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Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340

October 02, 2019 / 59:14

This episode covers the murder of Heather Church, the investigation led by detectives Lou Smith and John Anderson, and the eventual arrest of Robert Charles Brown. Key topics include the challenges faced in solving the case, the evidence collected, and Brown's subsequent confessions and claims of multiple murders.

The episode begins with the discovery of Heather Church's remains after a two-year search, highlighting the lack of clues at the crime scene. The hosts discuss the initial investigation led by Lou Smith, who ruled out Heather's parents as suspects and focused on the fingerprints found at the scene.

Robert Charles Brown, a neighbor of the Church family, is identified through fingerprint matches. The hosts detail his arrest, questioning, and the discovery of girls' clothing and stolen items in his possession. Brown's inconsistent statements and eventual guilty plea to avoid the death penalty are examined.

The narrative continues with Brown's cryptic letters claiming to have killed multiple victims, leading to speculation about his potential as a serial killer. The hosts discuss the implications of his claims and the ongoing investigation into other unsolved cases linked to him.

Finally, the episode reflects on the work of Lou Smith and other investigators in solving cold cases, emphasizing the importance of their efforts in bringing justice to victims and their families.

TLDR

The episode details Heather Church's murder, the investigation by Lou Smith, and Robert Charles Brown's arrest and confessions of multiple murders.

