ward-Winning True Crime Writer, Coach & Victim’s Advocate
Synova is an award-winning crime writer with over 300 cases under her belt. (Or pen, whatever!) One of her books was even endorsed by a retired FBI Agent! To top it all off, a flag was flown over the Capitol in Washington D.C. to honor her cold case work!!!
She is Southwest Missouri's #1 True Crime Writer/Blogger. She is the author of 15 published books and has been featured on the Discovery Channel and other documentaries.
Now, after a 3-year hiatus from the world of true crime, a famous cold case Synova worked on for years is back in the news. Synova picked up her old fedora and is back on the case.
Madeline Edman, 15 went missing from La Crosse, Wisconsin on July 29, 2005. Madeline and her mother were doing laundry at the local laundromat on the corner of St. James & Calendonia St. Madi decided to leave before her mother was finished and walked out the door. Her mother thought nothing of it but began to get worried when the teenager hadn’t returned home by that evening. Kathy Edman filed a missing person’s report for her daughter, but no clues ever emerged.
Some reports say her grandmother thinks the teenager isn’t missing at all. She thinks the girl wanted to disappear. Due to her troubled childhood, and her mother’s arrests; perhaps this is the case, but as a child, someone needs to care and look for her. It’s not like she’s an adult and made this decision. The local police agree with my point of view on this case. Her case is classed as a “possible endangered runaway,” but the police haven’t ruled out homicide, or human trafficking.
The authorities have created an age progression photo hoping to generate leads. If Madi is still in the area of La Crosse, there hasn’t been official sightings to verify it.
I find it strange that a teenager can go missing, and yet her own family assumes she ran away. If you travel down Calendonia street, you will come across a Catholic church. Could this troubled teen have sought refuge there? Has any investigation gone in this angle? I don’t know, but I think it would be a good place to start. Maybe someone felt sorry for her and helped her disappear.
Two months after her daughter’s disappearance, Kathy Edman was arrested and charged with encouraging or contributing to the delinquency of a child, drug possession, and distribution to a child under 17.
In 2008, a body was recovered only 172 miles away from the laundromat that closely resembled the missing teen. It was later ruled out, and Madeline Edman’s case remains unsolved. If you have any information, please contact:
WISCONSIN CLEARINGHOUSE FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN & ADULTS 1-800-THE-HOPE
Watch Synova’s Chasing Justice Video About This Case:
Follow the heart-rending cases Synova first wrote about on her blog in 2018. Filled with missing persons’ cases, unsolved homicides, and even serial killer cases, this book will give you a greater insight into the shattered lives behind every story. Cases Included in this book: Jayme Closs, Haley Owens, Josh Robinson, Timothy Cunningham, Carol Blades, Pam Hupp, Arthur Ream, Angela Hammond, The Springfield Three, Jennifer Harris, Danny King, Angie Yarnell, Jack Robinson, Madelin Edman, Alexis Patterson, Amber Wilde, Sandra Bertolas, Jennifer Casper-Ross, Crystal Soulier, Jody Ricard, Carmen Owens, Brandon Tyree McCullough & The I-70 Serial Killer
It was a quiet Monday morning at a local mall in Phoenix, Arizona. The employees were recovering from the mad rush of Black Friday events, and the busy shopping season was well underway. An armored truck was busy making its rounds picking up the weekend’s receipts when it pulled into the parking lot of the AMC movie theater. Robert “Keith” Palomares, 24 was the truck’s “hopper” so he jumped from the vehicle and headed inside never realizing this would be his last day on Earth. He was being hunted by a Murderous Missionary.
As the guard exited the theater a hooded thief pulled out a .45 semi-automatic Glock and shot six times hitting the unsuspecting guard in the head with five of the six rounds. He was down immediately without a chance to defend himself. As the young man lay bleeding to death the thief mounted a blue and silver mountain bike and took off down the alleyway. Palomares died on the scene. He was a newlywed of only 15 months.
The police had little to go on in this case in the way of forensic evidence until the gunman’s bike was found stashed under a bush only half a mile away. The man had forgotten to wipe the handles for fingerprints, but this evidence would bring even more questions.
Witnesses had described the shooter as a Hispanic male in his mid-twenties, but the evidence showed a 35-year-old Mormon surfer boy. Jason Derek Brown wasn’t your typical street thug. By all accounts, it looked like he was raised in a good, financially stable, family in Laguna Beach. His family are active Mormons. Brown spent two years as a missionary in France after high school. He got married and then enrolled in the master’s program at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies. It seemed like he had a good life ahead of him, but somewhere in the 1990’s he changed.
Brown divorced his wife and took his party life on the road. He collected lavish cars, ATVs, and toys, but no one ever seen him go to work. Somehow, he always had a boat load of cash. Over the next ten years, Brown traveled around the U.S. creating various scams to fund his lavish lifestyle. Still, how does a Mormon missionary turn into a scheming conman and then into a cold-blooded killer? Perhaps it was his financial troubles, or perhaps it was a drug addiction. We may never know, but in Phoenix, Arizona Brown had morphed into a murderous killer stalking his prey. He went out and purchased a hand gun and took his conceal and carry course that day. He stayed at a friend’s house for a week and stalked the armored truck to learn its routes. The day before the murder, Brown left his friend without explanation and rented a hotel room. The day before the murder, Brown took his gun out to the desert for some target practice.
During this practice session he inadvertently shot a man’s vehicle and promised to pay for the damages. Brown gave Max Newton his name, address, and phone number and promised to send a check if Newton would get an estimate of the damage. Fast forward within a few hours of the shooting and Brown gets the phone call from Newton. Again, Brown calmly promised to send Newton a cashier’s check. The price for the repairs was $1300.
Before the robbery, Brown parked his BMW a mile from the movie theater and pulls out his mountain bike. Witnesses at his hotel remember him trying to fit the large bike into the two-seater. Brown takes out across the alleyway and ends up at the theater and waits. He kills the guard, takes the money, hops on his bike and is well out of the area before the police arrive on scene.
