Best of 2021 ////// 546 | Forensic Files

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man that knows that brain control beats mind control any day of the week. Ladies and
gentlemen, here is the captain. Yeah, some of those other shows need a break. We take no break. And we take no
prisoners. We're not here to take part, we're here to take over. It's good to be
seen, good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. Today we are drinking a fantastic beer
from the good folks over at Zaftig Brewing Company in beautiful Worthington, Ohio. And we have featured
several fine beers from Zaftig, but this week we are drinking Tropical Hazy. This
is a juicy tropical hazy pale ale infused with passion fruit, orange, and guava. Garage grade four and three
quarter bottle caps out of five. So, 4.75 out of five. So, nearly perfect here, captain. And let's give some cheers to
our nearly perfect garage friends. First up, a big cheers to Joe Wong in Midlothian, Virginia. And a big shout
out to Chelsea in Burlington, North Carolina. Next up, we have a cheers to Tiffany
from the Copacabana on the beautiful central coast of New South Wales, Australia. Cheers. And a big we like you
jib to Giovanni in Sparks, Nevada. Next up, we have a big cheers to Leslie in Dublin, New Hampshire. And last but
certainly not least, everybody, we have a big cheers to Brett Baldwin in the parts that remain unknown. Everyone we
just mentioned, they went to our website, which is truecrimegarage.com, and they clicked on the beer fund and
helped us out with this week's beer run. And for that, we thank you. Yeah, make sure you wash your parts. B W
E double R U N, beer run. Thank you so much. Can't thank you enough. Could give you hugs and kisses
for keeping the garage ship afloat. Thank you so much for donating to the beer fund and for everything True Crime.
Check out truecrimegarage.com. And Colonel, that is enough of the business. All right, everybody gather
around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. All right, as we are entering 2022,
I'm hoping this is the best year ever. Uh, I don't see why it wouldn't be. The last couple years have been a bit of a
drag, but uh, 2022 is shaping up to be a fine year. And we here in the garage are
just so thankful and grateful to all of you who have kept the ship going for all
of these years. And we're excited about this year. But before we move on to 2022,
a quick look back at all the things that were great on the show in 2021. Longtime listeners know that we've done
this a couple of times, where we will review the year. And I believe once or twice we've even reviewed the show as a
whole, over 500 shows, over 600 if you start counting off the record, where we review some of our best
shows that we've done in our opinion, our humble garage opinions, of the best shows that we've done in the
last year. So, uh I never thought we'd get to 500. Well, I never thought that anybody would need to
hear us say what we thought our best shows were of the year, but there's a whole Reddit thread on best
true crime garage shows of by year and by all time. And so, here we are. We're going to give the good people another
list to discuss. So, if you haven't heard us do one of these before, the way we do it is we each pick five
shows that we did or five series that we did from the previous year. The captain
doesn't know what the colonel has picked. The colonel never knows anything that the captain is going to say anyway.
So, for the very first time, we are going through our list here together today. Yes, it's a garage party. I will
be putting some extra stuff in my coffee if you get my drift. So, if I get a little slurry or blurry, it's uh
keep your eyes on the road. Well, and we like to have a very official and very formal countdown, but
uh, we can't seem to get Carlos to show up when we requested. Carlos, for for the longtime listeners,
Carlos uh, thought he was underpaid. And you know what? He probably was. He was the best part of the show.
We got you sixer. That's right. So, here we go. We're going to start off with the
colonel. Look, our list, I don't know if they even matter. So, if you're listening to
the show, think back, look back, get your top five together, go to our blog at truecrimegarage.com
and leave your top five list or on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. I'll have a post and you can
post your top five in the comments. I want to see them. I know the colonel wants to see them as well. So, we'll
start with number five. That's right. We want you to prove us wrong. All right. Colonel's number five,
here we go. I went with the Zodiac, which was a five-part series. So, very fittingly it falls to number five here.
This came out in early to mid-March, episodes 470 through 474. In the late '60s, early '70s, we had a
hooded serial killer terrorizing the San Francisco Bay Area. The killer told the
press and police to call him the Zodiac. And everybody knows few cases in modern true crime have been
discussed and speculated more than Zodiac. So, Zodiac is always a topic for discussion in the true crime world. We
put it off for a couple of years. We had had requests from jump street to cover Zodiac, but it was one of those cases
that we didn't cover early on. One because we felt you could spend a full year or full season discussing the
Zodiac case and the tentacles of that case. And we wanted to make sure that when we did do
the Zodiac, that we did it in a way that we thought was appropriate and without it taking over True Crime Garage. So, we
did a five-part series in March. And I was very happy with the way that it turned out. I was super excited going
into it for a number of reasons. It's a case that's always in the back of my mind. It's one of those cases that once
a year, I find myself eyeballs deep in researching the Zodiac case. And we were lucky enough to have
our good friend, longtime friend of the show, Mike Morford from the Criminology podcast. He
joined us cuz he knows everything Zodiac. He was on, what, captain? Two of the episodes and we did a five-part
series. So, the first first three episodes were simply dedicated to, and I I really like the way that we did this,
because there's a lot of questionable Zodiac victims out there. And ones that are not
confirmed or unconfirmed, I guess would be a better word to say. But what we simply did with the first three episodes
was a heavy focus on the confirmed kill timeline and the evidence that was found
at those murder scenes. We offered up, of course, our own speculation cuz that's what we do here in the garage.
