Best of True Crime Garage 2024 | Forensic Files

get me will Trent ABC tonight I don't even know where he is Will Trent is back you don't you get hi forever time to
come home the series that's being called one of the best network proced rols we're going to solve this case featuring
new cast member Gina Rodriguez I'm a prosecutor we deal in truth and facts maybe everybody should try that huh will
trat the two-part season premiere begins tonight on ABC and stream on Hulu n [Music]
welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and of
course with me as always here is the captain and we are excited to be kicking off
2025 here with all of you beautiful wonderful listeners of of the garage show yeah it's good to be seen and good
to see you in 2025 we've never looked so great never felt better never felt better well this week we thought we
would take a look at last year and go through some of our favorite episodes of 2024 we know that most of our listeners
are hardcore listeners but you don't get to tune in every week life gets in the way right you get busy with wonderful
family things and events of your own so here we are to tell you some of our favorite episodes from yester year maybe
to point you in the direction of those episodes should your earballs need a little more True Crime garage how is the
year starting off for you so far Captain it's starting off with a bang my friend
there's nothing better when you're talking to a friend and they go hey what's the best episode you've done
lately and you you say whatever case and then they go back and listen and you get
a text message saying these are some of the best episodes you've ever done so that's why we're here that's why we're
doing this list happy 2025 and of course we are recording this one a couple days
before it's going to hit your ear out there but our thoughts and prayers are with the people of New Orleans and
really wishing godp speed and the best of luck to the investigators down there the ongoing New Orleans terrorist attack
investigation hopefully by the time this hits your your ear they've sorted it all
out and figured everyone is involved and responsible for that terrible attack that occurred down in New Orleans and
shout out to some of our friends who are friends of the show with the New Orleans
office of Homeland Security down there godp be to you guys so we'll do a little bit of a countdown here today right
Captain yeah top five top five captains got five I got five when we did our true
crime documentaries and books and podcasts that we were reviewing True Crime that we had consumed in 2024
countdown I went first would you like for me to go first again this time yeah well they say age before Beauty well and
look if if you tune into a podcast and you enjoy people toting their own horn as they say well you've come to the
right place because we really are going to do nothing but give ourselves very High Praise for work that we did last
year and you're going to get to hear me honking quite a bit today on how great we did because I was reviewing our 2024
catalog and it was it was a delight to review it because I'm not going to lie there you say so myself there were so
many good cases so many good true crime stories I I'm not going to pretend that we did all of them Justice we you know
we try our best every each and every week there are some stories that are more difficult to tell than others and
each True Crime Story is unique you know that's that's one thing the question that I get often is well how do you
conduct your research and how do you work on preparing the show and organizing the show that you're about to
record and there's no great answer for that it's not like there's a template that the captain and I follow and we
just check off items as we go doing research and putting together the show no every case in every story is unique
it's different you got to look at each one uh through a different lens at times so it is it can be it can be difficult
to tell some of these stories and they don't always turn out the way you wanted and then other times
surprise you go into it thinking well I've done the research I've put the show together I'm a little nervous on how
this one's going to turn out and then it turns out to be fantastic so here we are
to celebrate the garage and celebrate 2024 with all of you I'll kick things off Captain so your list is titled I'm a
great guy top five jobs well done by the colonel fantastic shows by True Crime garage my list is titled the top five
episodes of 2024 that we didn't suck so bad at telling yeah that's not really the ti
the title of mine man sucky I looked at it as a whole because there were some cases that are more interesting than
some of the cases that I'm going to say here today but again I'm going back to the idea that some of the stories are a
little more difficult to tell some of them don't lend themselves to Great storytelling and so these are the ones
that for any number of reasons stick out in my mind of shows that I'm quite proud
of that we did in 2024 so that includes your performance as well my friends so my my number five well I'm not judging
you but I guess you're judging me well it is a show right and there is two there are two of us on the show so uh if
I were look at to look at it at the cases that I did really well on last year then it'd be a different list so my
number five is cabins by the lake Parts one and two these are episodes 765 and 766 from June 11 and
12 this one was and I'm going to read the show notes because I don't know how many of our beautiful listeners actually
read these show notes but it's it's often a a quick description of our case story for each week this is the
17-year-old Belinda van lith who has been missing for 50 years now and that's still current she's still missing at the
time of her disappearance she was described as 5' 5 in tall about 110 lbs with blonde hair and blue eyes Belinda
was housesitting for a neighbor at the time she failed to attend her sister's going away party on June 15th
1974 her family contacted the Sheriff's Office and reported her missing the following day accounts from that time