With all the evidence one would think Jason Brown would be rotting in a jail cell somewhere, but that’s not the case. After his picture is seen on the news, Brown takes off towards Mexico leaving an electronic trail of credit card purchases along the way. The FBI is in hot pursuit until the trail goes cold. Somehow his Cadillac Escalade is found abandoned not at the Mexican border, but in Portland Oregon. The FBI believe he crossed over into Canada and no one has seen him since. Strangely, Max Newman received a cashier’s check in the mail for $1,300 just as promised.
It’s been almost 20 years. Brown speaks fluent French, and some speculate that he could have returned to Paris. Others wonder if he is hiding in the Mormon community. Whatever the case, Jason Brown has not paid for his crimes and was placed on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list on December 8, 2007. He is one of the few people to be taken off the list without being captured. As of December 2022, he was taken off the list. It was determined that he no longer fit the criteria. That doesn’t mean he’s no longer a threat, but it does mean that he’s not getting as much marketing as a top-ten criminal.
As always if you have any information regarding Jason Derek Brown please contact your local FBI office. 1-800- CALLFBI
Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.
Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life (Synova’s Case Files Series)
Follow the heart-rending cases Synova first wrote about on her blog in 2018. Filled with missing persons’ cases, unsolved homicides, and even serial killer cases, this book will give you a greater insight into the shattered lives behind every story. Cases Included in this book: Jayme Closs, Haley Owens, Josh Robinson, Timothy Cunningham, Carol Blades, Pam Hupp, Arthur Ream, Angela Hammond, The Springfield Three, Jennifer Harris, Danny King, Angie Yarnell, Jack Robinson, Madelin Edman, Alexis Patterson, Amber Wilde, Sandra Bertolas, Jennifer Casper-Ross, Crystal Soulier, Jody Ricard, Carmen Owens, Brandon Tyree McCullough & The I-70 Serial Killer
Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
In the cold early morning hours of February 28th, 2022, a 911 call came to Madison County operators at approximately 4:40 AM. A young man named Timmy Dees told the operator he was being threatened by a friend who had brought him to Fredericktown earlier that evening.
Sadly, this phone call was not recorded because the recording equipment went down the December before, and they wouldn’t get new equipment installed until mid-March. But whatever the reason for the equipment malfunction, it does not excuse the fact that they didn’t follow standard procedure and keep an operator on the line with Timmy until police arrived on scene. If they had, Timmy might still be alive today. We would at least have a better idea of what happened to him on that cold winter night.
According to the 911 incident report, the officer showed up at the scene at 4:48 AM, but Timmy was nowhere to be found. Strangely, the officer didn’t even look for him. The friend that was supposed to be threatening him was there. (We will call him Mr. C.) Mr C. and the other two men at the house all said Timmy left a short time earlier.
Mr. C. had warrants out for his arrest for unrelated issues. The officer decided to arrest him on the spot and took him to jail. No one went out into the night to look for Timmy. Later, the officer would give an interview and claim that he figured the conflict was over because the man told him Timmy wasn’t there.
Timmy’s mother, Barbara, would become concerned after not hearing from her son for a few days. He had been talking to her nearly every day since his brother had died several months before. Now she hadn’t heard from him in days. Barbara called in a missing persons report for her son on March 2nd.
Timmy Dees was last seen at 1:30 AM on surveillance video at a local gas station. He withdrew $160 from the ATM and bought a round of Gatorades for his friends. They played the slot machines at the station for a while and then disappeared from video. Strangely, Barbara was able to dig up a receipt from Timmy’s card. I don’t know how she acquired the receipt, and frankly, I didn’t ask. This receipt shows Timmy’s card was tried three times at 9:11 AM that next morning, approximately four and a half hours after the 911 call. At first, it was theorized that someone had tried to use it with the wrong PIN number, but I doubt it. The receipt says, “failed to read EMV card. (3 failures)” That makes me think someone swiped the card, but the machine couldn’t read it. Whatever the case, it was used several hours after Timmy was last seen, and no one knows who tried to use it.
Over the next few weeks and months, Barbara would fight and organize six searches without the police department’s help. They even brought in search dogs, which the local PD was not happy about. Just across the side road from the property where Timmy called is a set of storage units. During one of the searches, one of the search dogs alearted at two units, numbers five and six.
One storage unit was opened and searched, but the police wouldn’t allow the other one to open even though they had the owner’s permission. While everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon here and shout “police corruption,” I suggest you wait for a minute. There’s a difference between a civilian search and a law enforcement search. In order to do a “lawful” search without a warrant, police must have permission from not only the owner but also the renter. If they did not have both, then the police couldn’t have lawfully broken into that storage unit. Barbara was told the high school resource officer had rented the second storage unit. I just want to know why a warrant wasn’t pursued so they could legally get into that unit.
screenshot of thekansascitystar.com
Five months later, on July 21st, 2022, Timmy’s body would be found 184 yards away from the house where he made the phone call. That is slightly over half of a football field away. Just to be fair here, I must note that the exact location of the phone call was never determined. The basic location was surmised from the cell tower his phone pinged off of. Either way, it was less than a football field away from the house the police were called to that morning.
His remains were skeletonized by this point. He had some strange things in his pocket, including a yellow device, which some people claim to be a tracking device. To me, it looks a lot like the key fob I have to get into my local gym. Barbara said it’s not his, whatever it is. Just to add to this mystery, his wallet and debit card were in his pants pocket when he was found. How could someone have used it nearly 5 hours later, and it winds up in his pocket?
Barbara is called in and she snaps pictures of her son’s bones. One of his teeth was missing, and his permanent retainer was gone. By the time she sees him in the funeral home, his tooth has been replaced, and everything looks good. And yet, on the report, they do not report that he ever had a tooth missing. Also, there’s a small, unusual hole right behind his front teeth. Of course, no one seems to care about that either. Or the fact that his lower jaw is a completely different color than the rest of his skeletal remains. I contend if they were in the same environment, deteriorating at the same time, they would have all been basically the same color. I’m curious to see if that lower jaw even belongs to Timmy. If it doesn’t, why would someone change it? I contend if it was changed, it was to cover up the truth.