But I really like the way that that turned out. I think we didn't set out for it to be five episodes, but I think
five was was the just the right amount. Yeah, so my number five is one that is not just close to the heart, but uh
close to this episode. I think um we we titled the episode a serial killer phone call. Episode 544.
Maybe a real caller, maybe a fake caller calls into Howard Stern's show and talks for about 10 minutes
confessing that he's a serial killer. And we got a such great response, just people chiming in what whether they
thought it was a real call or not. I think at the time I was leaning towards it was a real call.
And based on the blog post, there was a couple of things that people pointed out
where I went, "Oh, it's making me a little little more suspicious than I was before." So, now I'm kind of leaning
toward the fact that it was a fake call, but I think it's a interesting clip and it was just a fun
episode to record. Well, often we are doing these cases that are very dark, very heavy subject
matter and you know, it weighs on you a little bit. And we were able to take a step back and this was something that we
were surprised. We were both a little surprised that we were getting requests for. Hey, we we want to hear you guys
review this this call. I think a lot of people wanted to hear the call themselves for one more time and it's
something that a lot of people seem to be on the fence of. Is this is this real? Is this legit or not? And I think
there's good argument for both sides of that, but you know, it was near the holidays and and we had originally
thought we'll put this on off the record. This is a perfect discussion for off the record, but with so many
requests to cover it, we had to move it to the big show and you're right, the responses have been incredible and the
blog posts have been very interesting. I like anytime we can put out something that creates and generates interesting
creative discussion. And I think that's exactly what happened here with the serial killer phone call
episode. Well, like you said, some of these cases are so dark, so this was actually an idea that I I think
I presented to sometime last year. And so the fact that not only did the listeners say, "Hey, this is an idea
that we think you should go over because like I told people on the show, the last
couple months this has been popping up as a as a discussion on I haven't I haven't seen another podcast cover it,
but I've seen a couple YouTube channels cover it and I thought, "Look, for whatever reason we we're all having the
same kind of creative idea to put out a creative show episode that is true crime
related, but essentially we don't know if we have victims in this case or not. All right, Colonel,
your number four. All right, so my number four here, Captain, I went with Asha Degree
parts one and two. This is episodes 475 and 476, which came out right after our Zodiac episodes. Came out in March 23rd
and 24th. So, boom as my my old friend Jason would say, bang, bang, bang. We were really we were really nailing at
those three weeks in a row in the Colonel's opinion here. So, Asha Degree. There's a Reddit thread out there that's
titled most bizarre missing persons cases True Crime Garage has covered. So, of course Brian Shaffer's on there, Emma
Fillipoff are on this list, but a 2021 addition to this list most certainly was Asha
Degree. So, in the middle of a cold rainy night she's only 9 years old. Asha left her
home on foot. Where she was going, we don't seem to really know. That's unconfirmed. Why did she leave? We don't
really know. There's some speculation maybe she was simply sleepwalking. I threw out there my speculation is that
she was either running towards something or running away from something. Who knows, maybe both. The evidence is
obvious and mysterious. Foul play is most certainly involved here. It's one of those weird breadcrumb trail
cases. The the further you look into it, it just becomes a bigger and bigger mystery. Like for me, this case
made my list because of the research that that went into it. And I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. What
I'm saying is the the interest like the interest level for me was an 11 on this thing, right? I Once I
started looking into it, the Captain brought it up, said, "Hey, have you heard of this Asha Degree case?" And I
said, "I I've heard something about it, but I don't know it very well." He goes,
"I think this is a must cover." And I looked it up and I was like, "This is a really short story. I don't know how
much stuff is here." And then I started looking into it and diving into it and there is
it's just it's very fitting that it is on that list of most bizarre missing persons
cases that we have covered because it is certainly just a strange, weird case where there
are breadcrumbs, but it's hard to make heads or tails of what that evidence is and where it it's
supposed to lead you. Well, this year, 2021, I became friends with two great true
crime minds, Brett and Alice from the Prosecutor podcast. Met them. We had a long discussion with
Maggie Freeling. It was supposed to last an hour. I think we recorded about 5 hours, but Brett and
Alice actually reached out to me and said, "Look, this Asha Degree case, we covered it.
There doesn't seem like there's a lot of meat on the bones, but if you dive in, there's a lot there.
Will you guys please cover it? Because with your audience, you can get this information out there and because
there was a picture that was found that nobody's ever identified the person or the girl in the picture. They thought
with our platform that maybe we could do some good. So, one, it was great to meet
them and become friends with them through them suggesting this case and it was one of the first times the
history of our show where another podcast had reached out to us and said, "Look, I know we covered this case, but
please look into this because because you might be able to do some good." And that's also the reason why Asha Degree
is my number four as well. Oh, wow. We both on hit both of our lists in at the exact
same spot. That's that's super interesting. And yeah, you're right, the prosecutors, great people and when they
reached out and and said, "Hey, would you guys take a look at it and would you put it on your show?"