Episode

59:14
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[Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you were doing thanks
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round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] it took almost two years to find the
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remains of Heather Church and the crime scene where the remains were found offered no clues as to who the
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perpetrator of this abduction and murder could be the daily Sentinel ran an article with the headline girls remains
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found after two-year search this from The Associated Press the article labeled Timothy belbek the man who found her
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skull and reported his findings as a transient camper and states the death was ruled a homicide and the coroner's
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report indicates Heather suffered blunt-force trauma to the head this article has some interesting pieces of
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information in here as well it goes on to say Heather was last seen wearing white cotton pajamas and no shoes she
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had laid out an outfit for school and her bedding was rumpled as if she was asleep until something had awakened her
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enter Lou Smith who is Lou Schmitt captain he's a detective that likes to climb in and out of windows he's
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probably best known for his involvement in the JonBenet Ramsey case I think he's
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on the smaller side to captain that might make give him the the extra super ability of climbing in and out of
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windows you think so I don't think he looks small to me but hey I didn't either but I read some story where he
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decided when he first became a police officer he needed to bulk up because he was like I want to say he was like five
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six to maybe five seven but like a hundred and fifty pounds when he first started on the force he got into some
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situation where he said a large woman was attempting to drag him across the street and she was having some success
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and that's when he decided I got to start going to the gym I got a beefed-up if I'm gonna be yeah I
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think that was my mother well you know I like to use the term super cop Lou Schmitt is certainly a super cop in his
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career he worked on more than 200 murder cases in which a suspect had been arrested and tried for
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their crimes he was a detective with the Colorado Springs Police Department he joined the force way back in 1966 and
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worked his way all the way up to the rank of detective Lou helped to get the arrest and conviction of spree killer
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Freddie Glenn in his accomplice Michael Corbitt Glen was found guilty of murdering three people in 1975 yeah one
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of them being a Karen Grammer that's correct this including the killing of Karen
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Grammer younger sister of actor Kelsey Grammer he was also involved in the arrest and conviction of Michael Corbitt
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this was Freddie Glenn's accomplice so together we have Glenn who was found guilty of murdering three
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people in 1975 Glenn and Corbett together were responsible for a total of five deaths in and around Colorado
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Springs back in 1975 so now I would like to introduce you to another man John Anderson now I'm not talking about money
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in the bank and seminal wind John Anderson no I'm talking about the John Anderson who I will deemed to be another
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super cop Anderson was sworn in in January of 1995 as El Paso County's new sheriff and with him came loose mitt
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Anderson wanted two things one for loose mitt to take over as captain of detectives in El Paso County and two to
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solve Heather church's case which by this time 1995 was looking like it would never be
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solved in the over three years of the case law enforcement really only developed per the evidence in interviews
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a few suspects some of the members of Heather's church at one point turned on one another
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Heather's Sunday school teacher and a family friend were questioned extensively as were Heather's parents
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everyone police in the FBI looked at either had an ironclad alibi passed a polygraph test or both again
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this included Heather's parents Diane and Mike definitely a lot of suspicion towards the parents I think when you
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have a case like this where you have no leads no clues that's kinda where the direction that it just naturally takes
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on yeah now in 1995 Lou Smith took over as captain of detectives and he took over the Heather Church investigation
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Lou is pretty old-school and he said that regardless of what other people thought that they knew about the case
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Mike and Diane church were not suspects he said he knew very early on in his investigation then they together or
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separate were involved in any way after meeting them both and speaking with them
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separately Schmidt believed they were truly victims and far too good of people to do something so terrible it's not
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clear whether or not they took polygraph tests and passed or not right the information I have that came from the
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Sheriff's Department states that they did okay now Smith also offered up after speaking with the parents he offered up
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some of his expert opinions on the case to the parents of Heather he told them he would catch the man that killed her
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he said he believed the perpetrator was an intelligent male and that his name was already in the case file he also
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believed unlike the FBI that the motive behind why the perp entered the church home may not have been sexual Schmidt
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wanted to start his investigation at the very beginning in reviewing the case he
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noted the recovery of fingerprints from the crime scene captain Schmidt recognized that although the prince had
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been forwarded to both the FBI in the CBI he was aware that there were in fact ninety two separate automated
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fingerprint identification systems or atheists for short so here we are once more captain
