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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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old scout straight bourbon whiskey I love the color and I love the taste garage great let's go ahead and go with
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music]
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this week's True Crime case takes us to the Tiny Town of Wampum Pennsylvania Our Story begins on the morning of
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Friday February 20th 2009. tree workers are busy working at a cattle farm on Wampum New Galilee Road
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they are on day two of a job that consists primarily of cutting down trees and splitting and stacking for firewood
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around 9 40 a.m one of the workers spotted a little girl maybe four years old standing in the doorway of The
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Farmhouse the screen door was open and the girl was crying then the little girl shouted to the
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worker my mother is dead [Music] the worker stopped what he was doing and told the girl to stay right where she
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was he picked up his cell phone and called 9-1-1 he reported to Emergency Services
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exactly what the child had told him that her mother was dead minutes later he and the men working
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with him were assisting by flagging down the responding state police officers troopers were on the scene at 10 13 A.M
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[Music] two Troopers entered the home they tried to calm the girl as they started to
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search the home almost immediately they saw what the little girl was talking about
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in a downstairs front bedroom they found a woman lying lifeless on a bed under her there was a large pool of
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blood she was clearly dead and even more horrific the dead woman appeared to be pregnant
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the Troopers cleared the scene and quickly ushered in paramedics they confirmed the officer's suspicions
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the woman on the bed had been shot in the back of the head right where the head and the neck meet
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she and her baby were both deceased this is true crime garage and this is the case of Kenzie Houck and Jordan
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Brown [Music] come on [Music] this week we go to the tiny rural town of wampum in Lawrence County this is
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Western Pennsylvania about 40 or so miles Northwest of Pittsburgh on the morning of Friday February 20th Chris
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Brown is at work he works in the shipping Department of a local tableware company called steel light while at work
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that morning he receives a phone call from the police this is around 11 A.M an officer told Chris come home something
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happened Chris Brown rushed home when he gets there he's greeted by a State Trooper in the front yard of the
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property officer Jeffrey Martin told Chris that his fiancee 26 year old Kenzie Houck was dead from a shotgun
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blast and the News got much worse Chris and Kenzie's son who was to be born in just a matter of weeks did not survive
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the fetus a 34 or 35 week old boy died within minutes due to oxygen deprivation after his mother was killed Chris
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collapsed on the ground in the yard obviously he was devastated at this horrific news he was then taken to the
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state police barracks where he could be interviewed by police he told them that Kenzie had been alive and well when he
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left for work that morning police are going to need to find out everything that went on at that house on this
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morning they are going to have to figure out who shot this 26 year old mother callously
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cutting short her life and in the process ending the life of her unborn baby and why was she collateral damage
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maybe a victim of a house burglary gone wrong or was she the target all along before we go through the events of the
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murder let's give a little background information on the family yes a little background information is in order and
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we need to introduce the members of this household as we said Chris Brown is the
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man of the house he and his former partner Mildred Krauss were the parents of 11 year old Jordan Brown
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when Chris and Mildred split Chris got custody of Jordan Chris dated another woman for seven years from 2000 to 2007
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and after that relationship Chris started dating a friend he met years ago in middle school and this is Kenzie
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Houck when they reconnected Kenzie was working as a hairdresser Kenzie already had two young daughters of her own this
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is four-year-old Adeline and seven-year-old Janessa Chris and Kenzie got engaged and rented the Wampum
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Farmhouse together four months before Kinsey was shot Chris Brown's son Jordan lives at the house as does Kenzie's two
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daughters Adeline and Janessa Jordan the son would be 11 at the time because of the imminent arrival of the baby there