have narrowed her disappearance to prior to the party so she went missing according to the timeline they've been
able to put together law enforcement she vanishes shortly before this party is to
kick off on June 15 1974 and law enforcement will tell us time and time again that Foul Play is
very much suspected in her disappearance and a reminder anyone with information about Belinda van lith is asked to call
the Wright County Sheriff's Office at 763 682-7879 this case for me was an intriguing one
and a listener recommendation several listeners had recommended this case they've still not found this poor young
woman and if you recall Captain it was one of the neighbors they lived in this really cool Community where it was these
nice homes and sometimes you might even describe a plot of land like a farm type
setting but they had these wonderful homes that were all by the lake there and kind of everybody knew everybody's
situation it's believed that one of the neighbors that somehow became aware that
this young 17-year-old attractive young lady is watching the neighbor's house house
sitting and she's by herself she's vulnerable and so it's always kind of been thought that this guy who was a
neighbor has something to do with her disappearance now a little bit behind the scenes on this case that we didn't
discuss when we were covering it not only did this story intrigue me and the way that this suspect has been able to
dodge police and really this is one of those situations I don't even know if we had a body if they would be able to
arrest him right we see that in a lot of these cases if they just could find the
victim we're pretty certain we know who did it and we're going to put that guy in handcuffs and he's going to have to
go to court and face the music this case I think most people think they know who
is responsible for her disappearance but I'm not convinced that even with a body
that that would lead to this individual's arrest now we don't know what they have hold back information I
don't suspect that there's a lot but that could change the outcome of that situ situation now behind the
scenes one thing that was intriguing to me is we were I was assisting porch light which is an Ohio nonprofit We
victim advocacy program that we've set set up years ago I've been heavily inv involved the captains helped us out we
were actively looking for new cases because thank you to all the people that have contributed to the Beer fund and
people that have contributed to pchonline.org we have enough funding to take on a couple more cases for
2025 actually we were looking for cases for the second part of 2024 and I can't go into the specifics
but we this covering Belinda van Li's disappearance on True Crime garage actually led to porchlight picking up a
case working with law enforcement on a current active case that we started working with law enforcement believe it
was in October so I'm interested to see where that's going to take us and where that will lead but the short of it what
I can say at this time is there is a a case here in Ohio where we have identified remains
that were found Foul Play suspected where I only came across the case only became aware of the case because Belinda
van lith is on the list of exclusions so if you go to namus you'll see that often
times with these unclaimed or unidentified remains they'll be exclusions people that they've been able
to exclude either based off of physical appearance or DNA a or other factors well our unidentified person
here in Ohio had a list of exclusions Belinda van lith being one of them so that means and and from my understanding
captain in this particular case that exclusion came by way of DNA meaning that they have Belinda van DNA even
though she went missing back in 1974 so reason to have some optimism about Belinda case and it was you never know
how you're going to find these cases and it's always interesting to me when when
one case leads to another and that certainly happened here and in some weird roundabout way we might be getting
Justice for somebody else because of Belinda at this point which would be absolutely amazing yeah so that's my
number five cabins by the lake my number five is episode 770 the Brian schaer interview Brian
schaer was 27 when he went missing he's he's the famous missing guy that goes into a bar is seen on CCTV footage going
into the bar but not seen on camera leaving the bar and this interview was with head detective of the case John
Hurst and the interview was done with me and Maggie freeling very proud of this episode it was interesting and a honor
to be a part of an interview on a case that I'm very fascinated with but also Maggie's a real journalist so just to
see how she conducted the interview the way she was taking notes during the process the way she was
Fallen up with certain questions and so to take this interview that we did a few
years back into edit it down for the show uh I thought every year that we do this podcast I think I learned more
about crime and one of the things I think I learned this year is one of the things that podcasts do documentaries do
news articles is we're putting pieces of the puzzle on the table or we're taking
those pieces of the puzzle off the table and so the more that we can put on the table the better picture of the case we
can get and I think that's what this interview does it gives us a better understanding of the case but also
better understanding of how law enforcement was looking into The Disappearance of 27-year-old Brian
Schaefer those were great episodes the other thing too don't sell yourself short what was great for me me as a
listener on that one was that you know you have Maggie with her background but also you with your background you have
an intimate knowledge of Columbus Ohio having grown up in Columbus Ohio lived in a Columbus Ohio for a very long time
and and also an understanding of the let's call it the music scene for Columbus Ohio because we do know that
that is part of the story Brian was there with friends and there was a band playing that night and so you were able