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at the latent fingerprints left on the master bedroom window screen from inside Heather church's house yeah it seems
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like that's the biggest piece of evidence we have forensics expert Thomas Kearney was the man who educated Schmitt
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on the trouble with the fingerprint systems in fact Kearney he came from Miami he worked in law enforcement in Miami he
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was the first person to compile a list of the Atheists systems in the United States Canada and Mexico and Short North
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America as said this number as of 1995 was 92 of these systems Kearney put together ninety two sets of
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black-and-white photographs of the prints that they found on the window screen and this was to be mailed off to
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all 92 automated finger printing identification systems in March of 1995 they got the call they were waiting on
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for years so sound the trumpets captain we're still working on the trumpets he heard the crash that was good taking
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lessons that was good but I mean we need some actual real trumpets they got a match in fact they got two matches one
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in California and one in Louisiana so ninety-two of these different places they send off these photographs two of
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them call back and say hey we got a match for you on those fingerprints that you sent us mm-hmm
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the fingerprints were matched to 42 year old felon Robert Charles Brown who lived
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at one six six six zero Easton Ville Road and he was one of the churches nearest neighbors
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he lived in a double-wide about a half a mile from the church's home where he lived with his wife brown worked a tree
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farm located on his property where he lived Brown was arrested for burglary and vehicle theft in Louisiana
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where he served ten months he was also charged with something in California and I
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believe he may have served a little bit of time there but his record he has a record but it's for nothing nearly as
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heinous as abduction or murder in 1987 his parole was transferred from Louisiana to the state of Colorado the
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fingerprints found inside the crime scene at the church's house were submitted and resubmitted over the years
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to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation but for whatever reason when Brown when his parole was transferred his prints
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were never entered into the CBI system so even though they're checking them there's nothing there to match them to
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four days after they got the match they arrested brown outside of a store in town and brought him to the station for
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questioning the first thing that they wanted to know of course did brown know the churches he said no in fact he said
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he was a loner and he and his wife did not socialize much though we know their neighbors give a he lives a half a mile
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away right so again it's when we talk about these different cases it's important to always kind of keep in mind
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the lay of the land they owned that big property he owned a decent sized property as well he was what I believe
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is reported to be their nearest neighbor but that's half a mile away they really
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wanted to know had he ever been to the church's house and this would be for any reason at all right no he said in fact
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the closest to their home that he had ever been was when he assisted a delivery truck that broke down on the
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side of the road near the churches long driveway out to the road that is exactly
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what they wanted to hear got him got him captain right got him yeah because if if this guy was known if
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Robert Brown was known to do like handiwork in the area and they go hey were you ever in their house oh yeah
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while I was I wasn't friends with them but I did some painting for them Wow where
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did you do the painting at Oh master bedroom the other but you know I mean right then it put that gives you a that
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gives a reason why the fingerprint should be there or could be there yeah and really that that is so key to this
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case as you just stated he has given no reason at all for his fingerprints to be
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there let alone be inside of the home well mind you that's a dumbass where where the prints were found were found
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technically inside the home because the here's the thing is they ask you about your neighbors you you know that this
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girl was abducted right so if you just start lying and saying well yeah you know I went over there a couple times
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mm-hmm and and I'm sure they asked the family and I'm sure they didn't but I don't know they'd be covering your ass a
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little bit let's get into that a bit because the this part of the story is quite
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interesting I think really when they arrested him at this store that was not their intention they actually wanted to
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set up they wanted to catch him meaning they wanted to get him in a conversation
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asking him questions about the church homicide and and catch him that way but catch him off guard meaning that that he
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doesn't know that they are looking specifically at him right so once they get the match on the fingerprints their
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idea is okay let's send a handful of officers and detectives out into the area and let's knock on everybody's door
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again and let's ask these sets of questions that way he thinks it's all this is just all routine you know we're
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we're doing a research routine questioning of everybody in the area we're not specifically looking at you
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right this is where they were hoping that he would say I've never been to their house and the problem was when
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they sent all the officers out into the area he was already under surveillance at that point he
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left to go shopping and at some point they got nervous the law enforcement got nervous and said we have to arrest this
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guy they were really worried that when they place him in cuffs and say look you're