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is going to be some bedroom shuffling that's going on at this house Jordan's upstairs bedroom was being taken over by
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the parents Chris and Kenzie because it had a smaller room off of it that would serve as a nursery you want to be close
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to the baby Jordan was moving into the downstairs front room bedroom currently being used by Kenzie and Chris so we
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have five people living in the house there Captain two little girls Jordan Brown who's 11 and then we have Kenzie
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and Chris who are now engaged they're going to join forces join families here and they're moving upstairs when the
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baby comes along and Jordan Brown's going to be switching bedrooms with his father and soon to be stepmother on the
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day of the shooting Jordan's clothing and some of his personal items had already been relocated into this
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downstairs room although Chris and Kenzie were still using it and Jordan was still sleeping upstairs at this time
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remember Kinsey unfortunately was killed lying in her bed in the downstairs bedroom the front bedroom located on the
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ground level or main level of the home and Chris said that Kinsey was alive and well when he left for work that morning
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Christopher Brown said he left for work at 6 45 a.m he backed his vehicle out of
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its parking spot which is behind the two-story Farmhouse Chris recalled that there was fresh snow on the ground his
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vehicle made the only tire tracks down the long driveway to the main road Chris got to work around 7 A.M and was there
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and accounted for all morning until receiving that terrible phone call from the state police at 11 A.M seems as
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though Chris has a solid Alibi but obviously law enforcement will have to check him out and then the tree workers
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were at their property that day yes we know that the tree workers were there and they were there the day before as
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well the six workers arrived on this morning at 9 15 a.m to gather and stack firewood even though there was a fresh
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coating of snow on the ground which was about a quarter inch deep now they parked there three trucks near the woods
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line in front of the house and got to work when arriving the workers weren't there too long
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because one of them spots the crying girl which was four-year-old Adeline around 9 40 AM
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this is when the workers call the police and during this time Captain they actually discussed the two sets of small
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footprints that they could see in the snow dotting the driveway between the house and the road Troopers gust of sin
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and Trooper Bowser arrived on scene at 10 13 a.m they entered the house through the front door after searching the home
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the officers noted that the house had four entrances and that none of them were locked when the police arrived
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while the Troopers and paramedics were still working on Kenzie to see if they could possibly save her baby
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Kenzie's cell phone rang Trooper Gustafson answered the phone and it was the school
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nurse from Mohawk Elementary the nurse told him that eleven-year-old Jordan Brown who's a fifth grader at
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this time was in her office with a stomachache and he wanted to go home the trooper told the nurse that you need to
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keep Jordan there until we can make some kind of arrangements for him right not telling the nurse exactly what has gone
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down four-year-old Adeline the youngest daughter and the only other person in the home other than the deceased when
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the police arrive was questioned at the house that morning by Trooper Janice Wilson
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but she was deemed to be in a State of Shock and not able to provide coherent answers Wilson said in her report that
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she was able to make out that Adeline woke up that morning went downstairs watched cartoons for a while and ate
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some food in the kitchen she said she was up for a while and heard her mom's phone ring and went into
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her mom's room to look for her when she saw her mother she started crying and went to the screen door seeing the wood
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cutters working outside and that's when she shouted at one of the workers that she believed her mother was dead she
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also told the officer that she did not see anyone else in the home that morning and I think it's important to point out
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that Jordan and Janessa are not there that morning because they took the school bus to school yes and one thing I
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want to hit on here too Captain before we move on too far is for those of you out there that are familiar with this