That's I love getting that because it's not like it's not just, "Hey, all right,
we have a new new friends of the show," but we we have allies, right? These are our allies. They want the same things
that we want. They want the same things that our audience wants and it's not just to
review these cases and talk about them, but maybe do some good along the way. And this is a bizarre case. It's again,
it's one of those ones that when you hear about the case or read about the case, you start saying to yourself,
"Why isn't this a more well-known case?" Because there it's just simply fascinating and very very unsolved
mysteries like if you wanted to put a stamp on something, I think that would be appropriate here in Asha's case.
Well, and also with more and more people starting true crime podcast, you know, we started just to see if we could do
it. And once we realized that there was a platform Yes. Uh or maybe we Maybe we can't. We're still practicing
for the Hey, we're going to find out in the next 500 episodes. You want to get into it for the right
reasons. If you're sitting at home going, "I'd love to start a true crime podcast so I can get more Twitter
followers or I can be famous or something." I just don't think that's the right reasons. Do it do
it because these victims have stories that need to be told. These cases need help. They
need attention brought to them. The more attention brought to the case, the more
chances that the case can be solved and more pressure that's put on prosecutors and law enforcement to not forget about
these cases and not to forget about the people, the victims in these cases. Brett and Alice, they're they're
prosecutors. They don't have a lot of time on their plate and they put a lot of effort into putting out great quality
content. So, it was just again, great meeting them and and to and it's been great to work with so
many, I mean, from CrimeCon UK to a lot of the podcasts in the states to feel like
you're working together. You know, there yes, there are some of those podcasts out there that they're
not a part of the community and they think they're better than the other shows and and blah, blah, blah, but for
the most part the true crime podcast world has been very friendly to us and very supportive. And so
I think this shows because like you said, to have this case on a list and have people talking about it on
the internet, hopefully they they get some movement in the case. Well, and that's a good reminder there,
Captain, and something that we remind ourselves and feel the need to remind, you know, people that are tuning in as
well that these are real life cases. These these are true stories, obviously, but they're someone's tragedy.
They are someone's nightmare. They are someone's heartbreak. And we can tell these stories and we can
listen to these stories and we can read about them, but we need to make sure that we are always keeping in mind the
human element, the the real life element of of these cases. And another reason why this
Asha Degree case made my list, too, was it was you know, we we develop a bit of a thick
skin. Maybe you know, we we become a little rough around the edges because we we are looking at this stuff
all week long every week, week after week. But this was one of those cases that got
to me. They don't all get to me and I don't have any understanding why some cases will get to me and others won't,
but in this case, I certainly did because what I I couldn't shake. I couldn't get it out of my mind. And it
for a whole week, every time I closed my eyes, what I was seeing was this little
girl, 9 years old, walking in the cold, in the dark, and in the rain by herself along the roadside. And my freaking
heart just broke every time. Like I just I wanted to become I you know, God make
me an angel so I could have just swooped her up and and who knows? I mean, again,
she could have been sleepwalking, but let's toss that out for a second. Let's say if she was not sleepwalking.
That is a powerful powerful thing to have a 9-year-old walking in the dark. Kids don't like the dark. Nobody likes
the rain and the cold. She's out walking by herself in the middle of the night along a country road.
I cannot and and will not ever pretend to understand the magnitude of that situation, nor what her emotions were
and why she was putting She's putting herself in the situation. And that's that's
something that was just too powerful for me to shake. I I couldn't shake it and it it I mean, it
it it breaks my heart thinking about it now. Well, surprise, surprise, the the the captain is going to disagree with
you. And hear me out on this. Maybe maybe I'll get you to change your mind. Yes, we look into these dark cases every
week. There's real life victims. We sometimes are talking with the the families of those victims.
I don't think it's made me a tougher individual. I think it's actually made me more sensitive to the subject. Really
understanding the human element of it. And just the podcast in general. I mean, we're going to do that live event in
February. And anytime we do a live event to meet our listeners, it's a humbling experience. So I almost feel like the
whole not just diving into the cases, but the whole podcast experience has made me a little more grateful to just
wake up every day. And and also just the the the abusive situations that a lot of these victims
are in before before the actual murder takes place. I get what you're saying where it could make you a little rough
around the edges, but I I I actually think it's made both of me and you more uh sensitive people. So we both have the
same number four. That again, that was Asha Degree parts one and two, episodes 475, 476 came out in March of 2021 for
any of you listening that have not already heard those episodes or want to go back and listen to them again. That
should help you in your search. So for my number three here, I have the Yogurt Shop Murders 30
Years Later, which we covered on November 30th and December 1st. And we were covering those 30 years later at
that time period, that week, because later that week would be exactly 30 years later. Those are episodes 539 and
540. And this is one of those cases that you review and you're just shocked. Just
I I'm in complete shock and and almost disbelief here that 30 years later this has not been solved. You know, if you
know the case, you you understand why. There's certainly been plenty of speed bumps along the way. Uh part of that
being that they actually convicted two individuals of being involved and committing these these homicides. This
is a quadruple homicide case that took place in 1991 in Austin, Texas at a Austin Yogurt Shop. It's one of the most
infamous cases in Texas history in in my opinion. And despite the efforts of the
Austin Police Department, it as said, remains unsolved 30 years later. Well, this is a great pick.
I actually kind of forgot about this case because this is the second time we're covering
it. When you suggested that we put it on the list because of the anniversary, which I
I don't think maybe that many listeners understand there's a lot of times the schedule is lining up
with anniversaries of cases. And and that's all due to your work. So I applaud you there, partner.