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being arrested for the murder of Heather dawn Church right they as you said he's
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a dumbass that he would wise up and go oh yeah I was there to do yard work or whatever yeah I babysit him
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yeah because even even if the churches said no that's not the truth now you had she said you yeah you have
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his word against theirs yeah now the reason why police believe that he wasn't smart enough to come up
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with something like that ya know actually they think that that he was so convinced that he never left his
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fingerprints there meaning they believed that he was wearing gloves during the abduction and he may have taken them off
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very briefly to replace the the screen right and very likely he's being questioned about this three years later
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he remembers that he wore gloves to the crime scene but doesn't remember taking them off for a very brief time yeah that
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makes a lot of sense so he's so surprised by this whole deal of him leaving fingerprints there that he tells
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them straight up he's he's without a lawyer at this point in the questioning and he's telling them there's no way
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possible that those are my fingerprints he said I don't doubt that you found fingerprints there I doubt that they're
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mine and they say well we have your fingerprints back from when you were arrested in Louisiana and we rechecked
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them they got a match in Louisiana we got a match with your old fingerprints in California he goes well that's well
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and good but people make mistakes my fingerprints could have been mixed up with somebody else's you know what you
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put we're testing our pictures he's saying take my fingerprints right now and test them again because I'm telling
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you my fingerprints were not there right that's how adamant he was and they did so and they checked it again right so
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now you have that in your back pocket as the detectives are questioning Robert Charles Brown yeah and during all of
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this remember he's asking for to be tested again take new fingerprints they're doing all this to test it again
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and while they're doing this they talked him into a polygraph test yeah and later
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he's told he failed the test and he's told again it doesn't matter how many times we fingerprint you and run the
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test they are still matching the set that we found on the window screen at the churches home right the other thing
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too captain is during these interviews while they're being conducted the police were at Browns home they're searching
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the place they already had a search warrant before they arrested him there they found girls clothing and girls
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jewelry stuffed into a pillowcase he has no children this is a bit unexplained what this stuff was or where it came
00:19:45
from what is explained is that none of it belonged to Heather they also know it it's probably trophies of some kind yeah
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so they found stolen items from another home that was another residence that was
00:20:02
kind of nearby mm-hmm so these could have just been things that they don't have to be from another
00:20:08
murder victim they could be things that he stole from somebody's home they found
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this is just straight-up bizarre I've never heard of this before but I do know people steal these types of things I've
00:20:19
just never found one in any of the cases we've covered they found a stolen Bobcat
00:20:24
earthmover machine worth $18,000 now captain you and I both know that is not a small machine mm-hmm that's a large
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thing to have stolen from someone apparently I don't know why he stole it he must have used it for some kind of
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work keep in mind he had that tree farm he had a big plot of land there's some suspicions as to what he could have used
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it for but his his wife was aware that he stole this large machine she said he used it the only thing that
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she knew that he used it for was he dug a big hole with it drove the machine into the hole and then attempted to
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cover it up attempted to bury it or just cover it up bury the machine as said they found
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stolen items from another house or other residences in the area this is you know
00:21:22
the some of the more alarming stuff they found newspaper clippings a lot of them
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are guarding Heather church's case mm-hmm he was in fact arrested that day and charged with murder he would be
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offered eventually actually pretty quickly after the arrest he was offered a deal an offer to his public defender
00:21:43
this would be so he could avoid the death penalty and this likely may have been the best-case scenario for the
00:21:53
investigators seeing that at this point when they make this offer all they have as far as evidence goes is his
00:22:02
fingerprints right later on they did get Brown's wife to admit that he was not home
00:22:09
the night Heather vanished so we have a fingerprint and we have no solid alibi correct now he brown maintained his
00:22:19
innocence when he spoke with the police but he did ultimately end up playing guilty to murder this so he could avoid
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the death penalty and trade he got life in prison this move was quite interesting the prosecutor they didn't
00:22:40
really think that that brown or his attorney would take the bait take the plea deal right
00:22:47
because again such little evidence they really made a strong push and what they did was they were vetting this guy they
00:22:55
were calling where they knew he was from this guy had moved around a lot they called his home town where he lived for
00:23:02
a long period of time and realized that former neighbors of his one of them had gone missing and one of them was
00:23:11
murdered okay both of those cases unsolved in fact the missing mamani on top of on top of Heather church's case
00:23:20
correct yeah and so what their threat was we'll call it a threat their threat to the
00:23:26
defense attorney was he he should probably hurry up and plead guilty to this before we find another body right
00:23:35
so ultimately that's what took place the prosecutor did check with Heather's parents first to make sure that they
00:23:43
were okay with them making an offer Heather's mother Diane said if he is willing to plead guilty she is willing
00:23:52
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[Music] all right welcome back cheers everybody Cheers she must be Colonel ooh cheers to you
00:28:56
through the glasses at Krispy they've separated us I feel like I'm in solitary confinement well that's where you belong
00:29:02