to offer a a an intriguing perspective from somebody that is a Columbus native which in a lot of tellings of Brian's
story his disappearance it's not being told by people that are from here or from the area so it adds a a different
layer to the the storytelling and to that interview my number four Captain is ran brazelle which was
episodes we it's part one through three kind of I mean we covered the case in Parts one and two but it's really
because of the third episode so these were episodes 741 742 and 743 from March of last year early March
March 6 6th 7th and 8th were the release dates of those episodes but it's really
episode three that that made this make it on the list for me so the show notes are in late February of 2004 5 a crew
working the A-line Subway tunnel in Brooklyn New York found dismembered body parts in trash bags later the victim was
identified as 19-year-old ran brazelle ran had vanished three days earlier the New York City Police Department searched
all over the country for Clues all over the country Ran's murder case was profiled several times on America's Most
Wanted and we covered it in the garage in 2024 it's one of those weird cases it sits in
the unsolved bin but many consider it to be solved just the person responsible has not been tried and convicted of
rashan's murder in fact the person believed to be responsible has been tried and convicted of another murder
and he's never getting out of prison or or hopefully never gets out of prison because this guy is a
serial killer it was episode 3 743 that really made me want to include this one on my list because we
interviewed Ran's mother desire and it was to discuss the case and and also where it stands today
because she's quite angry that they are refusing to charge this individual with her son's murder and I and we backed her
100% there seem seems to be evidence there seems to be reason to to try it however it feels like it's not a slam
dunk case and it seems like they're hesitant to try it because it's not a slam dunk
case and the guy is already locked up and he doesn't seem to be going anywhere and probably will never get out so it's
a situation where they feel they being the district attorney's office that it's kind of a no- win situation for
them right like it's it's it if they take the chance they could lose the case right if if they win it what are they
really gaining because this guy's already going to be in prison forever well but no the the mom says I want you
to I want you guys to see this through and you guys told me right you told me that you were going to you're going to
see this through and that you're going to get Justice for my son and that you're going to punish the individual to
the full extent of the law when this individual was caught and that has not happened and and and she has nudged them
very politely all along the way trying to get them and to remind them and what was so with this case and this story and
I like that we get to do these look in the rearview mirror and recommend some of these episodes to people because it
gives an opportunity to for us to explain some things that wouldn't be necessary to the storytelling of the
case some of the behind the scenes stuff and with this one what happened was the only
reason why we spoke with desire was look she's a bulldog man she she has made it up in her mind that she loved
her son her son was what like her like her best friend and she decided I'm going to fight for my son no matter what
nothing's going to stand in my way I'm going to fight for him so we get in touch with desire only because of the
detective so it reached out to the detective to get some information on this case cuz I was a little clueless
when I was going through the research and putting everything together I'm like I just don't understand why this
individual hasn't been charged for Ran's murder I'm talking to the detective and
he gave us some some information that you couldn't find in the in the newspapers and online and so I was very
thankful but he did tell me he said look nick uh you have to talk to rashan's mom
I said okay I'm happy to speak with her if if you say that's what I should do he
goes no he goes I promised this woman she made me promise her that anytime her son's case is talked about that she gets
a chance to weigh in and I said I told the detective absolutely I I mean if that's a mother's wish I we we we are
not going to stand in the way of a mother's wish I said so give me her email give me her phone number I'll
reach out to her just listening to her talk in that third episode and listening to her talk about her son and talk about
her case and how she believes it could have been handled differently I cannot say enough nice things about Ran's
mother it was and it was really powerful from even from a podcaster perspective to have that interview and look we've
interviewed plenty of family members of victims but this is one that I will absolutely never forget well I think
there was a question on whether we put it on the Main feed or if we put it on off the Record and what I was saying
five minutes ago this adds pieces of the puzzle to the case and that's why we thought it was important to put on the
Main feed that's exactly right so my number four is 11 skulls episodes 788 and 789 this is the episode that we did with
Josh Hallmark from True Crime [ __ ] and Dakota and Josh from somewhere in the Pines podcast this was our
discussion if you will on serial killer Israel Keys American serial killer that I've always been fascinated with and so
this was a way because Israel Keys has been covered so many times a little behind the scenes for the beautiful
listeners when a case has been covered so much or serial killer has been covered so much we try to think is there
something that we could bring to the table can we do something different to still cover the same information but
doing it in a different way and so this was a discussion between the five of us and um it was a a tough one to
edit because there was so many voices but um I think worth it in the end so so my number four is 11 skulls episodes 788