Despite all of this, the police still cannot tell Barbara what happened to her son in the early hours before dawn. They said they didn’t see any stab wounds on the bones. They didn’t see any bullet holes in the bones. So they’ve just left it undetermined.
Barbara is still fighting for justice in this case. She got some help from an ex-CSI named Mr. Steve. Together, they are still gathering evidence and have presented it to the prosecuting attorney in hopes of getting him to reopen the case. But how can this case be solved now? I have four different things that I think they can do to help solve it.
One month after Timmy went missing, someone logged into his Facebook page. It shows a “check-in” at Fredericktown on March 27, 2022. Someone should check the IP address and see who logged into his account and what device they used. That might generate leads.
Next, I would like someone to really investigate the tiny hole behind his top teeth. It’s suspiciously placed right behind that tooth that was missing for a while. Could that have been made by a small caliber handgun?
Thirdly, I think someone should run down the lead and see where that card was used at 9:11 AM. Where was it used? Are there any surveillance cameras in the area?
Fourth, I think someone should run a DNA test on those reappearing teeth and make sure they are Timmy’s. Maybe they aren’t, and this case could be taken down another path.
I don’t know if law enforcement will pick up this case again or follow these leads, but I can guarantee you one thing. Barbara will continue to fight for answers until the day she leaves this Earth.
Photo courstesy of Timmy’s family
Barbara has a petition with Change.org to gather signatures in the hope of getting Timmy’s case reopened. Please follow the link in the back of this book and sign the petition. Together, we can make a difference for this grieving mother.
Chaos rules in a small Southeastern Missouri County. Madison County spans 500 square miles and has a population of approximately 13,000 people. The county seat is Fredericktown with a population of approximately 4,000 people. This rural county should be a safe place in beautiful Americana, but it hides a dark secret. Fredericktown is one of the most dangerous places to live in America. Check out this quote from neighborhoodscout.com.
“With a crime rate of 31 per one thousand residents, Fredericktown has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 32.”
I started researching one case sent to me by a desperate grandmother. That case led me to fifteen more. Then I realized this county has had murder, corruption, and chaos since before the Wild West days. This book will start with a lynching by a Fredericktown mob in 1844. Hold onto your seats when you read this one. You’re in for a wild, chaotic ride through rural Missouri.
(This Blog is an excerpt from Synova’s Book Madhouse Madison County)
In 1989, a young girl was snatched off the side of the road in Fredericktown, Missouri. Law enforcement did its best to find her, but the evidence was slim, and unfortunately, she’s still missing to this day. I didn’t work directly with the family in this case, so I cannot include a picture, but they are readily available online. Her name was Gina Dawn Brooks. She was a beautiful 13-year-old girl with brownish-blond hair and green eyes. Here is an overview of her story. Like every cold case I research, there are so many details that an entire book could be written about Gina. But that is not the point of this book. We are here to establish a pattern of corruption and lawlessness over a long period of time.
Let me start by saying that I don’t believe corruption was involved in this case. Everyone seemed to work hard trying to find this teenager. After researching this case and talking to a few people, I believe strangers were in town looking to score some drugs and saw the beautiful little girl on her bicycle.
August 5th, 1989
Gina returned home at 10:00 PM after spending the evening watching her brother’s baseball ball game. Gina’s mother told her children good night and then went to take a hot bath before bed. But Gina wasn’t ready for bed. It was the last few weeks before summer vacation would be over, and school would be starting soon. It was a warm night, and she wanted to see her boyfriend, TJ, who lived a few blocks away. She hopped on a bicycle and told her brother, who was playing video games, that she would return before Mom got out of the bathtub. Unfortunately, she would never make it to TJ’s house, and she wouldn’t make it back home either.
According to witnesses, a dark-colored station wagon pulled beside her near the Baptist church on College Ave. She rode on, but the beat-up vehicle followed. Her scream would be heard a short time later. Police would find her abandoned bike on the High Street. It was only five blocks from home. Without warning, Gina Brooks had disappeared from small-town America. The entire population was only 4,000 people, and she knew almost everyone. Surely, this was a safe place. How could this happen? It might have seemed like a safe place, but a predator lurked in the shadows.
I’ll try to establish a timeline of events in this case. Keep in mind that thousands of leads were chased down in this case. I will be highlighting the bigger ones that made the local newspapers.
September 7, 1989:
Gina’s stepfather offers a $20,000 reward in hopes of generating leads for law enforcement. Many tips come in, but they lead nowhere. Still, each lead was researched. One lead came in a few days after the reward was posted, and it led to a blood-soaked mattress in a run-down motel in St. Francis County. Samples were taken and sent for testing, but nothing tied it to Gina’s disappearance.
September 14, 1989:
The Wayne County Journal Banner published the newly released composite sketch. It was created by putting a witness under hypnosis, but it’s hard to say how accurate it was considering the fact that the witness saw a man in a beat-up station wagon at 10:30 PM. Not to mention, it was from a distance.
November 10, 1989:
A local true crime show, Missing: Reward, aired the Gina Dawn Brooks case and generated another round of leads for the sheriff’s office to chase down. Missing: Reward only had ten episodes and aired from 1989-1992. It was popular locally but was quickly overtaken by the national hit Unsolved Mysteries.
December 28, 1989:
A local businessman adds $5,000 to the reward in hopes of finding Gina.
February 6, 1990:
According to the Lake Sun Leader, the FBI made an unusual move and sent a mass-form letter to all the postal customers of the Fredericktown Post Office. This letter went over the basics of Gina’s case and asked the public for leads, but very few turned up.
December, 1990:
At some point in December 1990, an anonymous letter showed up for law enforcement. It gives tips on where to find Gina and even seems to have information that is unknown to the public. Unfortunately, this lead dried up quickly, and law enforcement didn’t get any more letters from the anonymous source.
August, 1991:
Law enforcement searched the garage of Al Loness in St. Louis. The papers don’t make it clear how it was tied to Gina’s case, but it would appear to be a credible connection at the time because of the man’s record and some of his associates.