all right I can't see you all I do is hear voices mm-hmm so while Robert Brown never confessed to the detectives and
00:29:09
never confessed in court it's believed that he confessed to Susan Lawrence this was his placement counselor and
00:29:17
what he told her she passed along to authorities so let's go through this what what she told the authorities he
00:29:27
said to her she said that he Brown enjoyed roaming his neighborhood at night looking for houses to burglarize
00:29:36
sometimes he would take things sometimes he wouldn't when he went to the church's
00:29:42
residence there were two lights on inside the house and no cars in the driveway and he did not think that
00:29:50
anyone was home he was surprised by Heather Church inside the house and killing her he says was unintentional
00:29:59
Brown said that he did kill Heather inside the home he placed one hand over her mouth and one hand on her neck he
00:30:10
demonstrated this to miss Lawrence when he's telling her this story and said he recalled doing this for only a couple of
00:30:19
seconds he thought but now believes it must have been for a longer period of time he assumed that he had strangled
00:30:29
her because she was dead when it was over mm-hmm now mrs. Lawrence asked Brown if it was possible that he had
00:30:38
broke her neck and to which he replied that that was a possibility yeah because I mean Browns a pretty big guy he's like
00:30:46
6-3 roughly yeah you know Robert Brown said he placed Heather church's body in the back of
00:30:53
his pickup truck and drove to the mountains where he disposed of the body he denied having any sexual contact with
00:31:01
Heather Church alright so BAM boom bang case closed yep get my coat yeah I'm to tip my hat
00:31:11
and ride no pure you locked up you're right captain that is not it because there's much more to this story in 1996
00:31:21
Robert Charles Brown who is supposed to be rotting away in his cell and Colorado
00:31:27
state corrections he receives a letter this is an anonymous letter the letter says you got screwed and here's why
00:31:37
there was something wrong with Colorado state law and from July 9th to September
00:31:44
20th of 1999 I was good up to September 20th of 1991 Colorado was without a death penalty this is truly bizarre
00:32:00
we've never come across anything like this in any of her cases mm-hmm so what that means is when tonight when she was
00:32:10
abducted when Heather was removed from the home technically the state of Colorado for that very brief time period
00:32:18
less than 90 days didn't have the death poem does not have the death penalty so the offer then of hey plead guilty and
00:32:28
we take the death penalty off the table it was never on the table because it didn't exist during the the timeframe in
00:32:34
which she disappeared [ __ ] offer yeah so this gets pointed out to him and now we have the appeals process
00:32:42
whoever's pointing it out to this scumbag yeah why this is also a scumbag let it be he got screwed well good right
00:32:51
unless it was one of those things where the guy was trying to rub it in his face
00:32:56
you know like you're so something you didn't know this yeah I mean but you know what got screwed because the case
00:33:03
took so many years to apprehend somebody right I don't think that the prosecutors did
00:33:10
anything malicious here I don't think they were aware either no like you said it was a small window like 90-day window
00:33:16
yeah it's just one of these weird inconsistencies one of these weird little glitches that was that was going
00:33:23
on there unaware of it so anyway now we have the appeals process he's got a pretty damn good appeal when you think
00:33:30
about it hey I pled guilty to something that only because the death penalty was being thrown in my face in the face in
00:33:39
the face well the current prosecutor the the one that now has to face these appeals comes up with a great plan he
00:33:51
says to the court system look she was abducted on the 17th this whole thing with with the no death
00:33:59
penalty expired on the 20th that's just a couple days later mm-hmm he's also saying it took us all this time to solve
00:34:07
the case she was found over 20 miles away from her home where she was abducted we the Prosecutor's Office believed that
00:34:17
the crime was sexual in nature that the motive was sexual nature and based off of all of that evidence in theory and
00:34:25
thought it is our argument that we cannot say for certain that her murder occurred on the 17th that it's very
00:34:33
likely he may have kept her for a couple of days and the murder occurred on the 20th or even later to this the appeals
00:34:42
courts at least two of them that I could find they agreed with that they said look you can't prove the date of when
00:34:51
she was killed and if you do you know he's in all kinds of trouble and all kinds of mess here because now if you go
00:34:58
back to he proves what day she was killed then he proves that he killed her and he boom he still ends up with life
00:35:05
in prison Brett so I I think that's just truly fascinating and the prosecutor later came out and said look I thought
00:35:14
my argument was a good one but a weak one it was intelligent argument but it was a very weak one he thought that they
00:35:20
would lose turns out that they win this thing got all the way up to I believe the Colorado
00:35:26
Supreme Court state Supreme Court to which I think they tossed it out and said we don't even want to look at this
00:35:33
thing truly when you have a child killer nobody wants this guy to get out on some
00:35:42
kind of technicality well yeah and on top of that you think he's possibly linked to other crimes that's correct
00:35:50
and that's still not the end of our story captain because on March 30th 2008 brought sent an unsolicited letter to
00:36:00
the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office in Colorado Springs the letter was addressed to whom it may concern
00:36:09
inside this letter and I don't have the full letter itself I don't know if the full letter has ever been released to
00:36:16
the public but there is within this letter a statement from Brown this says this is very cryptic seven sacred
00:36:26
virgins entombed side-by-side those less worthy are scattered wide the letter taunted investigators claiming the score
00:36:37
is you won the other team 48 the obvious reference here being that he was arrested tried and convicted of the
00:36:50
murder of Heather Dawn Church they scored one the other team must be him Robert Brown he's got a score of 48 so
00:37:00
obviously he's implying that he's involved in other crimes possibly other murders another statement included in
00:37:09
this letter says if you were to drive to the endzone in a white Trans Am the score could be 9 to 48 that would
00:37:19
complete your home courts fear let's go so real dumbass Brown closed the letter by demanding that he not be contacted
00:37:28
now there was a second letter that was sent well so he sent a letter and then he said don't contact me and here's
00:37:37
an ugly letter they sent another letter yeah the second letter for my understanding I believe even less of
00:37:44
that letter has been reported over the years maybe maybe even some of the statements I just read could have been
00:37:52
from the second letter itself it's all very cryptic his writings and what has been released is it's not clear if it's
00:38:00
if some of the letters are just short and they were released in their entirety and then other letters were longer and
00:38:07
only bits and pieces were actually released but what we do know with the second letter there that one included a
00:38:16
map and we would later learn that the map was he took a piece of paper put it over over a map like in an atlas and
00:38:24
made the outlines of several different states and so he outlined the state of Washington California Colorado New
00:38:34
Mexico Oklahoma Texas Arkansas Mississippi and Louisiana and inside each one of those states that he
00:38:45
outlined he put a number this number totaling up to 48 so almost indicating that with inside this state for instance
00:38:56
state of Washington he wrote the number 1 I've killed one person in the state of