But great case and the second time around, when you suggested it, I was like, oh,
we already covered this case. But the second time around, I found it way more interesting. It's it's a very
fascinating case. If you haven't listened to those episodes, not only should you listen to those episodes, but
go look up some of the diagrams that people have online about the shop. You can do some deep dives into that case.
So very nice pick. Well, and you're right. It was one that we did have an off-mic discussion of
well, really, should we cover this again? Cuz I I think we both felt the same way that we were pretty
thorough in in covering it the first time around, which was in 2017, I believe. I'm it was episodes 81 and 82.
And I do think that even though we devoted four episodes to it and really four years apart, splitting them in twos
into pairs there, I think you could listen to all four. They're very different episodes and and we kind of
shaped them differently. Unfortunately, when a case is unsolved for for 30 years
and it hits that 30-year marker, it's a good time to remind everybody that, hey, this thing is is not solved.
We had four young people lose their lives and they were terrorized for about 45, 48 minutes that night in in Austin.
It's it's a good reminder. I know Austin didn't need a reminder. They This is a case that uh is on the hearts and minds
of of Austinites? Are they Austinites? Is that what we call them? The great people of Austin. And this is a case too
that is again, it's one of the most infamous cases in Texas history. So it's one of those cases that the whole state
of Texas yearns for. Uh and and it's one of those that that needs to have some justice.
It seems like there's meat on the bone here that they do have some evidence that could lead to understanding and
pointing to exactly who is responsible for this. I believe it's more than one perpetrator. If I if I had to pick just
based off of the evidence and what the crime scene shows us, it seems to support two or more offenders.
This too, Captain, is is one of those cases where I think a couple years ago we did a unsolved cases that we've
covered that are I I I can't remember what we titled it, if it were solvable solvable solvable or ones that we if if
you could solve, if you could make a list, but you could only put so many on there of cases that would be solved.
This case was certainly in that discussion. And this is a case that has fascinated me throughout the decades and
will continue to fascinate me even when they do solve it. And I do think that they will solve it. And I think that a
lot of the blanks, a lot of the things that we are not able to understand or a lot of the dots that we were unable to
connect will be connected once we solve this case and and I will I I look forward to that day. All right. So
number three for me was the Bone Breaker Killer episode number 512, 513. This was just uh
all around fascinating case. Yes. Uh and horrifying. Yes. It was one of the cases that
when you're researching it, you almost think that like you're reading like a movie script or something. You're
like, this this can't this can't be true. I mean, this and I don't want to give too much away cuz I
want people to go back and listen if they haven't. But there's definitely details in this case that just
they're sickening. There's some gruesomeness to this case. Uh but it was definitely one
that when I started researching and and putting together the the the music for the show for that episode that week, cuz
that's what I like to do. I like to pull up, even if it's just Wikipedia, and start reading about the case and trying
to see if I can get some kind of vibe. How how do I want to make the theme music this week? And
what's the case saying to me? And this one, there was it's like, man, when you start
doing the research on it, right away sparks your interest and and and has you firing on all cylinders. So
yeah, number three for me is the Bone Breaker Killer. And that case is again, not trying to give too much away. That
was in definitely definitely in consideration for me, Captain. It was one that as I was whittling down my
list, it was it was hanging around and hanging around. Truly fascinating. One in part because of just the the
the rare ness of the case, where we have a very unique situation where the killer and
abductor is act actually going into homes in the middle of the night and abducting the
victim almost right out of their beds, which is just completely bizarre. It's a high risk factor that
you rarely see in in cases. And terrifying. Completely terrifying. I think you hit the nail on the head when
you said, hey, I felt like I was reading a script for some Hollywood horror flick
that's about to come out. Because it's it's almost unbelievable. And also the age of the victims and the
age of the murderer, that to me kind of had a fascinating twist. But anyways, I don't want to give
too much away. Again, the Bone Breaker Killer 512 and 513. We will finish our list right after this quick beer break.
All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Cheers to you, Colonel, on another great year in the true crime
world. Another year done, and we are on into the next great year. Here we go, 2022.
Well, and thanks to all the listeners. We'll be here for another year. That's right. That's right. At least one more
year. After that, there's no plans after that. So, we got through our Yeah, we each got through our top Well,
our five, four, and three. And now we each have our top two left on our list. Would Can I do the honors and
kick off my number two here? Well, let me do my number two because it's pretty disappointing, like my
bedroom skills. Okay. Because mine is the Zodiac five-part series, which is already on
your list, so I feel like I dis um none of the listeners right now are satisfied.
I say nay. I think that uh everybody's satisfied. I I'd like I think that you know, we we do share some of the
same opinions, and that's obvious here. And so, I think that they like when we agree, and they like when we disagree,
and uh this list is certainly going to have both of those elements to it. I was trolling around the old internet this
weekend, and I did come across and I I should have wrote it down, but I I did not. But
there was a website that said that we had the best Zodiac podcast of 2021. You know, obviously, this is a case
that's Hey. Yeah, this is a case that's been covered a lot, and so we're we're not claiming,
or nor is this website claiming, that we have the best podcast Zodiac podcast of
all time, but the But they didn't say The headline I saw said best Zodiac podcast 2021.
Again, I should have wrote that down. But hey, throw in the caveat there, too, Captain.