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case many years after the events of that day this case was on it was featured on 2020
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and Adeline gave a different version of the events of that morning on 2020 than what we just reported here now I want to
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be completely clear about something I don't I'm not trying to accuse Adeline of changing her story we need to keep in
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mind she was four years old when this happened she finds her mother dead she's got to be in a State of Shock we know
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that based off of what Trooper Wilson's report says I want to point out here that we don't have any incorrect
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information what we are reporting here is what was in Trooper Wilson's report from that day and then later we have
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Adeline giving a more simple different version in her statement on 2020. so that out of
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the way before we move along now after Trooper Janice Wilson finished questioning Adeline now she's going to
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go to Mohawk Elementary to talk to the two older kids Jordan Brown and Janessa Hoke during his interview Chris Brown
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told investigators that the family never used the front door but the state police Corporal Andrew
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Pennell noted that blood was on the front door frame the Corporal also found a blue blanket on the floor near the
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front door of the home he entered it into evidence when he noticed it had a hole in it which appeared to be
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consistent with a shotgun blast now consistent with the shotgun blast is very important to our case as later Dr
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James Smith a forensic pathologist determined that Kenzie was killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of her
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neck and he found the presence of shotgun pellets in and around the entry wound which was the shape of a large
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slanted oval the size and shape of the wound told him that Kinsey was asleep in bed lying on
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her left side when she was shot in the back of the head and neck to make sure that we don't leave anything out here
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the following is a statement from Dr Smith quote hot gas from the shotgun blast entered the wound through the skin
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and muscle of the victim's neck and caused the skin to bulge out and ruptured near the point of entry this
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phenomenon known as blowback formed a tract or laceration in the skin the nature of this type of damage indicated
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that the gas from the shotgun blast was mostly contained within the entry wound and did not have time to dissipate this
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Factor coupled with the presence of powder in the wound and suit around the surface of the skin near the point at
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which the pellets entered the skin caused me to conclude that the shotgun was very very very close to or maybe
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even touching the back of the neck when it was fired Dr Smith estimated that the
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shot was fired from a distance of closer than two inches from Kenzie's neck Chris
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Brown remember told police that Kenzie was alive and well when he left for work that morning the cops very quickly
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confirmed Chris's Presence at work all morning and a swab of his hands detected zero gunshot residue Chris was basically
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cleared very early on in this investigation so our key window of time is getting small and more manageable
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right the shooting took place sometime after Chris Brown left for work at 6 45 a.m
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and sometime before Adeline found her and 9-1-1 was called around 9 40 a.m so less than three hours time to work with
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here now the tree guys arrived at 9 15. and they said that they had not seen or heard anything
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to further narrow down the window of time cops needed to talk to the two older kids Janessa and Jordan who were
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at school that morning Trooper Janice Wilson arrived at Mohawk Elementary around noon she found Jordan asleep in
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the nurse's office so she started by questioning Janessa and when they called Janessa to the office she assumes at
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first like most kids would that she's in trouble yeah the dreaded call remember when we were young I don't know how they
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do it nowadays but they would announce your name over the the loudspeaker Captain to the office yeah Captain to
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the office and you're like oh no what did I do well she gets to the office and very quickly she realizes that she's not
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in trouble of course and the officer is going to inform her of that now Janessa calmed down and upon
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questioning quote didn't have much to offer about what happened that morning end quote that's from Trooper Wilson
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Trooper Wilson at that time did not tell Janessa that her mother was dead we do need to point out something here too