and 789 on your true crime garage radio dial well and it was really fun to work with those guys on mic and off mic all
three of them are brilliant in in the stuff that they're putting together and the stuff that they're putting out and
so it was really fascinating to hear what it is that they are up to and Josh from True Crime [ __ ] is like a
walking encyclopedia I branica about the case like you can ask him any detail from any year and he's got some
information that he can tell you and so talking with him was fascinating was fantastic and then the guys from
somewhere in the Pines who are just doing next level [ __ ] when it comes to what they're doing with with the Israel
Keys case actually going out and looking for these hidden concealed bar kill kits
that Keys put around the the country what I thought was so fascinating with talking with both those podcast are
their their podcasts are about the same case every week so you want to talk about a true Deep dive where as we cover
different cases every week so there's a fascinating aspect of that because man there's about five cases I would love to
just cover and talk about every week and probably could find some new piece of information every week to discuss but
also it's fascinating to see both True Crime [ __ ] and Somewhere In the Pines podcasts that are hands down going
to make a difference in the outcome of those cases because of Josh's work and because Somewhere In the Pines is work
we're going to have more information and we're going to be able to identify more victims and give answers to family
members of those victims because of their work when we come back the top three of 2024 but first a quick beer
[Music] break a few years ago while digging through a box in storage I expected to
find old keepsakes from the 1990s instead I found VHS tapes and police reports detailing a murder that happened
in Dayton Ohio police arrested Jim mcquarter from Timothy Perell for the Triangle Park murder and as the two are
brought to jail mcarter blames Terrell I do it right there right there as I dug through the contents of the box I
uncovered that the murderer may have been connected to a group who called themselves the Lords of death I'm
Thrasher Banks host of the new Tenderfoot TV showe Lords of death join me as I unpack the box and discover
connections between the Lords of death and a slew of unsolved murders they're just two little scrawny men but what
makes them so scary is their emptiness their lack of conscience people like that you know are capable of doing
anything Lords of death is available now listen for free on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast this
message is sponsored by Greenlight looking ahead is important it's important to teach kids important life
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garage to get started get me will Trent ABC tonight I don't even know where he is Will Trent
is back he's on you get hi time to come home the series that's being called one of the best network proed rols we're
going to solve this case featuring new cast member Gina Rodriguez I'm a prosecutor we deal in truth and facts
maybe everybody should try that huh will Tre the two-part season premiere begins
tonight on ABC and stream on Hulu the start of the new year is the perfect time to get organized set goals
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rocket money.com garage [Music] all right tall hands in the air thanks for telling your mother
thanks for telling your brother cheers everybody and cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain cheers to all of
the wonderful beautiful listeners out there thank you for being a for the ride for 2024 and we hope you are buckled up
and strapped in for 2025 because we got a lot of interesting cases and true crime stories coming your
way the calendar is shaping up nicely for 202 my number three True Crime garage episodes for 2024 Captain is the Florida
Vampire episodes Parts one and two this is episodes 749 and 7 50 from April April 9th and 10th in November of 1985
in Malibar Florida authorities responded to a strange and disturbing call a young
woman who had been abducted the day before somehow managed to escape from her captor home a motorist found the
young woman on the side of the road he took her to his home for both her protection and to call First Responders
for help the woman described to detectives what the abductor had subjected her to over the last 22 hours
an abduction case was rare but perhaps the most startling detail of the woman's story was that the man who had offered
her a ride he had then tortured her in his home he also drank the woman's blood these two
episodes were about John Brenan crutchley he is a convicted kidnapper and rapist widely regarded to be a a
serial killer the numbers are astonishing because he's suspected of potentially having murdered up to 30
women it is my belief and many in law enforcement as well that the woman who managed to escape from his home he would
have killed her remember if you listen to those episodes he they found in his possession driver's licenses of missing
women and murdered women we've seen with serial killers they take trophies for a lack of a better term
yeah and it's a little Hollywood esque right it's it's it's kind of something ripped right out of a movie that the
serial killer would keep a driver's license or state identification card but he had these in his possession it's in
the movies because it's based on reality that's right he had these in his possession with no explanation for why
he would have had these items so yeah this one this is a case we really kind of boiled it down and what I mean by
boiling it down is 30 might be uh an ambitious number for the potential number of victims of this guy but he he
had lived in in a few different states and what we were able to do in those episodes was to to give
a a good look at the timeline of his life and where he was at what year years and what he was doing in those areas and
then also cross reference that with murder victims or missing women in that area from those times and so we kind of
boiled it down from about 30 potential victims to I think we had him somewhere between 12 and 16 and some of the
victims look to be stronger there's a stronger argument for some of these victims that he's responsible than
others of course but yeah he's never been officially convicted of murder but suspected of
having killed many women several women and he's called The Vampire rapist that's his nickname we called him the
Florida vampire he's the vampire rapist because he drained the blood of his one confirmed victim almost to the point of
death and he also is on record saying that there were other women that he didn't kill that he drank their blood as
well as some as some kind of sexual thing that he was in to now th this these episodes were strange as I said
earlier each case each True Crime Story is unique and you have to take a different approach with each one and a
lot of times I don't know exactly the approach that I'm going to take when I start researching a case or how we're
going to tell the story a lot of times it's kind of presented to me along the way at some point and really this case
started off with the episodes that came out just prior to the vampire the Florida Vampire episodes so the episodes
prior 747 and 748 on your true crime garage listing dial those were titled murder at NAS Norfolk and what happened
there was Carol an molar a 21-year-old Navy clerk disappeared February 6th of 1983 her body was found about 3 months
later at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk Virginia so one of her relatives reached out to the
show and said look I I'm related to Carol an molar and her case is still unsolved and not only is it unsolved but
I believe it was NCIS as the investigating agency the lead on this case well NCIS is quite secretive right
you don't see them in the newspapers or on the news openly talking about their their open cases very often
so the relative reached out to us and said look you guys do I tune in and I I hear stuff on your guys's show details
about cases and stories that I I don't hear elsewhere so somehow you guys are finding this
information we our family we do not know very much about our relatives murder case there's not much in the newspapers
and NCIS is not talking anything that we could learn about the case we we want to know more about it so
can you guys do some digging and and tell us what you find and really her case is still still quite the mystery
and and one one thing we did determine is it was long suspected that her murder was connected to another murder the
murder of Pamela and Kimu we did a lot of looking and analyzing that potential and really I I think that argument falls
apart rather quickly I don't think those two cases are connected in fact Pamela and Kim's case has been solved somewhat
recently it was a cold case but they did make an arrest and that guy is put away
forever we were able to provide Carolyn's family with some more information that they had not had prior
to contacting us so I was very proud of that but what it spilled into was that John Brennan crutchley the vampire
rapist Florida vampire was considered or is considered by some to be a suspect in the Carol and Molar
murder and while we don't think that he is responsible what it turned into was this huge
story that ultimately took four episodes to tell there was enough activity in the
area of Norfolk at the time of carolanne molnar's murder in 1983 that we had to tell all that story
before we could even get to this John Brennen crutchley guy because his the things he suspected of and the things
that we were potentially able to tie him to it's a long list of of horrific things that this guy is suspected of
having committed yeah and like what we're talking about last week evidence found on the killer with these IDs and
you just wonder what compels them to hold on to this evidence that could lead them to be found guilty of other crimes
yeah I it's hard to say but my guess is that with a lot of these types that this
is something that they've long desired to do they've long fantasized about committing these types of crimes and
therefore when they do they need some kind of something to hold on to to relive it because for them it's like one
of their greatest achievements right like if you and I were to go out and play a high school football and win the
state yeah never would they would give us a trophy and we we could hang on to that forever and and
keep it if we wish well that would be a major accomplishment for a normal person
for these types these kind of Acts are their major accomplishment well that's a great number three a lot of twist and
turns and my number three has a lot of twist and turns also my number three is out or in episode 787
this is about Bob Gil he was a bar owner he turned around a failing bar to become
a successful bar years later he goes missing he is found miles away from where he should be dressed as a ninja
out in the fields and that's just the beginning of this tale this is one of the true crime stories that if I'm at a
party and I start talking about Bob Gill's case people don't even believe it they they think you're making
most of it up which is just proof that the truth is Stranger Than Fiction it does sound like something from a crime
fiction book right it really truly does and it's an incredibly fascinating case and one where we we're pretty sure we
know who did it but then it comes down to you got to prove it yeah can can you prove it and and it wasn't the only
murder discussed in that episode because there were there was another homicide that seems like this this guy was
masterful at duping people out of their money but also probably having to commit
murder to to do so or at least in Bob's case yeah it's almost like the murders are secondary to the con man job the
greed driven killer who will kill multiple people for his own advancement and his own greed my number two Captain
I have apex predator Parts one and two episodes 743 and 744 from March those came out in March 12 and 13 of
2024 the Virginia State Police and the FBI are calling Allan Wade Wilmer senior a serial killer after his death Alan
Wade Wilmer Senor was linked to three murders two of those murders are part of the series known as the Colonial Parkway
murders Allan Wade Wilmer Senor killed David nobling and Robin Edwards in Isle of white in
1987 and he is also responsible for the murder of Teresa how in Hampton Virginia
this week in the garage sorry this is from the show notes this week in the garage Nick and the captain discussed
how police linked Alan Wilmer to these murders discussing where the other Parkway cases stand and relation to him
being a good suspect so I was always and have been for a very long time consumed
by the Colonial Parkway murders just a case that it was one that we you know we covered many years ago and one thing
that's so unique about that case in compared to other serial killer cases and I'm talking about unidentified
serial killer cases it's we have the series of murders and no one can really if you if you
collected a hundred people that were involved in this story the overarching story of all uh eight of these it's
technically six murders in two disappearances but it's it's let's go ahead and say eight murders because
those the Disappeared people they've not been seen forever I mean for for over 30
years by this point these eight homicides were broken up into four different events or attacks and if you collected
the the different jurisdictions and people that worked the cases or people that were affected by the cases being
the the family members of these eight victims you're not going to get all of them to agree 100% that these cases are
in fact all committed by the same perpetrator or perpetrators I want to make sure we say that because I have
some suspicions about Allan Associates of Alan Wade Wilmer Senor but it took all of this time Captain to finally
connect and solve two of the cases so David nobling and Robin Edwards were out together at Isle of white in 1987 where
they were it it looks to me and based off of what we now know about the case that the killer stumbled upon these two
and for a lack of better term Hunted them down in the middle of the night when he stumbled upon them they're out
just having a good time and they come across the absolute monster with a shotgun
so the the I was very happy to see that they've Advanced the case we also talked
about some of the weird problems and maybe even weird stumbles by Virginia State Police and the FBI on this case
because Alan Wade Wilmer Senor turns out was a suspect in one of the other cases
he he he was one of their Prime suspects at one point and they moved on from him
yeah and never really circled back to him and then he then he's later after he dies well after he's dead they say well
we have DNA evidence that tells us that he is absolutely responsible for these two murders that are part of the
Colonial Parkway series but also this Teresa how from Hampton Virginia that we didn't know was connected to any of
those other murders at all and one thing we were able to do too is to look at his
activities best that we could find and bring up some other potential victims of his well like you said in the
Colonial Parkway murders there's eight murder victims so then if you add the other case now we got nine victims and
is he only responsible for those nine or could there be a plethora of other victims and and I think that there there
are Ag and we did point out some in fact we pointed out one victim in particular
who has a direct connection from victim to him as a suspect so look into that and and check those ones out if you
haven't already apex predator yeah and you could go back and listen to the original Parkway murders coverage add
those to your list and now you you got a whole series so my number two which is weirdly it's it's kind of part of a
series even though we didn't label it as such is West Memphis 3 a harvest of Innocence this is where you were able to
sit down with Dan stum defense attorney for Jesse Miss Kelly and the famous West
Memphis 3 case episodes 756 757 the reason why I say it's kind of a part of a series and it really didn't get its
due because I think we confused the listeners a little bit we put out our original coverage of the West Memphis 3
followed it up with these two episodes where you sat down and talked with Dan stum about his book and about his time
and his involvement in the West Memphis three case but then after that we had a two-part Series where it was just me and
you discussing where are our thoughts at on this case so many years after we originally covered it yeah and 30 years
after the the case took place so maybe I I don't know what the best way to do this is because you're spoton with your
with what you're saying here is that it kind of got lost in the sauce a little bit and and that was was similar to what
took place with our John Benet ramsy coverage because we were we're at crime con earlier and in
2024 and several people that had come up to our table oh by the way if you want to attend crime con 2025 it's in
September in the beautiful city of Denver tickets are available now please use our promo code TCG you can save I
think it's 10% on your on your purchase but regardless you will save a little bit of Kola but we're at crime con and
several people come up to us and they're like I love your guys' coverage of John
Benet Ramsey and I remember going oh yeah did you like the new episodes that we put out so we put out additional John
Benet Ramsey episodes in December of 2023 having already covered Ramsay when did we first cover that 21 I Believe it'
been a couple years yeah but but we added six or seven more episodes of of John B Ramsay coverage and what we did
was we re-released our previous Ramsay coverage and Then followed it up with the additional episodes or maybe we had
the additional episodes first I don't remember the exact order but what we're doing here with the West Memphis 3 stuff
is similar where we're kind of setting the table right like here's what we've already discussed because in a lot of
these cases our initial coverage we're going through the timeline we're going through the facts we're going through
the questions that remain so that that is the case that is the big bulk of the case itself now we're revisiting it and
looking at it through a different lens and from a different angle and it would be redundant to go through the entire
timeline again or go through the entire list of evidence again because we've already covered that and a lot of times
especially with West Memphis 3 and joh Ramsay just going through the timeline and the evidence takes up a full episode
or two anyway and so we would never really get to the new angle the new looking at it through a different lens
and so we kind of set the table that way but then it gets lost on the listeners not not at large but in some form and
fashion so maybe I don't know if there's if there if any of the listeners have a
great suggestion yeah of of a way that we could do that and present that better to you so that it's it's not lost
because what we had was a lot of people with John Benet said what do you mean you did new episodes they said well just
last December we released several new episodes where we we spoke with uh John Anderson who was was good friends with L
SMI we spoke with uhu Steph and Joyce singular who wrote presumed guilty which is one of the more fascinating John B
Ramsey investigation books and we brought in all these additional people to help us look at the case and really
discussed a lot of information that was not covered in our first go round with it yeah it's like a like I said it was
us putting more pieces of the puzzle on the table well and and so a lot of the my the responses I was getting was oh I
just thought that you were re-releasing the episodes I didn't realized that there was new stuff and so I was very
happy to point out that yes there is new stuff and one thing that we set out to do when we first started doing True
Crime garage we didn't know how we were going to do a lot of what it is that we do and and that's
certainly morphed and evolved and changed throughout the years yeah but one thing we did set out to do when we
first started a conversation that the captain and I had was we don't want to be one of these shows that discusses a
case and then never discusses that case ever again and of course we are are there's good and bad with covering a new
case each and every week we would be remiss if we didn't revisit cases when there was new angles to explore or an
update yeah it seems like every week now I am running into New pieces of the puzzle and old cases that we've covered
I almost feel like I should do some kind of tick tock series or YouTube series where I just go hey
you remember the John Ben Ramsey case well here's a piece of information you probably never heard before or you know
the West Memphis 3 case here's a piece of information you might never heard before and some of those pieces of
information when they're new you it can alter the way you examine the other pieces of the puzzle that you already
know yeah and a lot of times too for those of you that have not checked out our subscri destion show off the Record
yet a lot of times too those updates or further discussions about cases that we've covered will be featured on off
the Record and a lot of that has to do with just the amount of information you know we do get a lot of people wonderful
people that will email and say hey Nick hey the captain there's been an update in one of your guys' cases do you plan
to revisit it and we almost always do you just may not hear it because it it does most most of the time find its way
to off the Record because if an update it only takes us 15 or 20 minutes to discuss then it it doesn't really
necessarily warrant putting it on the Big Show here so there are a lot of updates and a lot of further discussions
on off the Record and but that was a case where Dan stum who is somebody that we've always wanted to talk to I mean
there there's no shortage of people that we would want to talk to regarding the West Memphis 3 case but he was certainly
high on that list and the opportunity to speak with him and he's uh he's he's like the captain and I he's a long
winded fella so uh we we got to talk to him a lot and he doesn't what I like lik
to drink a little bit too well well I do I actually he didn't join me in a drink
unfortunately because of of a health concern at the time but uh well we hope that he's back to drinking the thing
here is though what I appreciated about Dan was he didn't pull any punches right
if if there was something on his mind or a thought that he had about the case he's not reluctant to share because he
he's aggravated that it's drug on for so long and he's moved on with his career he's now a judge but I appreciated that
he wasn't you know you you get sometimes when you talk to somebody that you know
has great information about a case and they're a little guarded and and he he wasn't he was a all walls down I'll tell
you whatever it is that you want to know if I know something about a detail about
the case he was willing to discuss it with us and he certainly did on those episodes my number one here captain and
you'll see maybe you see a little bit of a theme with some of my choices uh for our our picks here a lot of it has to do
with not just episodes that I'm very proud of but also episodes where we've furthered the coverage of a case and
then in this particular case where there was a a major update leading to an arrest this my number one episode was
sharef Ramen from January of last year and that was January 9th the release date it's episode number
728 the show notes are on Thursday night August 2023 so we were covering this just
months after this unfortunate event when Sharie Ramen was murdered business owner
and pillar of the community Sharie Ramen was attacked outside of his Owen Sound Ontario restaurant sadly Sharie did not
survive so he he goes to the hospital from these horrific injuries that he sustained during this attack this brutal
attack that involved Three Men and the the Owen Sound Police Department were asking the public for help to identify