00:39:01
Colorado he put the number 9 in Louisiana the number being the highest of all the numbers was 17 mm-hmm this
00:39:09
captain I believe probably would have went nowhere because he's writing to the district attorney's office in Colorado
00:39:19
Springs they don't seem to have any interest in corresponding with inmate Robert Brown turns out then about two
00:39:31
years later a man named Charlie Hess is going to send a letter to Robert Brown he doesn't know that Robert Brown has in
00:39:40
fact sent these letters already to the district attorney's office Charlie Hesse is a former CIA agent and
00:39:48
he was working with a guy and I say working they were kind of doing this as as a hobby but Charlie has along with
00:39:56
some other individuals were working with Lew Schmitt all these guys were pretty much retired by this time what they
00:40:03
would do is they would get together about once a week they would hang out they would eat pastries drink coffee
00:40:09
smoke cigarettes and they would talk about old cases mm-hm and really what they were focusing on was they were
00:40:16
wanting to take on some cold cases all of these individuals were involved in law enforcement or the CIA at some time
00:40:25
this would be a good group of people to volunteer to take on a cold case now during some of their discussions it
00:40:35
comes up that one of the individuals wants to know hey Lou or anybody here in our group as anybody worked in putting
00:40:47
away a murderer that they believe was truly a very dangerous person that was was a serial killer was one of these
00:40:54
people that had numbers you know multiple murders that they had committed Lou Smith says to his group I always
00:41:05
felt Robert Charles Brown was a serial killer and so much so that when we were working to put him away we were aware
00:41:13
that way back in Louisiana a neighbor of his one went missing and another neighbor was found dead was found
00:41:20
murdered so there's already a bit of a connection I've seen a lot of people cover this portion of the story and a
00:41:31
lot of people have done a good job in doing so but what is usually lost in this Heather churches case is usually
00:41:39
kind of a by the way or a way to kickstart the whole story of Robert Brown and his communications with these
00:41:47
cold-case volunteer investigators right and often it's reported that Lou Schmitt
00:41:54
just had some kind of sixth-sense that he was was a gut feeling that he had been
00:41:59
working the these types of the cases so long that he just had a sixth sense that
00:42:03
Robert Brown was a serial killer he had a he had a sense that Robert Brown was a
00:42:08
serial killer because they were aware of a missing former neighbor of his and a murdered former neighbor of his doesn't
00:42:17
take much to you know you don't have to have a sixth sense to come up with that heathered on church was a neighbor of
00:42:23
his as well so you see a similar type of mo it's really a bit of a shame that when we talk about these cases from
00:42:34
Louisiana I find it strange that within just a handful of months these two cases
00:42:41
take place we have a murder somebody goes missing both of these individuals were neighbors of his but they were
00:42:48
neighbors within the same apartment complex as him and further Robert Brown worked as the maintenance man for this
00:42:58
apartment complex his brother I believe was the owner or the landlord of these apartments it's really strange to me
00:43:07
that they weren't able to make any type of connection I think with the missing woman with her case that the husband was
00:43:15
under suspicion and that would make an obvious reason why you wouldn't connect them but with with the missing woman she
00:43:26
apparently had the doors had the locks on her doors changed the day before by the maintenance man of the apartment
00:43:34
complex who in fact was Robert Brown it seems like there would have been a connection to some of these individuals
00:43:42
yeah and even though Robert Brown claimed that he didn't want to be contacted there'd be a bunch of
00:43:48
corresponding emails for years yeah well letters right and so it's almost like Charlie has kind of befriended Robert
00:43:59
Charles Brown and got him to open up we have a man who says he doesn't want to talk it is in Charley's Arsenal though
00:44:07
that he is aware that look this is the guy that opened up the dialogue he started the
00:44:14
dialogue on some psychological level he does want to talk and so I'm going to work that angle and see what I can get
00:44:21
from him it's interesting that you have a guy a serial killer locked up and I will I will say serial killer because I
00:44:28
believe him to be just that but we have someone like we've seen so many times before now he's coming out playing this
00:44:36
game of I know more than you know and here's all the other bad things that I've done but I'm not going to tell you
00:44:43
all the bad things that I've done I'm going to hint and nudge and wink you through it and you got to figure it out
00:44:50
on your own mm-hmm it's all really truly I mean it's a lot of it I feel is [ __ ] and I don't really want to
00:45:01
waste anybody's time here by going through all of the correspondents because as you said this goes on for
00:45:06
quite some time and really all Charles Hess wants to do is he wants to sit down and speak with Robert Brown face-to-face
00:45:18
that's what Charlie has did in the CIA back in the day of the Vietnam War he was somebody that interviewed people
00:45:26
during wartime he gave lie-detector tests during wartime he is extremely good at
00:45:33
communicating with people getting people to open up getting people to tell the story tell the truth and figuring out
00:45:39
what are the truths and what are the lies with inside their story he eventually through befriending or at
00:45:48
least letting Robert Charles Brown believe that the to our friends got brown to allow him to speak with him
00:45:56
face to face and this all it did was open up correspondence because Brown was giving little hints and winks and nudges
00:46:05
saying I've killed roughly like you said captain I've killed 48 people 47 of them
00:46:11
you don't know about and some of their talks and correspondence he had the number as high as 51 but he was really
00:46:20
giving them nothing to go off of he's like look I um they keep telling him you got to tell
00:46:25
more if you want us to clear any of these cases we can't do anything with this and if you don't give us more
00:46:31
information we don't think you're serious we think that either you're making this [ __ ] up
00:46:35
or you've lost it and you believe it to be true and it's not true at all mm-hmm eventually they get him to talk
00:46:45
and give more details on some of these cases where he will go you know maybe give a nickname of an
00:46:52
individual maybe give a spot where he dumped the body so on and so forth and this leads them to throughout months and
00:47:02
years of working on this this leads them to starting to complete some of the story
00:47:07
now mind you all of the states that he listed that he drew on that map he did live in those states and they could find
00:47:14
evidence that he in fact lived in those states at one point and the three states
00:47:20
that he listed as having the highest number of kills interestingly enough are the three states where he spent the most
00:47:27
time so there was some stuff there was some meat on the bone in the beginning for these investigators to believe that
00:47:34
there could be some truth to Robert Browns story now we know with these Psychopaths and these narcissists none
00:47:44
of this would come without him getting something in return for offering up this information he was unhappy with the way
00:47:52
that he was being treated he did not like where he was being housed and he also didn't feel that he was receiving
00:47:58
proper medical treatment basically he wanted to transfer and again Charlie has pushed him and said we can't help you
00:48:07
unless you help us eventually through a lot of back and forth and through a lot of working and a lot of hard work what
