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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
00:01:48
as always is a man with a reminder that you're not the only ship a drift on this
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ocean here is the captain I can't even find my ship it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for for listening
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thanks for telling a [Music] friend today we are still sipping on some red bird ale from Portsmith Brewing
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Company red bird ale is an allamerican home run beer named for the Portsmith Ohio minor league baseball team of
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1939 it's labeled as a California steam ale brewed with roasted caramel maltz a BV 4.8% garage grave three and a qu
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bottle caps out of five and let's give some thanks and praise to our good friends for helping us fill up the
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fridge this week first up we have desire re from Cincinnati and we also have Jennifer moss and her son Mason
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listening to TCG together in beautiful Parts Unknown thank you to everyone who went to True Crime garage.com and
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business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:19
[Music] [Music] crime dispatch article from 2005 on the anniversary of The Disappearance of Rob Boney titled police
00:03:46
still searching for man gone 9 years this is on the 9-year anniversary Captain and the article States Rob
00:03:54
Mooney backed his red Pontiac Firebird out of his driveway and disappeared down the two two lane road this according to
00:04:01
a neighbor working in her yard on Central College Road on that hot July evening she saw him go as she said she
00:04:10
had seen many times before said that it seemed routine but as we know Captain unfortunately that was the last time
00:04:18
anyone reported seeing Rob Alive Now fast forward all of these years later today is the day after
00:04:30
the anniversary of the day he was reported missing way back in 1996 he was reported July 18th as missing and as and
00:04:41
even though his body hasn't been found in this article Westerville police detective Dave King said he is convinced
00:04:49
that Rob has been murdered but they do not know how and back in 2005 they released investigative files on the case
00:04:59
that showed that police suspected Foul Play early on in this case why would that be again this man
00:05:10
goes missing and what we learn here is we talked so much yesterday about his red Pontiac Firebird what this article
00:05:19
makes clear is that when they found that vehicle and because he was missing when
00:05:24
they found the vehicle they called in Westerville police called in Columbus Police and the
00:05:32
Ohio Bureau of Investigation they come in and they take fingerprints they're looking for
00:05:40
fingerprints on different parts of this vehicle they come to the conclusion based off of not finding fingerprints
00:05:48
that it seems that the car had been wiped clean of fingerprints and I'm guessing here
00:05:53
Captain if you're sitting in a room full of detectives we're all going what this
00:05:58
guy probably didn't drive his vehicle to Hoover Reservoir over by the dam park it
00:06:06
leave the keys in it wipe down all the fingerprints from the car and then walk away from his life so somebody caused
00:06:15
this man to go missing and somebody is responsible for why he's missing and where he is today
00:06:24
in fact I firmly believe and I think that there's a lot of evidence that suggest that this case is only the
00:06:32
recovery of his body away from bringing forward charges again we stated yesterday police
00:06:40
had already honed in on a suspect and referred to this person as he is the suspect in this case so a male is the
00:06:50
prime suspect in this case well what you were saying yesterday is he leaves his house but we have no sign of any kind of
00:06:58
struggle or or anything going down at his house we see his car no sign of a struggle so at first you're just going
00:07:08
where did this guy go was he meeting up with somebody what's the issue but then once
00:07:13
you start investigating a little further and you go we can't even find a single fingerprint right that's that's very
00:07:24
fishy very fishy the other thing that people thought to be a little strange as well is there are two different reports
00:07:32
Rob's listed at 5' 10 in tall or 5' 11 in tall depending on which report you see and several people have pointed out
00:07:41
that when the vehicle was found the driver seat was pushed all the way forward closest to in the position
00:07:48
closest to the steering wheel people that know him best say that Rob would have never sat that close to the
00:07:55
steering wheel these people it's their belief that whoever moved that vehicle was shorter than Rob and that that might
00:08:05
be a telling sign of who put the vehicle there and then let's take that a step further it does not take a very big leap
00:08:13
to go from well whoever place that vehicle at Hoover Reservoir either is responsible for why Rob disappeared or
00:08:23
knows what happened to him because assisted in moving that vehicle I spoke to the det Ive and a couple things that
00:08:30
that we agreed on I asked him is there do you think there's any way that Rob is in Hoover Reservoir in the water over
00:08:40
there because that would make a lot of sense right his Vehicles found there we're talking about 5 square miles of of
00:08:46
water right and of course the detective said look until we find him nothing is 100% I said but would you agree based
00:08:55
off of the searches early on the dive team the the the teams that drag the the water over there would you agree that
00:09:03
the statement is of the Westerville police that we are very confident that he is not in the water and the detective
00:09:11
said yes we our department based off of our searches are very confident that he is not in that water over there okay so
00:09:20
we're learning that there's no fingerprints in the vehicle again the like you said the obvious answer is he
00:09:27
goes missing is he in this water and and cops for whatever reason law enforcement for whatever
00:09:34
reason is saying no no we don't think he's there we they're basing that off of their extensive searches of the that
00:09:41
water yeah what what more can we learn from this well some of this is a little repetitive but bear with me everybody oh
00:09:49
you you're kind of like a parrot there you go uh this is the article that states that we talked about the
00:09:56
half-eaten steak dinner we talked about what is not public knowledge of the the Kool-Aid placed in the freezer that
00:10:03
night his roommate being at work that is confirmed by by all parties involved in
00:10:09
this investigation and you're not misspeaking it's freezer not refrigerator that's that's what I was
00:10:15
told by more than one person okay and then on top of that this is the article that states Rob left his wallet filled
00:10:24
with money at his home and this is coming from police in this article saying that that is further evidence
00:10:31
that he wasn't planning on being away long so we're trying to go back to figuring out why he even left at all
00:10:39
this article to police saying we don't believe he was ever put in the Hoover end quote this is sad this is a sad part
00:10:47
of the article where his mother had turned to psychics for answers for years and it was only through the Council of
00:10:54
close friends some of them being Rob's friends that had told her kept telling her look these psychics are just using
00:11:02
you they're giving you false hope that you're going to find your son and that he's going to be alive she's Clinging On
00:11:08
to hope she's desperate and so she's hiring hiring psychics to talk with her I mean he's 29 years old but this is
00:11:16
still her baby that's right and she says that and then she says also in this article that that eventually she stopped
00:11:23
spending money on psychics when she kind of saw the light right one of them tells
00:11:28
her that his body was close to water near an outlet mall and churches and then she realized yeah that's pretty
00:11:36
easy to state that because that could be anywhere yeah or he did some digging I mean this is this is where Sunberry Road
00:11:47
or that Sunberry that that area that's what his car would have been around this this is where we get the best
00:11:55
information yet the article goes on to say that Westerville police had solid reports early on that he was that Rob
00:12:03
was the victim of Foul Play Rob was dating a woman who had once dated a friend upsetting the man now let's use
00:12:15
this term friend very Loosely and I'll we'll get into that in just a second the article says that just before Rob
00:12:22
vanished the man might have forced Rob's Firebird off of Route 161 in retaliation for Rob dating this woman
00:12:33
now this article refers to this woman as Rob's girlfriend so it says Rob's girlfriend told Westerville police that
00:12:41
she had talked by phone with him at about 8:00 p.m. July 16th this is the last day that he's
00:12:48
seen and according to remember we have the neighbor witness so this air quotes girlfriend as
00:12:56
they refer to this woman in the article says that she talked to Rob at about 8:00 p.m. July 16th 1 hour later he
00:13:05
pulled out of his driveway so that's the neighbor witnessing him pull out of the
00:13:08
driveway around 900 p.m. and we know that the vehicle his vehicle is found3 miles from his home opposite
00:13:18
direction that he travels less than 5 hours later that's when it it could have been there much
00:13:26
sooner but we know based off of the security logs from the park ranger that it was spotted shortly after
00:13:34
midnight so we're starting to see a little bit of a picture here right now here is where this running Rob off
00:13:44
the road comes into question as well this article says might have run him off the road I spoke with
00:13:52
two people that said 100% Not only was Rob run off the vehic Rob and his vehicle run off the road on
00:14:02
a Friday night before he disappeared but that Rob knew the man that ran him off the
00:14:09
road so you do you remember Captain the Billiard Club on 161 they they host bands there often they got a bunch of
00:14:17
pool tables yeah kind of a bigger Club it was it was very popular in the '90s well in the late 9s Rob his roommate and
00:14:27
a bunch of people in Rob Circle a bunch of the people that rob went to high school with they're from Westerville
00:14:34
this club is in Columbus proper but not far from Westerville and a lot of the the
00:14:42
Westerville people that were of Rob's age would hang out at the billyard club in the late 90s early sorry the mid to
00:14:50
late 90s because they knew the owner they went to high school with the owner on a Friday night before Rob went
00:15:01
missing this is very some Reports say that it was the week before he went missing other Reports say that it was
00:15:08
the Friday before he went missing it's hard for me to sort that out over 20 years
00:15:15
later the story is this he's talking to a girl a woman that he knew that's roughly his age at the Billiard Club on
00:15:25
that Friday night right let's call her sure okay don't call me Shirley that's right
00:15:32
Shirley leaves with Rob and we know this because Rob's there with several of his
00:15:40
friends who have all told me the same story in fact one of those friends was with Rob at the Billiard Club and was in
00:15:48
his own vehicle and would be meeting Rob and other friends at Rob's house after departing the Billiard Club so Rob talks
00:15:57
to this woman Shirley Rob and Shirley leav in his Firebird they're driving toward Rob's home on Central College
00:16:05
Road and the guy that she was either in a relationship with or previously in a relationship with let's call him
00:16:15
Andy he spots the two he's aware that the two are hanging out this drives him crazy and he decides to force Rob's Car
00:16:25
off of the road now look there's no damage done nobody was injured some would say no harm no foul
00:16:33
but let's keep in mind this is a violent act yeah somebody could have been hurt severely hurt or injured in this
00:16:40
situation or possibly worse we have a whole bunch of people telling police the same
00:16:48
name who would want to hurt Rob the same name keeps coming up over and over and over and over again well it's not too
00:16:56
big of a leap to go the guy that ran him off the road just days before is probably the same guy's name that keeps
00:17:03
coming up to police the friend meets Rob and Shirley back at Rob's place that night after
00:17:12
he's run off the road remember the friend was at the billyard club prior when he gets to Rob's house he
00:17:19
didn't witness Rob being ran off the road what he Witnesses is he shows up at Rob's house and remember Rob's living
00:17:27
for the weekend work hard Party hard bunch of people roommate everybody at the house and what are they talking
00:17:34
about that Andy guy ran Rob off the road oh he just ran him off the road he could
00:17:39
have killed him that is the topic of discussion that night that they hang out now listen to this
00:17:47
article what did they say here they referred to this woman as Rob's girlfriend which I think is difficult to
00:17:52
say because we're talking days they they would have if if they were dating at all th
00:18:00
this started days before he went missing I think they're just calling her that because they they didn't want to use her
00:18:06
name we're calling her Shirley so she tells Westerville police that she talked to Rob on the phone at 8:00 p.m. on July
00:18:14
16th then the neighbors see him leaving in his car by himself about an hour later his car is found less than 5 hours
00:18:23
later abandoned at Hoover Reservoir 100% Captain what ever caused him to leave the house that night led to his
00:18:32
disappearance and police are saying that he was murdered now this man is not unknown to
00:18:39
police this article article continues the man took a lie detector test but results were
00:18:45
inconclusive uh how do you feel about that Captain do you feel like sometimes police are telling us results are
00:18:52
inconclusive when they can't throw the guy directly under the bus publicly or to the news newspapers well that's them
00:19:00
throwing them under the bus yeah let let's let people speculate uh as to what what this man
00:19:07
may have said so here here's what I wonder though so are we saying that the night that he goes missing that
00:19:16
maybe he gets a call from somebody and there saying hey you know that guy that ran you off the
00:19:21
road he he's here or I saw him there mhm and so that Rob would have ran out of the house to maybe then confront this
00:19:32
guy the problem becomes that the neighbors don't see anybody but Rob right they see Rob hop in his car and
00:19:39
leave I'm G to when we get to the theories here I this the breakdown of that timeline according to the person
00:19:48
Shirley that they refer to as Rob's girlfriend is very telling to me now real quick before we get to the
00:19:57
theories this this woman that they're referring to as Rob's girlfriend says that a week later a week after Rob