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that is really kind of disappointing I understand why it didn't happen but again it's still disappointing looking
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back on this case these interviews so far that we've discussed have not been recorded there's not a recording of
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them anywhere it's simply we have an officer writing down statements and taking notes based off of a meeting the
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nurse then took Jordan to meet Trooper Wilson in a conference room a school guidance counselor was present for this
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interview as was for Janessa's Trooper Wilson later acknowledged and this is kind of key here when we get into
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technicalities and the law and and witness statements and things like that Trooper Wilson later acknowledged that
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she had not contacted the father Chris Brown for permission to for permission to interview or at least
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to inform him that he that she was speaking with the children now Trooper Wilson said quote at that time Mr Chris
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Brown was possibly a suspect in the incident and that's why that phone call or notification wasn't made so while the
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state claims that the children were free to leave and not answer questions well we all know that no 7 or 11 year old is
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going to stand up and March out of a meeting with a police officer and a guidance counselor
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it doesn't seem reasonable right anyway Jordan told Trooper Wilson that he was awakened that morning at 8 00 a.m by
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Janessa yelling at him after she in turn had been awakened by Kenzie just a minute or two before that Jordan said he
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went downstairs and got some clothing from the room Kenzie was sleeping in which of course would soon be his room
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one day and got dressed in the bathroom he said Kenzie was awake at this time but in bed then he watched TV with
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Janessa in the family room which is adjacent to Kenzie's room on the first floor he said the only people in the
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house at that time to his knowledge were the three kids in Kenzie whom he was calling Mom by this time but he
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never saw Adeline the little girl as she was still asleep his father had already left for work by
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this point at some point he and Janessa heard Kenzie yelled to them that they needed to leave or they would miss the
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bus this from Trooper Wilson's report quote when I asked what time it was Jordan
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Brown stated that they usually leave the house at 8 12 but since his mom was telling them they needed to go or they
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were going to be late he stated that it was probably 8 13 or 8 14 end quote the older kids bus would come between 8 12
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and 8 15 every morning according to Jordan Kenzie was awake when they walked out the door
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Trooper Wilson asked if he had seen any vehicles at or near the home and Jordan said that as they left the house through
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the side door which is important remember the father saying earlier that they never used the family never used
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the front door Jordan said that as they left the house through the side door he noted a large black pickup truck parked
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by the garage of the home and he said it was the same kind of truck that was driven by the guy who would come to the
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farm to feed the cattle not the same truck but the same kind of truck right then Jordan and Janessa got on the bus
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and they went to school I'll just back up a little bit Kinsey is a mother of two soon to be a mother of three one on
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the way she's laying down I would assume that she was asleep it's almost like she was
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executed in her sleep that's what the pathologist would tell us in his report and basically what I see here Captain is
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a situation where the timeline is very crucial to this case more so than a lot of other cases out there and we are
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really talking about a short window of time here when this murder occurred and then you try to piece well who could
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have been there at that time when the murder took place that's got to be your suspect or your suspects right and so
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what we have here is a very simple time frame and timeline of Chris Brown leaving for work at 6 45 a.m if we
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are to believe Chris Brown his his soon-to-be wife is alive and well at that time it seems like that's probably
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the situation because later we have the kids saying that she was alive and well later before they leave for school right
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now they're getting on the bus about 8 15 at the very latest We have tree workers arriving at 9 15 and then by 9
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40 we have the littlest kid four-year-old Adeline who's at the door crying and she shouts at one of the
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workers my mother is dead we're talking about a window of three hours when this execution style murder took place we