September 5, 1991:
When law enforcement receives an anonymous phone call about the Gina Brooks case, they follow it through, even if it seems like a slim chance. This time, it seemed legit, though. The caller claimed to have insider knowledge of the case and said Gina’s body would be found within 500ft behind the junkyard owner’s house.
The junkyard in question was on HWY 34 near Hiram, Missouri. The owner’s last name was Spade, and he also had connections with Al Loness. The caller said the body would be found near a pond in the junkyard, and strangely, Spade had just hauled in a few loads of dirt to cover the bottom of the pond.
Thirty law enforcement officials from the FBI and surrounding counties descended on the junkyard. They brought in dogs and searched the pond. Nothing was found other than a few dead animal carcasses. An old station wagon was found amongst the junk, but it was quickly ruled out as the getaway vehicle.
Although Spade bought scrap metal from people, including Loness, he didn’t fit the suspect description, and nothing was found on his property. It was another dried-up lead for the Gina Dawn Brooks case.
July 25, 1996:
A tip came in from a woman who said she had seen a vision while praying. She said Gina and the station wagon were submerged in 30ft of water. At this point, it really didn’t matter where the lead came from; law enforcement was desperate to find out what happened to Gina, so they followed the lead.
An abandoned quarry near Elephant Rocks in nearby Iron County, Missouri, was drained over the course of four days in hopes of finding Gina. The search yielded four cars, but none of them were the car they needed. According to the Wayne County Journal Banner, they did find human remains, though. They weren’t Ginas, but they were a man’s remains wrapped in a green plastic bag. They were hoping it might have been the remains of Roger Miller, 69, who had gone missing from a town 80 miles away. Mr. Miller is still missing, so I assume the test results returned negative. I couldn’t find anything to show who the remains belonged to.
September 12, 1998:
Nine years would pass before an arrest was finally made. Surely, this meant justice would come soon, but nothing could be further from the truth. In 1996, a man by the name of Bryant Squires was dying of cancer and on his deathbed and decided he needed to come clean. He told the nurses some terrible tales about eleven murders, including a confession about Gina. He also implicated two of his friends. He admitted that he was the driver in the beat-up station wagon seen stalking Gina in Fredericktown that night. He also named two other men. Nathan D. “Danny” Williams and Timothy R. Bellow.
Both of them have extensive records for raping and murdering little girls. So why haven’t we seen Justice in this case? Brian Squires, The man who confessed, died shortly after his confession. And then Bello tended to like to play with the police. He sent the FBI on a wild goose chase, claiming to know where the body was. He had them convinced that Gina was buried in a freezer full of rotten deer meat on his family property. They spent a massive amount of resources chasing down that lead, only to find out that Bellow had lied.
He was convicted of lying to the FBI and got to serve another 30 months for lying to the police. Both of these men have gone on to be convicted of other rapes and murders, but it doesn’t seem there is enough evidence to actually tie these two men to Gina. Since some of the statements turned out to be untrue, the police know they can’t go off the statements alone. A good defense attorney would tear their case apart based on that alone. It was heartbreaking for the family.
In 1998, they had gotten their hopes up when Williams was charged with Gina’s murder. Now, in 2003, the charges were dropped. It wasn’t because everyone didn’t believe he was guilty; they were just afraid of the double jeopardy law. If they took Williams to court and lost, they could never try him again for her murder. He was serving life in prison for the rape and murder of another young girl, so he wasn’t going anywhere.
That’s where the case sat when I started researching cases in Madison County earlier this year, but all of that may be about to change because while I am writing this book, 35 years later, the police are digging in Bellinger County. Reports indicate they transported an inmate to aid in the search. Although the dig site has been closed, they have reported no human remains were found. They said evidence had been found and would be sent for analysis. Hopefully, by the time this book is published, I’m going to have to have it reprinted because we have found the answers this poor family needs. I will keep you posted on this one, guys.
Check Out Synova’s Chasing Justice Video On This Case:
Chaos rules in a small Southeastern Missouri County. Madison County spans 500 square miles and has a population of approximately 13,000 people. The county seat is Fredericktown with a population of approximately 4,000 people. This rural county should be a safe place in beautiful Americana, but it hides a dark secret. Fredericktown is one of the most dangerous places to live in America. Check out this quote from neighborhoodscout.com.
“With a crime rate of 31 per one thousand residents, Fredericktown has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 32.”
I started researching one case sent to me by a desperate grandmother. That case led me to fifteen more. Then I realized this county has had murder, corruption, and chaos since before the Wild West days. This book will start with a lynching by a Fredericktown mob in 1844. Hold onto your seats when you read this one. You’re in for a wild, chaotic ride through rural Missouri.
She walked out of her motel room with her little dog, Precious, was seen at a nearby gas station, and then went to a local campground with an acquaintance. Laynee and her dog were never seen again.
Laynee Westbrook, is a 41-year-old woman from Anacortes, Washington. She was currently staying at the San Juan Motel on 6th Avenue. Laynee had no children, but she had a rat terrier named Precious that she carried around with her everywhere she went.
Google Earth Screenshot
Just after 7 p.m. on September 10th, she was seen on surveillance leaving the motel and getting into a white Dodge Ram. She was seen again at 7:30 at the Swinomish Chevron gas station a mere eight miles away. That was the last time her debit card or her cell phone was used.
Google Earth Screenshot
Police have identified the man she was last seen with. He has been questioned, and this is the story he gave. Other than the surveillance camera footage, we have no way to verify this with the information that has been given to the public. To make things simple, I’m going to call this man Mr. J.
Mr. J picked up Laynee at the San Juan Motel, and then they drove to the gas station in front of the Swinomish Casino. Laynee picked up some groceries there, and then they traveled further south to the Thousand Trails Campground, where Mr. J had an RV.
Google Earth Screenshot
There, they had drinks and dinner, but around 2 a.m. Laynee decided she was ready to go home. Mr. J then states he took her back to Anacortes. He did not, however, drop her off at her motel door. He dropped her off at the Causland Memorial Park on North Avenue, approximately two blocks from her motel.
What happened to Laynee and Precious on September 10th?
Anacortes is a town in Washington located on Fidalgo Island. The city has fewer than 18,000 residents, and only a handful of officers maintain law and order. On the evening in question, several disturbance calls were made to the local park ranger from the Thousand Trails campground. The ranger later verified that he receives 20 to 30 calls a night from that Campground. He did go by the RV where Laynee was supposedly staying, but everything was calm, and he did not go in.
So, what happened to Laynee and her dog? In a small community like Anacortes, the conspiracy theories run wild, but it is essential to remember that the facts need to lead the investigation. You cannot let the rumor mill or emotions lead the investigation.
Renee Westbrook was last seen wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, and white sandals. She is 5 foot 9 in tall, has big hazel eyes, and weighs approximately 120 lb. If you have any information about Laynee or her dog, please contact the Anacortes tip line. If you are uncomfortable with leaving your name, they will accept your tip anonymously. Please remember any information you have may seem irrelevant in itself, but it may be the final piece to the puzzle.
Follow me on Rumble:
Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for The Racketeer, Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.
Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life (Synova’s Case Files Series)
Follow the heart-rending cases Synova first wrote about on her blog in 2018. Filled with missing persons’ cases, unsolved homicides, and even serial killer cases, this book will give you a greater insight into the shattered lives behind every story. Cases Included in this book: Jayme Closs, Haley Owens, Josh Robinson, Timothy Cunningham, Carol Blades, Pam Hupp, Arthur Ream, Angela Hammond, The Springfield Three, Jennifer Harris, Danny King, Angie Yarnell, Jack Robinson, Madelin Edman, Alexis Patterson, Amber Wilde, Sandra Bertolas, Jennifer Casper-Ross, Crystal Soulier, Jody Ricard, Carmen Owens, Brandon Tyree McCullough & The I-70 Serial Killer
This blog is an excerpt from Synova’s book “Madhouse Madison County.” More information after blog post
Please keep an open mind and decide if this was an accident or if it was murder; I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
July 15th, 2010:
Someone placed his unconscious, broken body across the lane on Highway 72 in the early morning hours before dawn. Nineteen-year-old Douglas Teel had taken a beating and was bleeding internally, but it wouldn’t last long. It was just a matter of time before an oncoming car would destroy any evidence of the truth. A brutal homicide would suddenly become a tragic accident, and the murderers would walk free. No one knows where this devious plan originated, but it would soon work out precisely as planned.
At 3:30 am, their plan was complete as a young woman hurried along the road trying to get her boyfriend to his scheduled carpool meeting for work. The fog made it hard to see what lay ahead, but soon, the disturbing sight was in front of her. A body lay perfectly across her lane in the road. Alarmed, she jerked hard on the steering wheel, but it was too late. The right front tire hit Doug Teel’s head, and it was over. The coverup was complete. All that was left to do now was to convince the mother that her son died in a terrible accident. That would be harder to do. No one would ever persuade Karen that her son laid down on the road to take a nap and got hit by a car. I don’t know any mother that would believe that kind of nonsense. No one in their right mind would lie down on the road to sleep. Doug wasn’t high on anything.
Sadly, no one in law enforcement questioned why the autopsy results didn’t match the accident reports. No one asked why there was internal bleeding. How can a person bleed internally when the heart stops instantly once the brain dies? No one questioned it, no one except his poor mother. She’s still fighting to this day. What really happened in those brutal hours before dawn just outside of Fredericktown?
I know this sounds like a fictional tale, but a young man named Doug was hit in the road just outside of Fredericktown. His autopsy didn’t seem to match the narrative. There’s the truth. There are so many unanswered questions, but everything I print has to say “allegedly” at this point because nothing has been proven in a court of law. I swear, I need to buy a big red, rubber stamp and print the word “allegedly” across every page of this book. Read on if you dare.
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On a muggy summer evening, Doug Teal was walking home from a friend’s house. At this point in his life, he didn’t have a vehicle of his own, so he was still sharing a vehicle with his parents. He had a good job selling custom knives and had just spent the evening with his coworkers and friends. He had gotten a promotion and was recognized as a top salesman in his company. It looked like life was starting to come together for this young man.
After the work party, Doug rode home with a friend, and we will call him G.A. since everything is “alleged” at this point. His friend stopped by his house before taking Doug home. After getting to the house, G.A. claimed there was something wrong with his gas tank, and he didn’t have enough fuel to take Doug the last few miles to his home. Doug was frustrated because he had purchased gas for his friend earlier in the evening. Aggravated but not wanting to wait around, Doug decided to walk home. It wasn’t very far, and he should have been home between 3:30 AM and 3:45 AM He had walked home many times. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
Unfortunately, things would be different this night. While walking along Highway 72 outside of town, he was attacked and then laid out on the highway to be hit by a car at 3:30 AM Terrified and in disbelief, the driver raced on down the road, hoping she was wrong and hadn’t seen a man on the road. Surely, it was a deer that she hit. That’s a better probability, right? But as she drove back home after dropping off her boyfriend, she discovered the gruesome truth and called the police.
The town coroner arrived at Doug’s home to inform the family of the terrible news around 7:20 AM Strangely, the coroner informs Doug’s mom that he believes Doug had already expired before he was laid on the highway. Later on, the coroner would say that this was just a terrible accident and recant his statements to the mother.
Was this simply a slip of the tongue, or was his mind changed after all the evidence was collected? Who knows? Either way, it’s unprofessional of him to say such things during an open investigation. Of course, the mother would cling to his words like a lifeline, and those statements gave her hope that her son would get justice. That’s why keeping your opinions and emotions to yourself is essential until the evidence is collected and the investigation is completed.
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Nobody could understand how this could happen. Doug had walked home hundreds of times at all hours of the day; why did he end up dead on the road this time? Karen, Doug’s mother, told police that her son had been being threatened by some local young men, but the information didn’t lead to any progress in the case. Who wanted Doug taken out and why? There had been some issues over a local girl, but they seemed to have been worked out long ago.
An autopsy was ordered on Doug even though the sheriff claimed there was nothing to investigate. Karen had kicked up enough of a fuss that it forced them to do something. The autopsy report clearly states, “The external view of the body shows no trauma to the body other than the head and neck.” This statement verified the driver’s information when she said her tire only hit the head. She swears she did not run over the entirety of the body.
Unfortunately, the internal examination would show a lot more discrepancies. His sternum was fractured. He had three broken ribs, and he had scattered pulmonary contusions on the right side of his body. This means he had been hit hard several times. Doug had soft tissue hemorrhages, liver lacerations, left kidney lacerations, and multiple lacerations to the spleen. This means that he was hit in the liver area, the kidney area, and the spleen area. The car did not run over him and back up two or three times. Please take note of the language used in this report. It doesn’t say these things were crushed. It says lacerations, meaning that they were hit and wounds were left behind. It would be easy here to dismiss the driver’s testimony and just say she was mistaken. Maybe she did hit Doug’s body and not just his head, but if that were true, you’d have seen evidence on the external examination. The report clearly states there’s no external trauma to the body. Besides, if the internal organs were hit by a car, they would be crushed.
Another damaging report shows 300 mL of blood and fluid in the right pleural space. The pleural space is the space between your lungs, your rib cage, and your muscles. He had a good deal of internal bleeding. In all, he had 600 mL of blood and fluid. Why was he bleeding internally? Of course, this answer was never given to the poor grieving family.
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So, let’s go on to the call logs for Doug’s phone, surely that will tell us something. Remember, while he was walking home, he was actually talking to people by phone and by text messages. His phone was dying so he limited his conversations to text messages toward the end.
1:47 am – tells girlfriend that he’s going to walk home
1:57 am – G.A. texts and apologizes for not taking him home and tries to smooth things over.
1:57 am – Doug says it was fine and asks his friend to bring his stuff that was left in his car
1:58 am – last text to girlfriend
Doug’s phone continues to receive messages from people, but after 1:58 am, none of them receive a reply. He should have been almost home by 3:30, but he seemed to fall off the map just before 2 am. That is until his body is found on the road by a speeding car.
There are so many unanswered questions, but once the case was labeled as a hit and run accident, no one seemed to care anything about investigating the case further.
It didn’t matter that Doug was being threatened at the time or that his injuries didn’t match. While officials didn’t investigate, the worried mother continued to collect evidence. Unfortunately, this evidence would be destroyed on Thanksgiving weekend, just four months after her son’s death. A fire raged through her home in the wee hours of the morning. Karen was gone from home, but the house was a total loss. To make matters even worse, all of the evidence she had collected was destroyed.
Like all of the cases I cover, there’s so much more we can discuss about this case. The rumor mill alone could fill up this entire book, but whatever he said, she said, they did, doesn’t really matter. What’s important now is for someone to step up and investigate this case from the beginning. We need someone who isn’t connected to the local town gossip, someone qualified and non-biased.
I’d like to say that this case is currently being investigated by someone, but it is not. Karen has spent fourteen years trying to get someone to pay attention. What do you think? Do you think this man laid down to take a nap on the road and was hit by a car? If so, I have some snake oil that cures cancer. It only cost ten bucks a bottle.
Photo courtesy of Doug Teel’s Family
Check Out Synova’s Chasing Justice Video On This Case:
Chaos rules in a small Southeastern Missouri County. Madison County spans 500 square miles and has a population of approximately 13,000 people. The county seat is Fredericktown with a population of approximately 4,000 people. This rural county should be a safe place in beautiful Americana, but it hides a dark secret. Fredericktown is one of the most dangerous places to live in America. Check out this quote from neighborhoodscout.com.
“With a crime rate of 31 per one thousand residents, Fredericktown has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 32.”
I started researching one case sent to me by a desperate grandmother. That case led me to fifteen more. Then I realized this county has had murder, corruption, and chaos since before the Wild West days. This book will start with a lynching by a Fredericktown mob in 1844. Hold onto your seats when you read this one. You’re in for a wild, chaotic ride through rural Missouri.
A rugged outdoorsman goes on a 3-day hiking trip in the wilderness near Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
A few months earlier, Kenny Veach had stumbled upon a mysterious cave in the shape of a giant M. The ground shook near Area 51’s bomb testing grounds, but that didn’t bother him; neither did the military drones. But as he neared the cave, a strange sensation washed over him. He said it felt like his body was vibrating. He quickly left the area.
This sparked a massive online debate. Was Kenny Veach lying? Was he dehydrated and hallucinating? Or did he stumble upon something he wasn’t supposed to see that day? Either way, the internet pushed him to find the cave again and, this time, take his camera.
That November morning, he was on a mission. He would find the cave and prove to the internet trolls that he wasn’t lying and it wasn’t all a hallucination. Unfortunately, Kenny would walk off into the Nevada wilderness and never be seen again. This case is rife with conspiracy theories, trolls, and drama, but at the core of it, we have a missing person’s case that is still unsolved 10 years later. Grab your tinfoil hats, people! We’re heading to Nevada.
Kenny Veach was no stranger to the desert. He would spend days out there alone, hiking through the wilderness, picking up odds and ends of things as souvenirs. He would bring them home and decorate his house with them, and tell other people about it. Here is a direct quote from a couple of his comments on YouTube.
“I solo hike across mountain tops that most people wouldn’t dare go. I have been in more caves than I can count. I play with rattlesnakes for fun. But this one particular cave was beyond anything I had ever encountered.”
“I have been doing this sort of thing for over 20 years. I go where no one goes, and I never take anyone with me. I find skulls of all shapes and sizes, and occasionally, I find really old animal traps. I hike over mountain top after mountain top and sleep on peaks under the stars. Sometimes, I have to scale giant cliffs to get myself out of a jam, but I always make it back. I’m beat up and tired, and my pack is almost always heavier than when I left. I had to be rescued only one time by a helicopter. I had blown out my left leg at the top of the mountain, and I only had a cup of water left to get me 20 miles back to my truck. It was also over 100 degrees out. So I have a very good safety record.”
Kenny’s rambling comments seemed a bit over the top. While he probably thought these types of comments made him look big and tough, in reality, they show how reckless his hiking trips really were.
Strangely, after his disappearance, a woman who claimed to be his girlfriend got on his YouTube channel and posted big, long comments about how she believed he committed suicide and that she was trying to find closure and was moving on with her life. She recommends that anyone who goes out to the desert looking for Kenny be a little more cautious and take a GPS with them.
Ten years have passed, and hundreds of people have looked through the wilderness trying to find the infamous M-Cave and Kenny, but no one has found definitive proof of either. One Youtuber claimed he found the cave, but it was walled up with rocks. Another one claimed to have found it, but it now has a restricted sign on it. No one knows for sure. However, while these theories are interesting, we need to remember that this is a case of a missing person. This man clearly had mental health issues, and now he’s missing.
In his strange videos, Kenny tries to sell some off-the-wall inventions and even tries to sell himself along with his house. Yes, you read that right. Kenny tried to sell himself and his house in a video I will link here. He wanted someone to buy his home and pay him to be the caretaker. (Kenny’s Youtube Channel)
To me, Kenny seems like a nice guy, but maybe a little off. He seems to have constantly been trying to prove himself and always fell short. Why did he need to prove himself to the internet trolls anyway? Did they push this poor man to be even more extreme in his last hike into the Nevada desert? I think so.
Check out my latest True Crime Tuesday video below. The team and I cover Kenny’s strange case and discuss the various theories surrounding his disappearance. Let me know what you think. What do you think happened to Kenny Veach?
Chaos rules in a small Southeastern Missouri County. Madison County spans 500 square miles and has a population of approximately 13,000 people. The county seat is Fredericktown with a population of approximately 4,000 people. This rural county should be a safe place in beautiful Americana, but it hides a dark secret. Fredericktown is one of the most dangerous places to live in America. Check out this quote from neighborhoodscout.com.
“With a crime rate of 31 per one thousand residents, Fredericktown has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 32.”
I started researching one case sent to me by a desperate grandmother. That case led me to fifteen more. Then I realized this county has had murder, corruption, and chaos since before the Wild West days. This book will start with a lynching by a Fredericktown mob in 1844. Hold onto your seats when you read this one. You’re in for a wild, chaotic ride through rural Missouri.
Marianne Asher-Chapman spent her life depending on that concept. She searched for her daughter Angie Yarnell for nearly 20 years until she passed away earlier this year. She carried a shovel in the trunk of her car, so she was ready to dig at a moment’s notice. Why would this poor mother have to search after a man confessed to killing Angie Yarnell? Why is the killer out of jail? How could our justice system fail so miserably? This is the story of a mother’s quest to find her daughter and help others who are suffering through a tragedy.
Michelle Angela “Angie” Yarnell was last seen on October 25, 2003, in the 3900 block of Ozark View Rd in Ivy Bend, Missouri. Her mother, Marianne Asher-Chapman lived an hour and a half away in Holts Summit, MO. Although they were separated by a 90 min drive the two women were more than family; they were best friends. Marianne heard from her daughter regularly and was expecting to see her beautiful baby girl that day for a birthday party. Angie’s niece was having a party at grandma Marianne’s house. The party was scheduled for 1 pm, but it was after 5 o’clock and Marianne was getting upset. This wasn’t like Angie. Something was wrong. Marianne hadn’t gotten Angie to answer her calls for a few days. She had assumed Angie was out job hunting and would call later, but now after missing a birthday party, Marianne was worried. She called her daughter’s number again, but this time she left a message that would start a bizarre chain of events.
“If you don’t call back, I’m going to drive down and check on you,” was the message the worried mother left on Angie’s voicemail. She would receive a response two hours later, but it wasn’t the one she hoped for. Around 7 pm, Angie’s car pulled up in the driveway and out stepped Michael Yarnell. When Marianne asked about her daughter, he simply replied, “she’s gone.” The man walked in and sat down without saying much of anything. Finally, he told Marianne that he thought Angie had run off with another man. No one believed his story, but no one challenged him either.
Marianne couldn’t believe her daughter would leave without telling her something about this new man, and to make matters even worse, Marianne was battling throat cancer at the time. Angie was helping her mother through this journey. Why would a beloved daughter leave her mother in such a state? Angie wouldn’t. That was the conclusion her family came up with. Something was terribly wrong. Marianne went the next day and filed a missing persons report expecting to find compassion and assistance but found very little.
Initially, the investigators believed that the 28-yr-old was frustrated with her verbally abusive marriage and took off. No one seemed to understand the bond between mother and daughter in this case. Angie had spoken to her mother about the problems with her short marriage to Yarnell. She had been wrongly accused of infidelity by Michael when in fact Michael was having an extra-marital affair. The relationship had broken down to the point that Angie confessed to her mother that Michael was going to leave her. Marianne had this conversation with her daughter several days before Michael’s strange visit.
A week after the missing person’s report was filed, Marianne received a postcard from her daughter. It was posted from Arkansas. Strangely it said Angie was traveling with some guy named Gary and when they got settled in Texas she would call. Investigators immediately took the postcard at face value and stopped looking into the case, but Marianne still had her doubts. Why didn’t her daughter call?
Marianne eagerly awaits the Thanksgiving holiday. Surely her daughter would come by, but Angie didn’t show. After this, Marianne knew Angie wasn’t coming home. She wouldn’t miss the holidays with family. It was a long-standing tradition. Marianne began to examine the postcard and noticed some strange discrepancies in the handwriting. In 2008, a forensic handwriting specialist would confirm that not only did Angie not write the note but that Michael Yarnell was the author of the postcard. They sent these findings to the detectives in hopes of getting the ball rolling on Angie’s case.
A few months later Michael Yarnell was arrested in Biloxi, Mississippi and extradited back to the Show-Me state. He surprised everyone by confessing to killing Angie at their home in 2003. He told investigators that they were having a fight and he accidentally pushed her, and she fell off the deck hitting her head. He said that he sat with her for a while trying to figure out what to do, then he picked her up into a canoe and drove down the road to the boat ramp. He rowed out onto the Lake of the Ozarks and found a small island. He said he planned to bury her on the island. In the process of removing her body from the boat, she slipped and fell beneath the waves. He left her there, rowed back to the boat ramp, and went home.
Yarnell also admitted to forging the postcard and claimed he did it just to give Marianne some peace. In the end, he was given a plea deal that no one could believe. If he would show investigators where the body was dropped in the water, then he could plead to a lesser charge of manslaughter. Even though the investigators couldn’t find Angie’s remains, they still gave her killer the plea deal. Michael Shane Yarnell pled guilty of manslaughter and was given a paltry seven years. He served only four and was released in July of 2013.
To say the family was devastated doesn’t begin to describe the disbelief and the pain caused by such a sentence. It’s a slap in the face to the victim’s family for the killer to walk free. Still, no one knows where to find Angie. Marianne believes Michael is lying about her daughter’s cause of death and that’s the reason why he refuses to disclose the true location of Angie’s remains.
Due to Double Jeopardy laws, Michael Yarnell won’t face another trial even if those remains are found. At this point, Marianne just wants to give her daughter a proper burial. As always, if you have any information about this case, please contact the police. This mother needs to lay her daughter to rest.
In the wake of this painful journey, Marianne chose to help other families and created a charity to help other victim’s families. The next twenty years she was on a mission to help others and bring Angie home. Her journey ended this year, but Angie is still out there somewhere. Please share this post and maybe we can bring Marianne’s sweet daughter home.
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.
You can forget about boring coffee when you try Bones Coffee!
A 21-year-old mother goes out for a night on the town. She hadn’t been out since the baby had been born and was looking for a good time. Christina Whittaker ended up having too much to drink and would be kicked out of more than one bar that evening. Was the alcohol mixing with her bipolar medication and causing problems? We may never know.
Christina was last seen leaving a bar crying, trying to get someone to help her get a ride home. While the rumor mill fingers a local hood and claims Christina was trafficked to the town of Peoria, Illinois there’s no solid evidence to verify this. While the family clings to hope with all of the unverified sightings, not one shred of evidence has come forward to prove Christina ever left the town of Hannibal that night.
There are two pieces of tangible evidence in this case, however. Her phone and keys were found just down the road from the bar. This is also the site of what looked like a hit and run accident. There were red paint fragments on a car that looked like it had been hit. No one really investigated this, but a local Hood would later confess to a girlfriend that Christina died on the road that night and they threw her in the back of the red pickup truck they were in. Supposedly, Christina had called a local man and asked him to take her home. They flew around the corner and Christina was stumbling in the road and they hit her.
There is so much quiet corruption and chaos in the small town that no one wants to talk about, but this just lends itself to the rumor mill. So many theories in this case have come up in the last 13 years, but after researching this case there are still only two pieces of evidence. Those two pieces point to a local Hood named Danny Baker. Unfortunately, Baker died on January 4th, 2017. Unless we can find out where they stashed her body that night, the mother will still cling to the hope every time someone sees a young redhead in Peoria Illinois. No one can blame her for this she is a grieving mother. However, sometimes it’s best to let go of the sensationalism and go back to the basics of police work. Like I always said, “When a case becomes too fantastical it’s time to step back and look at the practical.”
Someone needs to investigate this case and find the body of Christina Whittaker. Then maybe the mother can grieve properly. Check out my True Crime Tuesday video below for more information on this case. Also, check out the documentary series titled Relentless. I will put a link below to this documentary created by Christina Fontana. Whatever you do, make sure and share this story. Together we can make a difference.
Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.
Throughout this show, Synova will reference a documentary created by Christina Fontana. Check out the Relentless Documentary on Discovery+ using this link
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.
He was supposed to be released from the Humboldt County Jail in time for dinner. He called his mom to let her know that all of the charges were dropped and he was coming home. He would never make it. Instead, he was beaten to a bloody pulp and strung up in his cell. The case was labeled a suicide and dismissed. Who did this to Raymond? Why wasn’t he allowed to go home?
Raymond Johnathan Eacret, 34 was arrested on June 19, 2015, for a misdemeanor parole violation and was scheduled to be released by June 26, 2015. He wouldn’t survive that long. He was found dead within hours of his release. Immediately conflicting reports arose around this young man’s death. At first, they said he was found hanging in his cell. Then it was reported that he was found hanging in the medical unit of the prison which a fellow inmate claims its impossible to do in that facility. A witness claims to have seen them bring Raymond into the Medical unit beaten, bruised, and unconscious.
The distraught mother tried to see her son, but the coroner refused until after an autopsy was completed. Raymond Eacret a card-carrying member of the Yurok Tribe was denied his final rights as a Native American. When Sheila was finally able to see her son she was shocked by the state of his body. He had two black eyes, a broken nose, and was covered in bruises. It looked as if he’d been kicked in the back and his ribs broken. They were left protruding through the skin. There was a three-inch deep cut across part of his neck, but not all the way around it. A secondary bruise circled his neck but was much lighter in color making you wonder if someone had strangled him to cover up a beating.
A few hours before his death, Raymond had called his mom to tell her not to worry. The charges against him had been dropped and he would be home by dinner time. If this were a suicide why would he call his mother? Why would he commit suicide when he was being released and the charges were dropped? It didn’t make sense. Raymond had struggled with meth addiction but was trying desperately to start over. Why would he commit suicide now? How did he get broken ribs and bruises from a suicide?
If you’d like more information check out my True Crime Tuesday Video where the team and I cover this case along with a few more from this same area.
Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.
Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life (Synova’s Case Files Series)
Follow the heart-rending cases Synova first wrote about on her blog in 2018. Filled with missing persons’ cases, unsolved homicides, and even serial killer cases, this book will give you a greater insight into the shattered lives behind every story. Cases Included in this book: Jayme Closs, Haley Owens, Josh Robinson, Timothy Cunningham, Carol Blades, Pam Hupp, Arthur Ream, Angela Hammond, The Springfield Three, Jennifer Harris, Danny King, Angie Yarnell, Jack Robinson, Madelin Edman, Alexis Patterson, Amber Wilde, Sandra Bertolas, Jennifer Casper-Ross, Crystal Soulier, Jody Ricard, Carmen Owens, Brandon Tyree McCullough & The I-70 Serial Killer