00:48:16
we end up getting is we get another solved case because in July of 2006 Brown pled guilty to the murder of rocío
00:48:26
Sperry this he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 40 years now unfortunately this did not
00:48:37
come without Brown getting some in return Brown was then transferred to the state of Minnesota to serve out his
00:48:46
time there what's very weird here captain is I found an interview with Heather church's father Mike and I believe it
00:48:57
was from 2015 or 16 where he had a complaint and a very valid complaint he's saying because of Browns
00:49:07
manipulation of the system because he's working these deals to get moved and and
00:49:13
plead guilty to an unsolved case that he did not know where the killer of his daughter was being housed and he felt
00:49:24
that that was unfair and I agree 100% because at some point Brown was moved and it wasn't public knowledge to know
00:49:34
where he was located I found a letter that is believed I have plenty a reason to believe that it was written by Robert
00:49:44
Brown where he states the at that time he was housed in Florida in the state of Florida and there he is complaining that
00:49:54
they reneged on the plea agreement that he was supposed to be in Minnesota and after being in Minnesota for four years
00:50:03
they transferred him to Florida where he does not want to be and I hope he stays
00:50:08
where he does not want to be welcome to Florida the thing captain that we have here and I do want to say I am very the
00:50:22
thing that I want to say here captain is that I think that is great the work that
00:50:25
Charlie has Lou Smith and all of their little cold-case volunteer work that they did is fantastic yeah I don't want
00:50:34
to say it's all [ __ ] and it's all for naught because they did get a conviction in the rocío speery case and
00:50:40
that was so important not just to get another case off the books not just to get some answers but for so many years
00:50:46
her husband was thought to be the one that was guilty of her disappearance and we now know that that's not true
00:50:54
mm-hmm and that guy was a victim himself not just from being the husband of a murder victim but he was a victim of
00:51:03
being thought of as being guilty of her disappearance and her murder for so many
00:51:10
years so I'm very glad and very happy that they got that one off the books I do think that a lot of Browns
00:51:18
communication and a lot of what he hints at we talked about a number of 48 possible victims I think that that's
00:51:25
total bogus bogus I think it's a bogus number that he came up with we're talking about he's saying this in the
00:51:34
early 2000s and at the time I believe a number of 48 would put him at the highest number for a serial killer
00:51:42
that's who he wants to be he's never been anybody important he wants to be somebody important and he
00:51:49
does not mind the attention why because he is so guilty of heathered on church's
00:51:55
murder and now he's locked up in a place he does not want to be for life and he has nothing to do he is to put it
00:52:03
quite frankly he is bored everything that he did when he was on the outside a lot of it being illegal a lot of it
00:52:11
being perverted deviant behavior he cannot do now and so he's come up with some kind of game to pass the time he's
00:52:18
come up with a number that makes him important when he is not I also think that part of this game is he feels
00:52:27
screwed by the prosecutor by the District Attorney's Office of Colorado that because he as you said was dumb
00:52:39
enough to one not give a good reason why he would have been at the church's house
00:52:43
two didn't lawyer up three agree to a polygraph test in which he failed and then four please guilty so he can avoid
00:52:54
the death penalty yet there was no death penalty yeah so welcome to Florida dumbass I think he feels tricked because
00:53:02
he was he was an idiot he was stupid he was a [ __ ] he feels tricked and now his way of retaliating is to
00:53:11
send them on this wild goose chase keep in mind who did he direct his letter to he didn't send it to the media he didn't
00:53:20
send it to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office he sent it to the district attorney's office the same district
00:53:26
attorney's office that was able to put him in prison for life for the death for the murder of Heather Don Church now I
00:53:36
do believe with inside this 48 this magical number of 48 captain I do believe that there are some other
00:53:43
victims in there of note of of note of ones that he actually provided some detailed information this would be the
00:53:54
murder of Katherine Hayes from Louisiana Wanda Hudson and face self also of Louisiana melody Bush and Nydia Mendoza
00:54:07
both from Texas and then Lisa Lowe who was killed in Arkansas so while I do feel that a lot of his stuff is probably
00:54:18
[ __ ] I would love to see some further movement on some of these other cases where there was some detailed
00:54:26
information provided by Robert Brown unfortunately loose mitt has passed away he passed away he had cancer and by the
00:54:36
time the cancer was found it spread to his entire body yeah but I agree a lot of good work here and Robert Charles
00:54:43
Brown deserves any bad thing that's coming his way the other thing about his if you want to try to call them
00:54:52
confessions regarding these murders even the ones where he offers detailed information what you will see is him
00:55:03
minimizing his involvement him minimizing his role in the murder of these individuals I personally believe
00:55:12
that most of his murders if not all of them were sexual in nature they they seem to be that that was the
00:55:20
the driving force for his actions I don't know about when he set out to enter the home to heathered on church's
00:55:30
house but what I will say here regarding his [ __ ] confession that he offered up to his placement counselor what do
00:55:40
you see there straight up minimizes his involvement in the whole situation it makes it it's all
00:55:47
so confusing to him he killed her he didn't even really know why he killed her he didn't he didn't intend to kill
00:55:53
her and I think that is absolute BS I think that there's a lot of evidence that will show that there was no reason
00:56:01
for him to remove her from that house his confession somewhat makes it sound like she surprised him and he reacted
00:56:11
and before he could realize what was going on she was dead there's evidence to suggest that she may have been
00:56:18
sleeping when he came upon her that night great and if he was afraid or got scared all of sudden because he entered
00:56:26
a home that he thought was empty and he reacted and that was the result you just
00:56:31
can't believe that because if she was sleeping he had the opportunity to be afraid and then leave the home after he
00:56:39
was in the home and when he left there the only thing that was missing from that home was that little girl
00:56:49
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slash garage a lot of really good sources for this case here captain one of the better ones is the newspaper The
00:57:44
Gazette they covered this case pretty extensively over the years and did a very good job one of the best sources is
00:57:52
this week's recommended reading it's a book titled the devil's right-hand man the true story of serial killer Robert
00:58:00
Charles Brown you can write that title down now so you can pick that up and find out more if you're busy just go to
00:58:08
our web site later go to our recommended page go to true crime garage com we will
00:58:14
have that title there for you so you can make that selection and add that to your
00:58:19
library we want to thank everybody for listening we want to thank everybody for the wonderful 5-star reviews and we want
00:58:27
to thank you all for telling your friends about true crime garage until next time be good be kind don't let it
00:58:36
[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 75
    Most intense
  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 70
    Most unpredictable