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also have this unidentified vehicle so this case has a lot of moving pieces and parts and every minute counts
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foreign [Music] cheers to everybody in the front back to the sides to the windows to the walls
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and all the unfortunate people in the middle yeah of it all spelling the goodness Cheers Cheers meanwhile Captain
00:25:23
back at the house around midday on Friday investigators are still processing the murder scene Corporal
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pinell searched the upstairs of the home and went into Jordan's bedroom in the front left corner between a dresser and
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the wall stood six long guns partially covered by an orange blanket Parnell began to remove individual guns from
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this group one at a time and he handed them to Sergeant marklinsky for him to examine and determine if they were
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loaded the first gun removed by Corporal pinell was a flintlock rifle which sergeant malinsky
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examined and noted nothing unusual about it the second weapon Corporal pinell handed to Sergeant marlinsky was a
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Harrington and Richardson youth model 20 gauge shotgun Sergeant mcclinsky opened
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the breach of the shotgun and smelled burnt gunpowder in the breach which he pointed out to the Corporal who also
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smelled the odor the sergeant also observed gunpowder residue in the breach and in the barrel So based off of their
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personal experience with Firearms they both believe that the shotgun was recently fired however they could not
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opine with any degree of scientific uncertainty exactly when the shotgun had been fired just that it had been fired
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recently yeah meaning it could have been fired that morning or sometime within that week now in the first floor bedroom
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where the victim's body was found corporal panel noted that the television which sat on top of an armoire located
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in the right hand side of the room was still turned on observing the doors to the armoire were closed he opened them
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now inside the armoire he saw a locked gun safe on the bottom shelf which was later determined to contain two handguns
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and ammunition on the top shelf Corporal panel saw a work helmet and two boxes of
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shotgun shells one opened and one closed the open box contained 16 unfired Federal Premium brand 20 gauge shotgun
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shells okay so people were trying to figure out why so many guns in this home we already pointed out this is a a small
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tiny rural town this was it was common in this area for people to be gun owners and not uncommon for
00:28:01
people to be Avid hunters and in fact we know that Chris Brown and his son Jordan
00:28:07
Brown they would go hunting together so Chris Brown owned several guns and one gun was actually owned by his son Jordan
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Brown well again going back to the footprints in the snow we only have two Footprints leaving we don't have
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other Footprints coming into this house so it makes you almost want to rule out an intruder Theory yeah you're starting
00:28:32
to see where this case is going here everyone we have a situation where as the captain pointed out we don't have
00:28:39
any signs or evidence that someone came into the home and then killed this young
00:28:43
woman what we do have though is potentially underline that word potentially signs that maybe someone
00:28:51
inside of the home shot and killed this poor young woman right but at this moment they can't scientifically prove
00:28:59
that now all we have is a bunch of guns and ammo and we have guns that are also consistent with the the weapon that was
00:29:08
used to kill her we have ammo in Kenzie's room and we have guns in Jordan's room
00:29:17
the shells that were found in Kenzie's room well these shelves fit into the so-called Smoking Gun that was found in
00:29:26
Jordan's room the one that the officers both smelled and said hey this thing was
00:29:30
recently fired right and we also need to remember too that Pennell had already found a blue blanket which had burn
00:29:38
marks on it and a hole the size of a quarter remember he found that near the front door they also found Blood on the
00:29:46
door frame Chris Brown acknowledged that the gun found in Jordan's bedroom belonged to Jordan
00:29:54
he said it was a Christmas gift from Chris Chris said the two enjoyed hunting together and in fact Jordan won a turkey
00:30:01
shoot competition just six days earlier on Valentine's Day even beating out some
00:30:07
of the adults Chris adamantly denied that there was any way that Jordan would have shot Kinsey he said and told the
00:30:15
police the boy was excited about the upcoming wedding and he was excited about the new baby brother well
00:30:22
basically what that statement to me though the way my brain reads that statement and say that Jordan wouldn't
00:30:29
kill her but that doesn't mean that he didn't kill her by accident well and of course after finding these guns and
00:30:38
finding the ammunition we're going to have to have a second round of interviews with everybody that was in
00:30:44
that household specifically they wanted to re-interview Jordan so they went to the home of his grandmother this is
00:30:52
where he was staying since she had picked him up from school that day Chris Brown was there as well this is about 10
00:30:59
p.m at this point Jordan has yet to be told that Kenzie was murdered so Chris sat down with him at this point and
00:31:09
broke the news that something bad had happened and she was in heaven right Jordan became emotional and started
00:31:15
crying at this news according to him he cried throughout this short interview uh the interview again with Trooper
00:31:24
Wilson now from the record quote Trooper Wilson asked Jordan for more details about the black truck and when he had
00:31:31
first seen it Jordan recalled that he first saw the truck as he exited the house when he reached in his pocket to
00:31:39
see if he had ice cream money for school and in the process he dislodged a mass of fuzz from his pocket which fell to
00:31:48
the ground he said he bent over to pick it up and that is when he noticed the truck parked by the garage Trooper
00:31:56
Wilson asked Jordan if Janessa had possibly seen the truck as well to which Jordan replies that he mentioned it to
00:32:05
her but she didn't respond and he believed that she was at this point too far ahead of him to hear Jordan also
00:32:13
informed Trooper Wilson that he had seen a person in a white hat ducking over inside of the truck Trooper Wilson
00:32:21
inquired of Jordan why he had not mentioned that when she talked with him that morning he then explained well he
00:32:30
first glanced at the truck he didn't see anybody Jordan has also recounted his observation that the lights were on
00:32:36
inside of the truck and when Trooper Wilson stated that he did not tell her that during their first interview Jordan
00:32:42
after hesitating these are her words after he hesitated then described the lights as being sort of half on which
00:32:51
I'm not sure what that means right after acknowledging that he owned a 20 gauge shotgun Trooper Wilson asked Jordan if
00:32:59
he had fired the gun that morning to which he answered no so let's unpack that a little bit basically in this
00:33:06
report and in this second interview we have one major thing that has changed right yeah he saw a person well we gotta
00:33:15
frame this with Jordan's 11 years old and that's what I want to really hone in on because when I said that one major
00:33:23
thing has changed here I didn't mean that Jordan's story has changed what I'm pointing out is according to the adults
00:33:31
in the room at this point we're being told that Jordan was just told seconds before this interview that his
00:33:40
soon-to-be stepmother was killed that day murdered that day and she's now in heaven that's the major thing that has
00:33:49
changed between when he was first interviewed earlier that day around noon at school and now at 10 pm at his
00:33:56
grandparents house that's a major change right when you're asking me about my morning
00:34:03
well the events of my morning don't seem so important and then you tell me oh my
00:34:09
soon-to-be stepmother was murdered inside of our home guess what now the events of my morning seem to be much
00:34:16
more important and maybe I'm telling you some more details because you've now told me something different right you're
00:34:24
questioning me why I'm telling you something different you just told me something majorly different from the
00:34:29
first time we sat down yeah again if he was 30 years old and he mentioned the truck before and then started adding
00:34:36
details you would question if he's misremembering or if he's lying to protect himself from maybe maybe to
00:34:44
protect somebody else but he's 11 years old so then you have to start questioning
00:34:50
the detectives not saying that they're bad but what questions did you ask differently exactly the second time
00:34:58
around yeah they may not be bad I actually think they're probably pretty good at their job the problem here is
00:35:04
they seem to lack a certain thoroughness to the job right this is where I really
00:35:10
am disappointed that the interviews are not recorded because by this point it is
00:35:16
clear to me that Trooper Wilson along with the other Troopers have already decided that 11 year old Jordan Brown is
00:35:25
on their suspect list this is why we're having this second interview and this is
00:35:30
why in the course of that interview she is asking him specifically if he had fired the gun that we now know that he
00:35:38
owns that morning right but you have zero evidence so far that has been presented that day that we
00:35:47
know of of an intruder so you you start going through the reasonable suspects and I think you start with the the
00:35:55
husband right and then you go well there that alibi is solid my issue is with this time frame
00:36:04
and and when when was it that Jordan got to school and could they narrow down when she was
00:36:11
murdered is it possible that it was an accidental shooting before he took off to the bus I mean I guess it's possible
00:36:19
but we don't have him admitting to anything and we're only talking about a window of
00:36:27
look at the at the at the greatest amount of time possible according to all of these stories if we are to believe
00:36:33
these stories they're on the bus by 8 15 and by 9 40 somebody's calling the police because a little girl said her
00:36:40
mother's dead so we have less than an hour and a half that take takes place and then if we're to back that up on the
00:36:49
shorter side of it the tree workers say that they arrive at 9 15 that morning or
00:36:54
around 9 15 that morning and they don't see or hear anything strange while they are there working so
00:37:01
now we are down to an hour a window of of Simply an hour so either something happened before Jordan Brown left for
00:37:09
school that day or if it happened afterward he's he's not responsible because we know he was on
00:37:16
the bus and we know he was at school another thing that I find interesting and perplexing of this case is when you
00:37:23
say tree workers what kind of equipment are they working with that day because if I have my headphones blaring some
00:37:30
music and then I have my my noise cancellating headphones on top of that and I'm just using my like leaf blower
00:37:37
if the neighbor shot his wife I probably wouldn't hear it yeah that's a good point and that's something that's
00:37:43
difficult to wrap our heads around here because just because they say they didn't see or
00:37:48
hear anything strange or unusual doesn't mean that something strange and unusual
00:37:53
didn't happen during that time frame right and they were just unaware of it for whatever reason but here's the other
00:37:59
thing I want to point out again I'm going to go back to I'm curious why we're not recording this interview right
00:38:06
again you are going to this scene you're now going to the grandparents house with
00:38:12
the knowledge that a suspect one of your suspects is an 11 year old boy and you're going to interview him there it
00:38:21
seems to me like you would want to record that interview and here's the reasons why right it's it's some of the
00:38:27
reasons that you already pointed out Captain why are my answers different why is my story different well are your
00:38:33
questions the same as they were earlier today because if you're now asking me different questions and I wasn't
00:38:39
questioned on certain things I may not have just brought them up magically on my own especially if I didn't know that
00:38:46
anybody was dead and that my morning had any importance on the loss of life so it's all very confusing to me and
00:38:54
then here we have the trooper giving her opinion when she says that well I asked
00:39:00
him this question and after he hesitated when I asked him why you didn't tell me
00:39:05
earlier in the first interview that the light was on inside of the truck Jordan hesitated and then described the
00:39:13
lights as being sort of half on well that's her opinion and that might go a long way to Leading someone to believe
00:39:21
that this guy this kid might be guilty of something where if it were recorded we could all view it and give our
00:39:27
opinion on it and go well yeah he did hesitate or maybe she's completely wrong again there's a lot of different things
00:39:34
here what's interesting to me is the things that have changed in his story are not just the I might have tried to
00:39:43
tell my soon-to-be stepsister about the truck oh I did see somebody in the truck and the lights
00:39:51
were on not only did that change but also we have the added detail of well I checked to see if I had ice cream money
00:39:57
and I this big piece of fuzz fell out of my pocket and I bent down to pick it up
00:40:03
there's multiple things that are changing here and we say changing but to me it could also just be the same story
00:40:11
with additional details that were left out for whatever reason the first time is there anybody else other than Jordan
00:40:19
other than the 11 year old son that that claims to see this black truck no there
00:40:26
is not and when Trooper Wilson asked Jordan if he had fired a gun his gun that morning and Jordan answered no at
00:40:34
that point is when Chris Brown the father stopped the interview Troopers Wilson and McGraw who was also there
00:40:41
informed him that they believed that Jordan was the one who had murdered Kinsey well obviously if your 11 year
00:40:48
old son did this you want to protect him because he he obviously has some mental
00:40:54
issues going on it's interesting to me that law enforcement jumps to the conclusion right away that if it is
00:41:00
Jordan that it's as simple as he didn't like his stepmom and he murdered her I think there's another possibility where
00:41:09
you have 11 year old kid maybe walking around the house with a loaded gun and maybe just goes to Poker and then
00:41:18
somehow the gun goes off I think there's an angle here where you where you have firearms in the possession of a of a
00:41:27
child where you could argue accidental death well we're getting ahead of ourselves here a bit because currently
00:41:35
they're not looking for technically a murderer they're just trying to figure out who shot this woman regardless of
00:41:42
how it went down right and we can get into those details as we go so accident or no accident murder or no murder
00:41:50
that's not their concern at this point as an investigator you were simply trying to figure out how why and who
00:41:58
shot and killed this woman Jordan won't be the only person that is interviewed again for the second time that night
00:42:05
that same night Troopers re-interviewed Janessa as well now she tells them the same story that she told before about
00:42:12
getting up for school around eight watching TV in the living room and then leaving for the bus with Jordan
00:42:19
according to Jordan at police request Janessa was taken by her grandparents to the police barracks for a third
00:42:30
interview that same night this is at 11 30 pm now keep in mind the ages I'm glad that you
00:42:38
pointed out the ages a second ago Captain with Jordan let's remind everybody the age of Janessa this is a
00:42:45
seven-year-old girl whose mother was just killed that day she's been up by her own admission by 8 A.M that morning
00:42:52
this is now 11 30 p.m and she's being interviewed for the third time by police according to the Pennsylvania State
00:43:00
Police in the third interview Janessa started to tell a very different story she said that she still did not see who
00:43:08
shot her mom she didn't see anyone at all that morning other than Jordan she said was carrying two guns down the
00:43:19
stairs she asked him what he was doing and he told her his father asked him to move the guns this would make some sense
00:43:28
to a seven-year-old girl because remember they are in the process of switching rooms
00:43:33
and these guns were stored in his room and he's switching rooms with Kenzie and his father
00:43:39
so she says according to the story she asked him why he's carrying the guns down the stairs he says my father asked
00:43:46
me to move them a few minutes later she said that she heard a very loud boom and
00:43:53
then Jordan went back upstairs and then came back down empty-handed she later asked Jordan about the noise but he
00:44:01
would not answer her then they walked out to the bus and she saw Jordan Chuck something into the snow next to the
00:44:09
driveway these detectives aren't stupid but it seems on some level that they're acting stupid because Janessa changes
00:44:16
her story Jordan changes his story and we're completely suspect of him Janessa changes her story and well we don't bat
00:44:24
an eye if I were to have to make an argument for these children and I guess I don't have to but I will right here my
00:44:31
argument would be completely different than that Janessa's story absolutely changes to me there's a chance that
00:44:38
Jordan's story is the same story just with additional details I agree so it's it's very bizarre to me that they're
00:44:47
treating two children very differently again I cannot emphasize enough and I know everybody in their cars listening
00:44:54
or are sick of hearing me say this but I really wish I'd be sick of hearing you talk these interviews with children
00:45:01
should be recorded yes now per several of the officers statements regarding Janessa's statements about seeing Jordan
00:45:10
carrying the guns and possibly a gun covered by a blanket and then hearing a loud boom and then then seeing Jordan
00:45:18
later throwing something onto the ground chucking something as they're running out to the bus
00:45:24
these statements absolutely led to what happened next and that was 11 year old Jordan Brown being arrested for the
00:45:34
death of Kenzie Houck Jordan's inconsistent statements to police about the truck he saw that morning of course
00:45:42
were problematic for Jordan whether or not the lights were on in the truck and the changing his story to seeing a man
00:45:49
inside wearing a hat in the second interview these are of course Nails in the coffin I wonder if something here
00:45:57
Captain about what the boy said about the lights being sort of half on and this just occurred to me you know in
00:46:04
in your vehicle you have the ability to turn the overhead lights on and you can hit one or two
00:46:12
I wonder if that's what he meant by that statement that it was kind of a dim light and he suspected that only one
00:46:19
light was on in the truck if in fact he did even see a truck now the gun in his room that quote
00:46:26
smelled as though it had been fired recently this and Janessa's statements basically
00:46:33
give police what they were looking for and that is probable cause Jordan Brown was arrested at 3 A.M Saturday morning
00:46:40
for the murder of Kenzie Hauck and his unborn half-brother he was taken to Lawrence County Jail where he was kept
00:46:47
in isolation away from the other inmates for obvious reasons they are her adult men and this is a little boy guards
00:46:54
checked on him every 15 minutes at dawn on Saturday morning State Police resumed
00:47:01
their investigation at the Wampum Farmhouse this time their focus was on the exterior of the home they performed
00:47:08
grid searches of the property during these searches they found a shotgun shell that was clearly weathered it was
00:47:14
rusted and had evidently been outside for quite a long time so this won't be of any use to them in this investigation
00:47:21
but then the officers walked further down the driveway in the direction of the road to where they discovered a
00:47:29
second spent shell this shell a federal number six brand 20 gauge was found approximately 100 feet away from the
00:47:38
house on the left hand side of the driveway at the beginning of a fence line that ran the entire length of the
00:47:45
left side of the driveway the spent shell was located near the base of the wire fence a few feet from the middle of
00:47:53
the driveway and it was lying underneath leaves which were frozen and covered by
00:47:57
ice and snow this shell was not rusted like the other one they recovered when asked a state police Sergeant
00:48:06
characterized this shell as quote pristine well I can tell you why they did the grid search because of Janessa's
00:48:14
story when you when you when she says that she saw Jordan throw something that's what they were looking for that's
00:48:23
something now is this bullet casing that possibly you're exactly right Captain this shell casing
00:48:33
was consistent with the open box of ammo that was found in the armoire in Kenzie's room and was suitable for use
00:48:41
in Jordan's youth model 20 gauge shotgun a lot of little pieces stacking up against Jordan now the burning question
00:48:51
here Captain is Jordan is a little boy so why wasn't he sent to a juvenile facility
00:49:00
well the answer is that in Pennsylvania the law required that any child aged 10 and older accused of a homicide to be
00:49:09
charged as an adult because the criminal courts handled homicide cases in the Commonwealth
00:49:15
since he was technically a juvenile he was not eligible for the death penalty but if found guilty by the criminal
00:49:22
tribunal he would receive a mandatory sentence of life without parole and at just 11 years old he would be the
00:49:31
youngest American ever to receive that sentence this reminds me a little bit of our Eddie O'Brien case that we covered
00:49:40
not terribly long ago the trail of Blood episodes number 416 and 417 on your true
00:49:47
crime garage radio dial Chris Brown reeling over the murder of his fiancee and unborn child now needed
00:49:55
help for his son so at 6 30 a.m on February 21st he was recommended to two local attorneys this is Dennis alesco
00:50:05
and Dave Acker who immediately went to work trying to get the case transferred to juvenile court and to possibly
00:50:13
arrange for a bond so that Jordan could return home to his father rather than staying in the adult County jail but in
00:50:22
Pennsylvania most homicide defendants are not allowed out on bond pending trial and so Jordan wasn't either
00:50:30
but keeping Jordan at the adult jail wasn't going to work Lawrence County District Attorney John
00:50:38
bong Vigo was in charge of Prosecuting the case and had three young boys of his own and he told the Post-Gazette
00:50:48
newspaper quote Yeah it's enough to make me throw up I'm not necessarily sure I want him sitting in jail while we figure
00:50:56
all this out end quote the Lawrence County Jail Warden agreed he told the Post-Gazette that he stands ready to go
00:51:04
on record as saying the 10 foot by 10 foot jail cell is definitely not the right place for Jordan quote I've got to
00:51:12
keep him in isolation he has to be checked on constantly but he's also got the right to be able to get out for a
00:51:19
bit he's got the right to a shower it's really tough the warden said the price tag for the constant security needed to
00:51:27
ensure Jordan's safety at the jail was estimated to be about four thousand five hundred dollars a week Jordan was
00:51:35
eventually moved to a juvenile facility on February 27th and then to the Edmund L Thomas adolescent Detention Center in
00:51:45
Erie Pennsylvania on March 2nd where he stayed for the next several years [Music]
00:52:08
so much more to get to we want to hear from you check out our blog at truecrime garage.com and Colonel until tomorrow be
00:52:18
good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music] foreign