Maybe we're the only ones that covered it last year. If you're the only ones, then you're the
best. Well, a couple reasons. One, not to toot my own horn, but it I think it's one of my favorite one of my
favorite musical themes that I did this year. And also, we did individual artwork for
every episode, which was done by my buddy Scotty Boombox, which has helped us out a lot. He did
all the artwork of the single episodes of JonBenét Ramsey when we did that. He did the Shaker Heights
artwork. So, he's done a lot of cool stuff for us in the past, and and to have him be a part of that.
And look, there's a couple movies that I go to. You know this. Sometimes the research is a lot of work.
And so, when you're not feeling it, I feel like if I throw on the movie Zodiac, or I throw on Mindhunter, or I throw on
Silence of the Lambs, or I throw on Spotlight, I can get in the mood to do to want to
do the research. But But yeah, so Zodiac, I just thought you did a really good job of it, and
that's why it's my number two. So, so that's my number two. Now, let's go with your number two.
Well, the Zodiac, yes, can be some heavy lifting when it comes to the research. That's why it was interesting to kind of
put it together the way that that we did and present it in that form. And I'm glad that you brought up the movie
because I failed to do so when when I had it on my list, but uh if you're out there, and you're
listening to this show, and you've not bothered to take carve out two hours of your life and
watch the Zodiac movie, it is one of the best true crime dramatization movies you
ever will see. I mean, it's Yeah, it's almost like a biopic of the investigation.
Yeah, you got so many good actors and actresses in the movie as well, and it's just really well put together. The The
music's good. It's shot well. It's filmed well. It it for whatever reason didn't do well in at
the box office, but it is for me, I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, and I thought
I've probably watched it maybe 10 times. It's one of those movies that I enjoy it
so much that like you said, you pop it in for a little bit of inspiration, but there it's a movie that I could pick up
on at any point in the movie. Like I don't have to start it at the beginning. Um I can and I find myself completely
completely immersed in in fascination with the case and the story as soon as I as soon as that movie comes on.
So, good pick there, Captain. Zodiac for your number two. For my number two, I went with the Chelsea Small case. We
did two episodes on Chelsea Small's case, covered it in June of 2021. This would be episodes
495 and 496. This was June 15th and 16th that it came out. And interestingly enough here, I've I've seen this case
hitting the news, especially on the local level, since our coverage. Now, I'm not going to pretend that our
coverage has anything to do with it, but hey, we didn't we couldn't have hurt. This was one of those cases, another
case that I go, "Why is this case not more well known?" You look into it, and you go, "This is
completely fascinating. It's a bizarre case. We have the killer on surveillance footage from that day, from that tragic,
horrific day. And yet we still have not found Chelsea Small's killer." So, clickondetroit.com
did one of the most recent articles on the case, which came out in November of last year. And they say Chelsea Small
was just 30 years old with a bright future ahead of her when she was murdered on the job in 2013.
Small was the mother of two young children. She was gunned down at her place of work on what was supposed to be
her day off. If you've listened to our coverage, you remember that she was covering for another co-worker that day.
This was something that they had agreed upon days in advance so that Chelsea could have a a different day off, or the
co-worker could have swapped days, what have you. But uh she was working on November 12th, 2013 at the Advance
America Check Cashing Place on Telegraph Road in Taylor, Michigan, which is a a very nice town, very nice city. I think
a lot of people were surprised that this happened there. This was a very busy road. Many businesses, many people out
working that day, middle of the week. There is still a reward in her case, in the Chelsea Small case, that is being
offered up that is now up to $52,000 to anyone who has information leading to an arrest. So, anyone with information,
look, you can Google search your fancy computer machine you got there at home, and it will pull up the video for you,
and you can see the killer walk into the Advance America Check Cashing Place. You see what goes down. He's in there
very briefly. There's a few different websites that you can find this video. It's readily available. I I would
suggest watching the more recent ones because police did hold on to some information. Detectives held some
information back in this investigation early on for the first few years, information that would have been very
important to their investigation and to a possible confession. Because look, after her murder and the surveillance
footage came out to the public, and the billboards went up, and the the public outcry, I think this was another
this was a similar Delphi situation where people thought an arrest is coming, they'll find this guy, and it's
going to happen with the quickness. And here we sit. That was 2013. We are kicking off 2022. We still do not
know who killed Chelsea Small. Another very interesting angle in this case, too,
is I referenced this when we covered it, that there's there's a small possibility here
that this case, and I think it should be included in the discussion for the I-70
Killer. We covered the I-70 Killer case back in 2020. And the Chelsea Small case, this was not
a case that I was even aware of. And you know, we're we're here in Ohio, neighboring
Michigan, and the public outcry, and again, the the awareness to the public, and the the
surveillance footage, I was still unaware of this case, and I was a little bit shocked that this case
was so interesting, so fascinating, still unsolved, and I was unaware of it. The way that it came onto my radar here,
Captain, was somebody emailed the show and said you guys did a good job covering the I-70 Killer, which
was one of my one of my favorite episodes or or coverage from 2020. Often when we cover these cases,
especially an unsolved serial killer case, we will get a lot of of people coming
out of the woodwork saying, "You know, I think this guy could could be the guy. I
think this is the best suspect. And here's why." I love receiving the emails, keep them coming, but I got to
say most of the time the people that are suggesting the suspects that have been presented
those times to us, not really good suspects. Somebody emailed me emailed the show
saying, "Look, there's a there's a small chance here, you know, very thin chance
that this is connected, but I think in the I-70 Killer conversation, this Chelsea Small case
should be included until we can confirm that it's not one in the series because there's so
many similarities to Chelsea Small's case to the I-70 Killer. And I found that absolutely fascinating
and I found the case just completely mysterious. I I don't I still do not know to this day how this individual has
gotten away with it all of these years later. So, this was one of those cases that was suggested to us and I'm so
thankful to the listeners for that because I thought it turned out to be two really
great episodes and this is one where you really feel like you can make some make
some good here, right? Because this is something that we need to put as many earballs and eyeballs on. This is
something that we can tell you the story. We can tell you our speculation. We can tell you the reasons why these
other crimes might be connected. We talked about a gun theft that happened in the area about 6 months beforehand.
We can show you all that and tell you all of that, but here is a situation where we can then send you as soon as
you as soon as you pull out the earbuds, you can you can hop on the old internet
machine and look it up and go, "You know what? I can view the video, the surveillance footage for myself. And I
can I can I can make a list of what I believe that I'm seeing. Is there is there evidence that
I can spot with my eyes? Are are there actions by the killer that I can spot and
and really kind of put him in one compartment away from others. And this is one of those cases where we were able
to do that and that doesn't happen in so many cases and that's why I just found this one to be incredibly interesting
and a little shocked that it took us all these years to cover it, but again, thank you to the listeners for putting
this one on our radar so we we know to go out and look into this case. A big cheers to the listeners that also follow
us on social media, that share the information. Like with the Asia Degree case, we needed people sharing that
photo. Thousands of people shared that photo. In this case, you have photos, video footage,
but that information needs to be shared. It's one thing to discuss it, but that's
what's so great about the true crime community and what's so great about our listeners is they realize it's not just
information and entertainment, that there is something that we can do. The power is in our
hands if we share the information enough that we might get good leads and we have
been contacted several times and talked to several family members of victims where after
the show law enforcement is getting new leads and can't thank you enough for that.
Well, and this is one of those cases, too, where we need to make sure that we throw out big ups to the Taylor Police
Department because this is a case that they have they have told us this is not something that they're saying to some
news outlet or or some other place. They have directly told us this case is very
solvable. We have we have speculation within our own department of why things were the way
they were that day or and and how things went down, but that aside, every one of
the detectives that have laid eyes on this case and and done the you know, pounded the pavement and done
the the the legwork on this case have all said the same thing. This case is extremely solvable. They all believe
that it will be solved. And the break may come from the public. So, when we decided to cover it, it was
really it was really nice of them to be so forthcoming and sit down with us and talk with us about the case and give us
some information on the case to to maybe again, maybe it hits the right earballs. Maybe
we send the right eyeballs to watch the video and that is how this thing is going to get solved. Again, a young
mother, her whole life ahead of her. She was 30 years old. She was just really starting
starting off and and and making her way in this world and just a tragic, horrific event that went down and it
seems like just such a senseless, random act of violence that that has very little explanation. And the Taylor
Police Department, again, big ups to them for for taking the time to speak with us at length about the case. Kudos
to them for the good work that they're doing on the Chelsea Small case. It's that time.
Again, I don't know if our list matters so much. It's us patting ourselves on the back,
but I I want to I want to hear from the listeners what your top five is. So, so make sure that you go to our blog and
tell us what your top five of the year. And maybe throw in there maybe a case suggestion, maybe something that we
haven't covered that we can try to get to in 2022. So, my number one. Now, this is kind of weird because I
think I think you have to put these together. Mhm. Because we did the Tylenol Murders,
which was 480 and 481. But that kind of goes into the Unabomber case, which would be episodes 482 and
483. So, I'm putting them together even though we didn't put them in in a part one, part two, part three, part four
series. They that's essentially what they are. Yes, and we did that on purpose. We had
planned that well in advance. We we both wanted to cover the Unabomber case and we both wanted to cover the Tylenol
Murders case. And we had them slated for last year. When we were going into 2021, we just
didn't kind of know when we were going to cover them and I'm not going to lie, I don't think either of us as much as we
wanted to cover the cases and as much as we thought they were fascinating, interesting cases, we knew that it was a
kind of a big undertaking. They're both both very big cases with a lot of information out there, especially
Unabomber because it it is solved, but there is some speculation and always will be until the Tylenol Murders case
is solved that these two could be connected because a a bomber and a poisoner are
similar in MO. And if somebody could have pulled off, well, not if somebody could have pulled off, we know somebody
did pull off the Tylenol Murders. Ted Kaczynski was certainly capable of of that. So, when we reviewed it from
that angle, and it's not I wouldn't say that we released them this way because we
believe that theory, just that we agree that that theory is interesting and there is some
credibility to it. So, we thought this was an interesting way of putting them out and putting them
out back-to-back. But again, then knowing, all right, we're going to have about 3 4 weeks of of a lot of heavy
lifting on two very very big cases. Correct me if I'm wrong, Captain. You're saying both of those were were
two-parters. I remember it when we're putting together the shows in both of those
cases, both of them felt like they could have gone three or four parts. Uh just really again, really big cases
and I I'm glad. I'm really glad that we put them out back-to-back like that. I'm going to pat myself on the back, do
a little flicky flicky. I like the I did. I wasn't oohing for that, but go ahead. Oh, yeah, you were. I know what
you were going to say. I was oohing for that. Yeah. Or maybe it was you. Um no, I I just like the music.