Episode Highlights

  • The Case of Heather Church
    It took almost two years to find Heather's remains, with no clues to her murder.
    “Girls remains found after two-year search.”
    @ 03m 40s
    October 02, 2019
  • Detective Lou Smith
    Lou Smith, known for his work on high-profile cases, took over Heather's investigation.
    “He is certainly a super cop.”
    @ 05m 29s
    October 02, 2019
  • Robert Charles Brown Arrested
    Brown was arrested after fingerprints matched those found at the crime scene.
    “We got a match in Louisiana.”
    @ 11m 34s
    October 02, 2019
  • Plea Deal Offered
    Brown pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, receiving life in prison instead.
    “He should probably hurry up and plead guilty before we find another body.”
    @ 23m 30s
    October 02, 2019
  • Radical Transparency at Everlane
    Everlane is radically transparent about their costs and materials, making quality clothing accessible.
    “You to know what you're paying for and why.”
    @ 24m 17s
    October 02, 2019
  • Comfort Meets Style with Bombas
    Bombas socks offer comfort innovations like arch support and cushion footbeds, perfect for everyone.
    “Bombas socks are made with comfortable innovations!”
    @ 25m 40s
    October 02, 2019
  • Robert Brown's Confession
    Robert Brown confessed to his placement counselor about the murder of Heather Church, claiming it was unintentional.
    “Killing her he says was unintentional.”
    @ 29m 59s
    October 02, 2019
  • Robert Brown's Guilty Plea
    In July 2006, Robert Brown pled guilty to the murder of Rocío Sperry, receiving a life sentence without parole.
    “This did not come without Brown getting something in return.”
    @ 48m 26s
    October 02, 2019
  • A Father's Complaint
    Heather Church's father voiced concerns about the manipulation of the system by Robert Brown, impacting the knowledge of his daughter's killer's whereabouts.
    “He felt that that was unfair and I agree 100%.”
    @ 49m 04s
    October 02, 2019
  • The Devil's Right-Hand Man
    A recommended reading titled 'The Devil's Right-Hand Man' explores the true story of serial killer Robert Charles Brown.
    “You can write that title down now so you can pick that up.”
    @ 57m 58s
    October 02, 2019

Episode Quotes

  • I got to beefed-up if I'm gonna be a cop.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • This is just straight-up bizarre.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • My new Everlane jacket is amazing!
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • I always felt Robert Charles Brown was a serial killer.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • I'm very glad they got that one off the books.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340
  • He feels tricked because he was an idiot.
    Heather Dawn Church /// Part 2 /// 340

Key Moments

  • Super Cop Lou Smith05:29
  • Plea Deal23:30
  • Everlane Essentials24:11
  • Brown's Confession29:59
  • Appeals Process31:21
  • Guilty Plea48:26
  • Father's Concern49:04
  • Book Recommendation57:58

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown