
for costumes for herself and for a man. And she's there to buy some costumes. And she leaves the store having
00:50:35
purchased a curly ginger wig, a pair of heavy-framed glasses, and a Van Dyke style beard and goatee.
00:50:45
So with these purchased items here, Captain, with this disguise and some padding to alter her figure, remember
00:50:53
the boobs can't stick out, and a high-visibility workman's jacket, Yvon Kaylor would become
00:51:02
unrecognizable as a woman via CCTV footage or cameras or maybe even the casual observer.
00:51:13
But apparently not to her half-sister. Well, it's just back to the premeditation. Yes, buying a the costume
00:51:20
in April, it's like cut got her instead of got him. Got her. But I would say dressing up and going to
00:51:30
the apartment, to me, that that's enough for to true to make it first-degree murder
00:51:37
cuz there was premeditation cuz you dressed up going into the apartment. It it it's alarming how premeditated
00:51:45
this was. When you drag it that far back in the timeline. Yvonne Caylor's trial began in November
00:51:54
of 2016. This is the Luton Crown Court. We have prosecutor John Price who laid out the Crown's case to the jury of
00:52:04
seven men and five women. He detailed the bitter history between the two and the upcoming
00:52:11
burglary trial. And stating that Yvonne Caylor's clear motive was to silence the key witness
00:52:18
against her. And you know, I I would say probably also seeking some form of revenge here. He showed the jury the
00:52:27
CCTV footage pointing out the crude disguise and the fact that the person was wearing gloves in late May, a clear
00:52:35
attempt he says to hide their identity from the cameras and potential of fingerprints.
00:52:42
Price described how Yvonne Caylor had murdered her sister and then spent three hours inside the flat staging the scene
00:52:52
and left with a bag of evidence though she had missed the crucial blood-stained shards. On December 8th, Yvonne Caylor
00:53:01
took the stand in her own defense. Imagine that. You would If I told you this story, Captain,
00:53:08
I know you would wager a Franklin that this woman would take [laughter] she would take the stand and deny, deny,
00:53:15
deny, right? So Liar, liar, pants on fire. Right? You must be lying cuz your pants
00:53:21
are on fire. When when she takes the I've been told it's called the witness box, she's hobbling up to the witness
00:53:29
stand because she's she's got a walking stick. She adamantly maintained her innocence claiming a back injury would
00:53:38
have made it impossible for her to overpower her younger sister. She denied ever being in the costume shop. She
00:53:47
denied calling a locksmith. She denied returning to Nikki's flat after she was evicted. She denied all this stuff even
00:53:55
though we have evidence and eyewitnesses. I mean, we have a locksmith saying, "Yep, that's the lady
00:54:00
that let me that told me that she was locked out of her apartment. I'm the one that helped her break in. We
00:54:06
have the store owners also saying, "This is the lady that came in to buy this costume."
00:54:14
It's ridiculous how some of these people can just lie and lie and lie and and I I just wonder, I'd love to know
00:54:22
what's inside their head. Like, are they are they thinking, "Well, if I just lie about this, people are
00:54:28
going to believe me?" I mean, it's ridiculous. Makes you think of Casey Anthony a bit, huh?
00:54:35
And also, great song, Shaggy, "It Wasn't Me." It wasn't me. It wasn't me. I don't
00:54:42
know what she's talking about. Wasn't me. But Casey Anthony, another bitcheroonie bitcherooniedoonie. On
00:54:47
December 14th, both sides gave their closing statements. The defense argued the evidence was circumstantial and that
00:54:55
analyst that they called had suggested the figure on the CCTV could have been a man. The prosecution countered, {quote}
00:55:02
"That was disingenuous, distasteful deceit by the woman who had entered Ivel Court that morning and
00:55:10
murdered her sister." {end quote} The jury retired on December 16th after just 7 hours of deliberation, they
00:55:20
returned and on the 19th of December 2016, Yvon Caylor was found unanimously guilty of the murder of her half sister,
00:55:30
Nikki. Two days later on the 21st, the judge handed down her sentence. Appalled by her complete lack of remorse, he
00:55:39
looked directly at her and said, "You are a violent, dishonest, deceitful person, and ultimately a selfish,
00:55:47
heartless killer." And quote. He sentenced her to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years. And as she was
00:55:55
led away, Yvette Kailer stone-faced swore at Nikki's family members in the public gallery. Her family,
00:56:03
the very foundation of Nikki's life, had finally seen the truth brought to light
00:56:08
and the person responsible for her death held accountable. Yeah. It's It's very tragic because Nikki did seem to want a
00:56:17
relationship with family members, and she wanted to help her family members, like you said.