So, some of them come to me easier, some sometimes they're a little more work, but there's
so many things that I like about doing the show and and obviously working with you, but
one of the the perks is take the JonBenét Ramsey case, O.J. Simpson case, Delphi Murders. Now here, Zodiac,
Unabomber, cases that you might have had glimpses into throughout your life, but
you never took a deep dive and that being a part of what we get to do. You know, sometimes it feels like we
have to do and then sometimes it feels like we get to do. And especially like I said with like watching Zodiac as much
as I have to finally take a deep dive and kind of really wrap your head around the case and
why are so many people fascinated? Why is there It's just like with Jack the Ripper or JonBenét there
or Maura Murray, there's these sub cultures within the true crime world that are really fascinated with those cases
and and why are they? And to really get to uncover that. And I'm glad that you paired those together.
You know, you might have one or two uh weirdos sitting at home going, "Well, the captain kind of cheated here." I
don't think so because I I share the same opinion. Like when I was trying again, trying to whittle down my list
here going into today, those two cases were in strong consideration. The issue that I kept running into was I
felt like if I included one, I needed to include the other as well. And last year we did an episode where we
talked about our favorite trailers. You know, we call people Some people are going, "What's a
trailer?" Well, we call that that portion at the the start of the show after the beer the nonsense is out of
the way when we say we're going to talk some true crime, we go to the captain's music, we go to the colonel trying to do
his best uh young Robert Stack uh version of myself. And that is what we call our trailers. And last year we
did an episode where we just simply talked about our our favorite true crime garage trailers. The Unabomber case
was on my favorite trailer list. So, I again, agree with you. The music was fantastic on both of those and the
Unabomber trailer was really Hey. This is just a show where we're just so proud of ourselves, huh?
People are annoyed. They're like, "You guys think you're so great. Why don't you just shut up already?"
We're not those kind of people. is difficult for us. The funny thing is we think it makes
sense. The formula makes sense. Hey, let the audience know what we thought were our
or let the audience into um our minds of which cases we enjoyed putting out the most this year.
But we are not these kind of people. We just want to move on to the next case and and keep it going. But we didn't
want to take a break. Other shows are taking a break. I stand by that. We didn't take a break. Now, we might take
some breaks next year. Well, and it's I stand by the fact that we didn't take a break. And it is a little bit of fun for
us though too to do these kinds of shows where we can relax a little bit. They're
a little more chill. They're a little more fun for us. It's a garage party like you said, Captain. And you know,
with Yes. coming off of Christmas week you don't want to be you don't want to be too knee deep in the research and
dancing in the blood too much, right? It's It's a time for family and friends and love and happiness and um sometimes
true crime, as the listeners know, can get in the way of that. So, I'm I'm very happy that we could do this episode here
today. And as you said, not take the week off. But for my number one, so that that will lead me to my number one here.
And I went with one that was from very early in the year of 2021. In fact, it came out the last week of
January and the first week of February. It was a four-part series. I I really enjoyed putting these
together and I thought they turned out fantastic. And I'm talking about When the Demons Came Out parts one through
four. That's episodes 459, 460, 461 and two. Now, this was something that I had wanted to do on the show for
for quite some time. And really what When the Demons Came Out is and the reason why it is four parts is it's kind
of a uh a mashup of several cases, Ohio cases in the early '80s. And some of them are
connected and some of them are not. Some of them are cold cases, some of them have been solved. But it was an
interesting way to kind of mash them up and put them together because in the early '80s there was something very
frightening that was going on in Ohio. And unfortunately, this was going on in other states as well. But um
there was a bizarre string of child abductions and murders that hit Northeast Ohio and Central Ohio roughly
all at the same time. We took a deep dive into those old cases. Again, some of them cold, some of them solved. And
one thing that really perturbed me, and Captain, you know this and long-time listeners know this, one thing that I
cannot stand that bothers the hell out of me. And I Look, I don't pretend to be perfect. I know that I get things wrong.
I'm I'm I'm batting a thousand on getting about two or three things wrong a week, whether it's mispronouncing
someone's name or just saying some dumb thought that came to mind. But Some people think you picked the wrong part
Well, it 550 episodes. have to disagree with that, but uh But You would have been wrong 550 times,
my friend. It upsets me when the facts of some of these cases are misreported and then
because what happens is they conti- they continue to be misreported. Like somebody else gathers the wrong
information from a source that didn't do a great job for whatever reason. And look, these sources can do a great job
on one case and a bad job on other cases. That It happens. It's We're not saying everything that they do is junk.
But one thing that that upset me for the longest time was that on Wikipedia they had said that Robert Buell, who was
a known serial killer in the state of Ohio, killed Kelly Ann Prosser. And that was simply not the truth. We Her killer
was discovered through DNA many years later. But even after her killer was discovered
nobody ever bothered to take that down. You know, it it once was speculation and
he was suspected in it. Of course, he was sus- a suspect in that case. But if you go back and you review the
information from the early '80s, that was a lead and something that the investigators actually worked on was
trying to put Robert Buell in Central Ohio. He was he was abducting women and girls in Northeast Ohio and
killing them. And they thought, "Well, maybe he came down here and and did it a couple of
times." And they could never place him in Franklin County during any of the time frames of these
girls or women going missing or being killed. And so that was certainly something that they looked into. And
what for whatever reason, almost 40 years later, it still sat there on Wikipedia that he was
a suspect in Kelly Ann Prosser's case or it's believed that he was the killer when in fact we learned that he he was
not. So, if you haven't listened to those episodes, those were were my favorite of the year. And again, it's
really just a mashup of this serial killer, this active serial killer Robert Buell, who's kind of one of these
unknown serial killers, lesser-known serial killers that was active in the state of Ohio. And he's guilty of some
horrible horrible stuff and it does not bother me one bit that he is dead. The state of Ohio killed him in 2002. He
refused to give give any kind of answers or or any justice to some of his victims and their
families. Even when all those years later, you know, he was he was locked up in the '80s. So, he had plenty of time
to tell us what he knew and he refused to do so. And these episodes were really a way of
bringing up him, a lesser-known serial killer that we had not yet told his story or told the story
of of him. These other victims that were at one time loosely connected to the Robert
Buell story, but but certainly weren't actually connected. So, it was a way to discuss Ohio cold cases and some solved
cases. And everybody knows that I I'm just fascinated by Ohio cold cases. So, it was really interesting to put that
together. And I was happy that we did so. Um the other thing I love too, Captain, is the
title, When the Demons Came Out. And I can't take credit for that. That was in an old newspaper article. After Robert
Buell was arrested, they were interviewing people that knew him, that worked with him, that lived in the same
neighborhood as him. Right. One of the guys that I found fascinating that they were interviewing, and I don't I don't
have his name here, but the line that stuck with me was this guy that was interviewed said, "When the demons came
out." He said, "You know, Robert Buell was a great guy. I I thought he was a great guy. He was He was funny. He was
personable. He was well-liked in the neighborhood. He was well-liked at work. I guess I never saw him when the demons
came out." And I that just that title and that that sentence from that old that old newspaper article stuck with
me. And I think it really kind of sums up who Robert Buell was, right? He's He's this monster that is dressing
himself in sheep's clothing every day and going out into the world and fooling everybody into thinking that he's
something that he's not, that he's a good guy. And he's one of the one of the worst that I can think of. And I know
some people enjoy solved cases. We enjoyed solved cases too. And we think you can learn a lot from them.
It's just really difficult when you're when people are suggesting cases that we feel like if we add to the platform
and and talk to the listeners about that we might get some movement on it. And so sometimes it's hard
Um sometimes we need to do a solved case to to make us feel better about the whole process and to to remind ourselves
that these things these cases that seem sometimes like they'll never get solved eventually one
day do. At least that's some justice. At least that's some closure. So yeah. What a year.
Seems like it flew by. And one more year in the books and uh one more year to go, I guess. That's
right. And many more. Yeah. Uh thank you everybody for listening in 2021 and we look forward to
to all that can be great in 2022. So many great memories with you guys this year 2021.
I look forward to so many cases being solved in 2022. Colonel, do we have any recommended
reading for the beautiful listeners? Yes, but only for the beautiful listeners. If you're not a beautiful
listener, you can just check out right now. We will be recommending this week A Killer by Design: Murders, Mindhunters,
and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind by the great Ann Burgess. And for those of you that have been
long-time listeners or even recent listeners, you may go, "What? Colonel, you recommended that
in December of last year." Well, you're right and I'm recommending it again just
in case you didn't pay attention. That is A Killer by Design by Ann Burgess and the reason why we're recommending it
again is the Off the Record listeners know that very recently we just released a conversation that I had with the great
Ann Burgess. So, make sure you check out her new book and check out our other show Off the Record. It's available on
Stitcher Premium. If you want to find out how you can listen for free, I believe for a whole month for free, to
Off the Record and dozens of other great shows on Stitcher Premium, go to our website truecrimegarage.com
and you'll find the link there. Yes, and until next week, be good, be kind. And don't litter.

Best of 2021 ////// 546

Part 1 of 1 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week in the Garage we look back at 2021 and discuss our favorite cases covered by us, the TCG boys. Join us for some beers, some laughs and a visit as we go in through the out door.

Beer of the Week - Tropical Hazy by Zaftig

Garage Grade - 4 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

Nick and the Captain review their top True Crime Garage episodes from 2021, including Zodiac, Asha Degree, and Chelsea Small.

Key points

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Hosts Nick and the Captain introduce the show and their beer of the week.
Zodiac Case Discussion. The hosts dive into the infamous Zodiac case, discussing its complexities and public intrigue.
Asha Degree Case. The hosts explore the mysterious disappearance of 9-year-old Asha Degree on a rainy night.
Yogurt Shop Murders 30 Years Later. A shocking quadruple homicide case from 1991 remains unsolved after three decades.
The Bone Breaker Killer. A horrifying case that feels like a movie script, with gruesome details that shock.
Chelsea Small Case. A tragic unsolved murder from 2013 that still haunts the community.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a juicy tropical hazy pale ale infused with passion fruit, orange, and guava.

1:30WatchOct 30, 2022

Tension

45/ 100Some tension

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