00:20:03
disappeared that she is at a place called Hammer Jacks bar on Route 161 and I do not recall hammerjacks ever
00:20:14
I don't know where it is where it was it's not around today right uh in 1996 I was not of drinking age or close to it
00:20:22
so if this you know wherever this bar was but it's on 161 so not terribly far from from the previous club that we
00:20:29
talked about and this is the same woman Shirley says that she's at hammerjacks bar on Route 161 and she runs into what
00:20:37
is referred to as another man so this is when they say another man they're clearly pointing out that it's
00:20:45
not the same man as the suspect right this is another person and the article says she ran into
00:20:52
another man who ran with robs Westerville crowd that man tells her your boy is six feet under quote your
00:21:01
boy is six feet under now police say we interviewed that man who then denied making that
00:21:12
statement and the police go on in this article to say that they are optimistic that somebody out there knows something
00:21:19
and this is N9 years after the fact they say I hope one day that they are going to do the right thing by this family and
00:21:28
and they do say in this article that they are confident that they could solve the case at some point given the right
00:21:36
information now before we get into the theories Captain we should State Rob is listed on namus on the namus website he
00:21:43
is missing person's identification number MP 11123 so much more to get to join us
00:21:51
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[Music] [Music] difference all right we are back make sure you go to True Crim garage.com sign up on the
00:24:35
mailing list and if you want to join the colonel at crime Con in Orlando make sure you use promo code
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tc10 to get 10% off cheers Captain cheers to everybody out there cheers to the people in the back now let's can we
00:24:52
all agree here in the garage I say that like there's 30 people here it's me and you currently oh there's a there's a
00:24:59
couple people in our pockets if the police tell us that they have good reason to believe that there's Foul Play
00:25:04
can we can we move past the idea that maybe Rob just walked away from his life right okay so let's take the police at
00:25:11
their word they're telling us that there's Foul Play I believe there's Foul Play too even even if police weren't
00:25:17
upfront about that I look at this thing and say it's got Foul Play written all over it now where is Rob that's that's
00:25:25
the whole thing here I believe that the one thing that is holding charges back from being brought forward against an
00:25:34
individual is the finding of Rob's remains and the thing is there's been a bunch of people over the years that have
00:25:43
told police what happened to Rob Unfortunately they cannot confirm that without the evidence that would be his
00:25:51
remains or the location of his remains as to which Theory or which story that's being presented to them is true we've
00:25:59
talked about this several times here in the garage if you find Rob what will happen it will confirm one of those
00:26:07
stories for police as being true that will be the lead that they need that will be the evidence they need to go out
00:26:15
and charge somebody with this homicide now the car it was moved can we agree on that Rob went somewhere he went in the
00:26:26
opposite direction of where the car was later found things happened very quickly
00:26:30
here now didn't they because we know that according to his air quotes girlfriend Shirley who he had maybe
00:26:38
started dating just days before he goes missing she says she called him around 8:00 neighbors see him leave around 900
00:26:45
p.m. Park Rangers find his car abandoned in the parking lot less than 5 hours after he leaves his home things are
00:26:53
moving very quickly something happened to Rob in that 5 hours and it happened early enough that whoever is responsible
00:27:02
for his disappearance was able to move his vehicle after the fact to that location yeah I'm not sold on the idea
00:27:10
that his car was moved I I I would I would go with you on the idea that that's probably more likely what
00:27:17
happened um but what we do know for certainty is somebody wiped down that car they altered that they altered that
00:27:27
vehicle destroying evidence so unless something unless Rob drove his car to that
00:27:33
location right and somebody abducts him from there which we do know is in the opposite direction of where he he was
00:27:41
heading when he left his house I don't think it matters what direction he was heading when he left his house then that
00:27:46
car had to have been moved the thing is if that car was moved to me I'm looking at a at minimum a twers
00:27:54
operation here somebody to help the perpetrator the murderer whether after the fact or
00:28:02
after witnessing or being a part of the murder of Rob Mooney moving that vehicle and then
00:28:10
getting everybody back to where they need to be away from that vehicle now we should point out here
00:28:18
remember Shirley was in a relationship prior to with the man who ran Rob off of the road we're calling him Andy we're
00:28:27
we're not using his real name even though he's real [ __ ] bag because he's not been charged in this crime he has
00:28:35
been convicted of other crimes but right we're not going to use his real name here because he's not been charged in
00:28:41
this crime so we'll just call him Andy for short Andy's parents live on Central College Road the same road that Rob
00:28:52
lives on not far from Rob's home in the direction that Rob was leaving that evening remember all signs point to
00:29:02
Rob believing or or his actions suggesting that he believes he would be returning rather quickly back to his
00:29:10
home and possibly back to his meal that night by her own admission Shirley says that she's on the phone with Rob at
00:29:20
800m is there any chance that Shirley's call is the one that led robbed to leaving his
00:29:30
home and then we have people telling True Crime garage that they were well aware that when Andy and Shirley were in
00:29:41
a relationship together that there was violence in that relationship could a threat against
00:29:49
Shirley Inspire Rob to leave and maybe go confront this individual who had run him off the road right or was he meeting
00:29:57
did he think he was meeting Shirley and running to her defense because she was at this man's
00:30:04
residence there's a lot of stuff going on there and I feel like we were just one maybe two pieces away from solving
00:30:14
this puzzle and like we've said over and over the where his vehicle is found is minutes from his house and if it's and
00:30:23
like you said if there's evidence that leans towards the idea that the car was moved again whether or not we agree on
00:30:30
that doesn't matter because we do have somebody is messing tampering with the car and so is it out of the Realms of
00:30:38
possibility of we now have Rob we wipe down his car we toss them in the water and we go about our way yeah the thing
00:30:48
the thing that's telling to me too is even though police are tight lip the question that I gave to the detective
00:30:54
was do you believe that it had to have been more than one person to move his vehicle and put it at that location
00:31:02
where it was found and the detective said the vehicle could have been moved by one person or
00:31:09
two the key part of that answer to me is it sounds like police are of the belief
00:31:15
too that the vehicle was moved in place there yeah but the reason why they're saying one is because if the our Prime
00:31:22
Suspect is this Andy guy his parents live on the same road no no no no I get that what I'm saying
00:31:31
is that the the question the there's an answer within the non-answer of that question the answer is that they believe
00:31:38
that the vehicle was moved by 1 two 20 30 people they're not saying maybe they don't know how many people move the
00:31:46
vehicle but they are of the belief working on the theory that it was in fact moved now let's hone back in on
00:31:54
something that was stated in that article by Shirley who says I was at hammerjacks bar on 161
00:32:02
about a week after Rob went missing I ran into another man who ran around with Rob and his crowd and this man says to
00:32:10
me your boy is six feet under quote your boy is 6 feet under police say they interview that man and that man says I
00:32:19
never said that well guess what one of them is lying either he said that and Shirley's being honest with police or
00:32:29
shely is lying to police and trying to implicate somebody else having knowledge of what happened to
00:32:39
Rob well why would she do that she probably wants to take herself out of the equation of being involved in
00:32:48
whatever happened to Rob if in fact she was the one lying this case is difficult
00:32:55
because I've Been Told by a few different sources captain that it possibly could be linked to another
00:33:05
homicide and this is a Columbus homicide that took place a few years after Rob disappeared so in Rob's case law
00:33:18
enforcement has a lot of reasons to believe that this is Foul Play maybe charges would be brought if they could
00:33:24
find Rob's remains but some people have speculated that Rob's disappearance could be connected to another local
00:33:34
homicide yes and this comes from as you said Captain Crim Stoppers who were looking for tips offering up a reward
00:33:41
for information leading to an arrest in a separate completely separate homicide and the and the Crim Stoppers request
00:33:50
says man shot and burned beyond recognition a man was shot and killed his body burned beyond recognition it's
00:33:56
a murder case that Columbus Police have been trying to solve for more than a year and we have a quote from the
00:34:04
victim's mother Dolores Donahue who says quote I want these people off of the street she wants to see Justice for the
00:34:12
people who killed her son the victim of a gruesome murder that took place in January of 2002 the last time her son
00:34:21
Troy Donahue was seen alive he was hanging out with some friends at a pool hall in North
00:34:27
Columbus you're going to recognize a name that we just spoke about previously Troy left the Billiards Club around
00:34:35
11:00 now keep in mind though this is six years after Rob disappeared 5 and a half years exactly after Rob disappeared
00:34:45
Troy told his brother and Friends he was going to the parking lot and would be gone only a few minutes as minutes turn
00:34:51
to hours Dolores remembers watching news reports of a body found near free Way Drive it turned out to be her son he had
00:35:00
been shot three times and his body set on fire burned so badly a delivery man thought that it was a pile of
00:35:08
trash quote I will never understand why he had to be hurt so bad because he would give anything to
00:35:15
anybody and what's likely to be more than just a coincidence someone also broke into Troy's
00:35:22
apartment that same night the night that he disappeared right so this article more than a year later Columbus Police
00:35:29
saying we need the Public's help we do not want some other mother to have to sit by and get hurt as bad and a family
00:35:37
hurt as bad as this one has so they offer up a reward now let's cut the story short here in this Troy Donahue
00:35:48
murder okay it was no coincident this that his apartment was broken into that night his apartment's broken into to
00:35:57
there's money stolen from the apartment and they find blood in the apartment now
00:36:01
I'm not certain I've sorted through this Captain I can't figure out exactly where
00:36:05
the blood came from if it was Troy's blood it sounds to me that this is what happened because we know based off of
00:36:13
eyewitness statements from the Billiard Club that night that he said oh a car pulls up into the parking lot a vehicle
00:36:20
pulls up into the parking lot I believe it was a van and he goes oh I got to go out there and talk to these people I'll
00:36:27
be right back right he goes out doesn't ever come back into the bar I'm guessing
00:36:33
that those people abducted Troy Donahue took him to his apartment and either used him to gain access the or or
00:36:43
threatened him while they gained access to his apartment they were looking for something in that apartment money drugs
00:36:50
maybe even weapons and we know that the apartment was all busted up and at the end of the
00:36:56
night Troy Donahue is killed and set on fire now he was killed it was ruled by the coroner that he was set on fire
00:37:06
after he died he he was already dead by the time that happened um eventually they catch up to all these
00:37:14
people so the vehicle that these people were out stealing a bunch of vehicles that
00:37:21
night too there were three of them and they arrested them and charged them with the stolen vehic Les and charge them
00:37:28
with breaking into Troy Donahue's apartment it would take several years for these people to turn on each other
00:37:37
but eventually what we end up with Captain is all of those people involved start spilling the beans and then we end
00:37:44
up with three people being arrested and charged in some form or fashion with either Don's murder or with abuse of a
00:37:54
corpse how does this story have any anything to do with Rob's disappearance Rob and
00:38:01
Troy knew each other a little bit okay from my understanding the way it's explained to me is that Rob ran with
00:38:10
some of the people that ran with Troy and Troy ran with some of the people that ran with Rob but the two never
00:38:17
really ran together right does make sense a person that knew both of them says that they went to Troy
00:38:27
and I'm having difficulty recalling this because we have grandparents and parents
00:38:32
that are named throughout this story by different sources it was either Troy's parents'
00:38:38
home or grandparents home this person is close with Troy goes to Troy's parents home or grandparents home Troy's to with
00:38:48
the purpose of meeting Troy this meeting takes place in July of 1996 same month that Rob goes
00:39:00
missing this Source says Troy was out in the backyard doing yard work when this person talks to Troy Troy
00:39:11
is sweating he's all dirty he looks like he's been digging in the backyard and the person you know what's
00:39:20
going on you look tired you look all beat up you look you look you're sweaty what's going on oh I was just out in the
00:39:25
backyard digging and doing some work nobody really this person doesn't think much of this at that
00:39:32
time this person then sees Troy again at another time they're at a different location this person has told
00:39:44
us that Troy pulls this person aside and says if anything ever happens to me remember just remember that there's
00:39:55
something buried in my in that backyard if anything happens to me remember there's something buried in
00:40:01
that backyard now to be perfectly clear to be perfectly clear this this homicide
00:40:08
poor Troy Don who was killed may have nothing to do with Rob's case at all what's buried in that backyard what
00:40:17
was Troy telling to trying to tell this person may have nothing to do with Rob's
00:40:21
case it could be money in that back backyard it could be drugs it could be weapons
00:40:27
who knows what it could be but it's a circle that might be connected to another Circle it's exactly it's the
00:40:34
circle and it's this person saying I've always said that somebody needs to dig up that
00:40:41
backyard because of the timing of everything he's out there digging in the yard not terribly long after Rob
00:40:49
disappears and by the way whatever he's digging or whyever he's digging in that road in that yard at a later time tells
00:40:57
the same person if anything ever happens to me remember that there's something buried in that
00:41:05
backyard and what unfortunately we know something terrible ends up happening to this young
00:41:11
man so this is one of those things captain again I believe whoever is responsible
00:41:20
for Rob going missing probably had some kind of help whether that help was killing Rob making him disappear
00:41:31
whether that help was moving the vehicle whether that help was burying the body I believe that he had some help and
00:41:40
I believe that there are probably I hesitate to to give it a definitive answer here but after
00:41:48
speaking to all the people that I could get in touch with that have that have Insider knowledge of this case and the
00:41:55
people that we we've discussed in this story that there's probably about we're probably down to about four places that
00:42:03
they should be looking for Rob and again I can't speak for Westerville police department but I can I can
00:42:12
speculate right and you've seen this a hundred times I've seen it a hundred times I believe they are one body away
00:42:19
from charging somebody and we do know that at some point they had a prime suspect and that Prime Suspect was a
00:42:25
male you and you would think that maybe that would at least be able to search that property with caver dogs from what
00:42:33
I've been told by multiple people the four locations that that I'm not going to talk about here today in the garage
00:42:40
that we are choosing not to announce to the public these locations and for good reason but what
00:42:49
we've been told is that these locations have been discussed recently with with police right it's in
00:42:58
their power if if they're able to do something with this information they might be doing
00:43:04
something with it relatively soon frustration is is is probably the key word in these cases but let's not be
00:43:13
fooled we've talked to so many people on law enforcement and when they believe they know who is responsible for
00:43:20
somebody's murder they want to get the bad guy just as as much if not more more than anybody
00:43:27
else well and here's the thing you look for the the weak link right you are the weakest link you look for that because
00:43:37
what do we have here Captain if as stated by law enforcement they have a prime suspect in this case we can't say
00:43:47
for certain that it's the person that we're calling Andy but according to everybody we've talked to all roads lead
00:43:54
to this person that we're calling Andy and then I think the way to go about this if you're talking over 20 years
00:44:02
later and no solution to this homicide case you've not been able to crack this person whether he failed that lie
00:44:12
detector inconclusive whatever you want to call it test that he took years ago you've not been able to build a
00:44:19
great case against him so what do you do I believe based off of the vehicle its location where it was found in the
00:44:28
events of the night that Rob went missing and off of statements that have been relayed to us the prime suspect had
00:44:37
help whether it was in the murder the concealment of the body or the moving of the vehicle or the destruction of
00:44:44
evidence the the murderer had help the prime suspect is probably the murderer and had help so you look for the weak
00:44:53
link you look for the person of persons that helped the prime suspect and see if
00:44:59
you could get them to crack or see if you can find or build a case against one of them so who could have helped the
00:45:06
prime suspect well we already mentioned the individual that we're calling Shirley who says that they called Rob
00:45:14
that night is that why Rob left did this person we're calling Shirley come up with the story to convince Rob to leave
00:45:22
that night to go to a place to put himself into danger and where he got ambushed we also have that person that
00:45:29
same person that we're calling Shirley that says I talked to some guy bumped into another man like a week later and
00:45:35
he said your boy is 6 feet under police say we talked to him he said I did not say that one of those two is lying right
00:45:42
if it's shirely it's not too hard to believe that she's lying about a whole bunch of other stuff in this
00:45:46
case oh let's point out another weird thing here the people that were calling Shirley and Andy
00:45:57
years after Rob is gone they move in and rent that house well that's a little strange Now isn't
00:46:05
it that's a little weird they rent the same house that Rob was living in that Rob once rented and lived in himself the
00:46:13
the home he was living in when he disappeared and then so who who was involved that's where we want to go with
00:46:21
this now we talked about Troy Donahue who who had said that weird statement to a person that that knew both Rob and
00:46:28
knew Troy if anything ever happens to me remember there's something buried in that
00:46:34
backyard could it be rob it might be we don't know right it it very likely is not but it could be again if the prime
00:46:45
suspect had help could Troy donu have been a helper uh then we've had a couple people
00:46:54
tell us that there were two strange guys that they believe were from Columbus or
00:46:58
the Columbus area that were hanging out at Rob and Ron's house the weekend prior
00:47:04
to Rob going missing could they have helped our Prime Suspect oh and let's take that a step further could one of
00:47:12
them have been Troy Donahue who was from Columbus we've had another source that told us that two very evil men suspected
00:47:21
of other evil Deeds from Nelsonville may have been involved and while we will not disclose
00:47:31
the locations the exact locations of those four properties that one should call into question and that that I
00:47:38
believe and would hope that someday they can be searched one of those properties is
00:47:44
obviously that property that Troy Donahue referenced if anything ever happens to me remember there's something
00:47:50
buried in that that backyard the other property should be down the street from where Rob lived the direction he was
00:47:58
driving that night is in the direction of the person we're calling Andy of his his parents' home where Andy was
00:48:07
residing at the time that Rob disappeared could something be there could Rob be there on that
00:48:16
property uh these bad guys from Nelsonville there's a property and we we know the address there's a property in
00:48:24
Nelsonville that might have something there worth looking for and then another location that that that we can't we
00:48:32
won't give a description of here but this is one of those cases Captain that's so damn frustrating because
00:48:38
there's it feels like there's it's described as this very mysterious case of this man just
00:48:45
disappears one night and his car is found by the water well you start peeling back the
00:48:51
layers and you see that there are some very plausible theories here there's some very suspicious looking individuals
00:48:59
involved in this story and then you start digging and you go maybe there's some low hanging fruit here but here we
00:49:06
sit all these years later without answers as to what ever happened to Rob Mooney but also with a lot of local
00:49:15
rumors and and speculation and and people saying well there there could be a body in this
00:49:22
backyard well they've had plenty of time to move it law enforcement says oh well we don't
00:49:29
believe that his body was in the water well you could move the body and put it in the
00:49:35
water so there might have been answers that they could have found at one time at one time but that doesn't mean
00:49:44
that people haven't um tampered with the evidence even more since being question and hearing
00:49:53
these rumors coming from law enforc M and like you said there's still a lot of hold back information but we believe
00:49:59
that law enforcement thinks if they could find a body that they could bring charges to these individuals so please
00:50:08
please please remember Rob Mooney Rob 29 years old who was ambushed killed and body
00:50:18
concealed since 1996 if you have any information regarding the murder of Rob Mooney or if
00:50:26
you can provide a lead or a tip so that his body can be found and recovered please call Westerville police detective
00:50:35
grubs at 61491 6881 if you are not comfortable speaking with law enforcement you can go to our
00:50:48
website truecrime garage.com please if anybody has information please pass it along and the
00:50:57
Westerville police phone number will be listed in this week's show [Music] notes want to thank each and every one
00:51:15
of you for joining us here in the garage Colonel do we have any recommended reading this week Captain we are
00:51:20
recommending tantamount the pursuit of the freeway Phantom series Killer by Blaine parau and Victoria Hester I've
00:51:29
got to say these two are probably the best in True Crime writing today I am blown away by their books they're
00:51:38
amazing their research is second to none tantam out is about the freeway Phantom
00:51:44
who was stalking the streets of our nation's capital back in 1971 and 1972 still an unsolved case about a deadly
00:51:53
predator who stalk walking the streets and leaving the remains of his victims along busy roadways in plain view some
00:52:01
of the victims were held captive for several days if you enjoy reading if you enjoy True Crime if you enjoy audible
00:52:09
you'll want to make sure that you check out tantamount the pursuit of the freeway Phantom serial killer by the
00:52:14
great Blaine parau and Victoria Hester you can find that title and many other wonderful recommendations on our
00:52:22
recommended page truecrime garage.com and then until next week be good be kind and don't
00:52:28
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