00:56:23
Because Kailer went to the states so early in Nikki's life, they didn't have much of a relationship. So, I don't
00:56:30
think she realized what kind of individual she was getting involved with. >> It's
00:56:37
2026. Several years have passed since the jury delivered justice for the murder of
00:56:44
Nikki Kailer. And her story, a tragic tale of a fractured family bond that began years earlier, spanning two
00:56:53
continents, and culminating in a meticulously planned act of violence, her killer wrapped in a disguise but
00:57:01
caught on camera, and caught when the plot was foiled by good, solid police work. More than anything, Nikki wanted
00:57:09
to be a mom herself, and everyone in her orbit agreed she would have made a great
00:57:13
one. But tragically, Nikki would never get the chance to have her own children because of her violent, selfish, and
00:57:21
disgusting half-sister Yvette. And while we cannot bring Nikki back, and she will
00:57:28
forever be missed, it is solved cases like this that gives us hope that unsolved homicide cases with
00:57:35
perpetrators caught on camera like the murder of Chelsea Small in November of 2013 in Taylor, Michigan,
00:57:43
Missy Beavers in April of 2016 in Midlothian, Texas, and then we have the disappearance of
00:57:50
Jennifer Kesse in January of 2006 in Orlando, Florida, as well as the more recent Nancy Guthrie case reported
00:57:58
missing February 1st in Tucson, Arizona will result in locating the missing women and bringing all offenders to
00:58:07
justice. >> [music] >> Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week.
00:58:26
Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. For everything True Crime, check out
00:58:30
truecrimegarage.com. And Colonel G, any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners? I have some
00:58:36
recommended hanging out with your good garage friends. We've talked about this on our most recent episodes. We have an
00:58:43
event coming up at BrewDog. They call it BrewDog Columbus, but it's BrewDog Canal Winchester. It's on the
00:58:50
outer belt here in Central Ohio. That event is scheduled for Saturday, April 18th. Tickets are on sale now and you
00:59:00
can get those tickets on our website, truecrimegarage.com. Do know that the proceeds from the ticket sales will be
00:59:11
going to a local charity, to the Porchlight Project here in the state of Ohio. We're trying to help out some
00:59:18
families, some victims' families here with that money. So, come and hang out with us and know that you're doing a
00:59:24
little good along the way. We would love to see you Brew Dog and have a beer and
00:59:30
hopefully share a laugh with you as well and talk about Brian Shaffer's case who
00:59:34
is still missing and talk about some missing persons investigations as well. And don't forget we have Crime Con Las
00:59:43
Vegas 2026 coming up as well. Our promo code is TCG to save I believe you save 10% on that. That's Crime Con discount
00:59:52
use our code TCG and also Crime Con UK later this year 2026. Same promo code TCG and then next year
01:00:04
in February we're going on vacation. We're taking a cruise Crime Wave 2.0 and it's crimeatsea.com/garage
01:00:15
if you want to tell them that your favorite garage guys sent you. Join us at any or all of those hangouts. We
01:00:23
can't wait to see you there. Yeah, and that Crime Wave 2.0 if you use our promo code garage at checkout you'll you'll
01:00:32
get the discount but you will also get get a private meet and greet with the Colonel and the Captain and we're going
01:00:39
to be extra crispy on that cruise. The crispiest. And the Brian Shaffer event's going to
01:00:46
be great because it's 2 days before my birthday so it'll be the Captain's birthday party as well. Till next week.
01:00:52
Be good, be kind and don't look back. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Woo!