the three men that they believed were all linked to the murder of Sharie Ramen so he's attacked there were
photographs of suspects who they were calling suspects number one and two fleeing the scene and there were also
some vehicles that police had questions about that they believe may be involved in this homicide so this one really
stuck with me for a lot of reasons and I've said this openly on the show many times there are some cases that bother
me more on an emotional level bother me more than others and I don't know why that is there is doesn't seem to be any
Rhyme or Reason for it but this one really bothered me maybe I can give a little rhyme and reason to this one part
of it was the wonderful nice things that people of this community had to say about shareif he was a husband and a
father and a business owner and he also was an individual that volunteered his time to helping others and he used his
restaurant to try to feed the local homeless Community as well I mean so just a guy that's doing wonderful
amazing things and he gets attacked by these three people that were patrons of his restaurant if not just for that one
single night pieces of [ __ ] absolute pieces of [ __ ] and what what I loved about this one was there was an update
this did lead to the arrest it was actually they arrested three individuals and the case was rather complicated the
investigation was rather complicated because it was International they arrested um some individuals from the UK
we're glad to see that that case is moving in the right direction and sadly Sharie left behind a young daughter and
it just it's one of those it's one of those attacks and horrific public violence scenarios that you just would
never dream up especially for this Victim Because this victim there was no re I mean there's no reason for most of
these victims to be a victim in in any of the cases that we cover but but to see uh a person who is best described as
a cherished member of the community being assaulted so badly that he dies in the hospital was just beyond belief and
and Beyond Comprehension for for me and so I was so we had locals locals who reached out to True Crime garage and
asked us to cover it because the the police were searching for these individuals and were wanting help and
they actually belied they they said it in some of their statements to the public we have reason to believe that
there's a potential that these suspects are not local because this is an area that people travel to to visit on
vacation and what have you and also that we've made enough of a public plea that
we think that if they were local and mind you at the same time there were people a huge outpouring for this man's
death and for his murder a huge outpouring of people going to public vigils and Candlelight vigils and and
and trying to come together as a community to help solve this case and make an arrest as a community working
with the police force there so they had some reason to believe that there's a potential high potential that these
suspects are not local and therefore they needed people to spread the word wide and far M and I was very happy that
we were in a small way part of that spreading the word and so quickly to rush to doing it too because it's not
often that we are covering a case just months after after it broke and so we we were I was very proud that we could be a
part even if it was in some small way to to spreading the information spreading awareness about the case and most
important spreading awareness that police are looking for two or three individuals that they believe are are
responsible and oh by the way we have images of two of these individuals we have images of vehicles We Believe are
are tied to this case and so there is a breadcrumb trail here we just need you John Q public to help us connect the
dots yes so I want to thank all the listeners that follow us on Instagram Facebook Twitter all that stuff that
shared those images because it all helps and and I like to go on social media myself and and watch silly videos and
videos where people are singing karaoke badly and I like to share the the funny videos or things that I think are
funny uh to to my friends uh so they have a little laugh and but I also think that these posts are very important to
share as well to spread the word and maybe somebody in another country sees your story that you posted and goes I
think I know that guy because of people sharing this stuff on social media and through the internet this is how law
enforcement gets more tips and like the colonel said we have three men that have
been arrested there's not a lot of information about that as we stand today but it's something I'm sure we're going
to update eventually on off the Record so my number one is it's maybe a little self-serving but it's our four-part
series episodes 802 to 805 Robert Juan and the reason why this is self-serving is because my favorite
episodes that we do are the cases that lead to discussion points and where we can speculate at a little bit or have a
little bit of a back and forth cuz I always feel like I learn more about the case by going well what about this or
what do you think of this you never uh seem to amaze me no just you never cease to amaze me that you always
come up with some angle on a piece of evidence or or some speculation that I I just never would have thought of of my
own well I appreciate you saying that that U I can't always do that with every case but the cases when we're when we're
working on them and before we hit record on on the episodes 95% of the time like
I'm I'm almost living and breathing the case for the days leading up to recording it to the point where I'm like
can't sleep at night lying in bed thinking about something driving me nuts about the case and so sometimes I'm able
to come up with something of consideration and other times not but uh yeah that that was one of those cases
that definitely kept me up at night for several nights in a row and it's it's one of those cases that I think they I
think from a strategy standpoint law enforcement and the prosecution had the right idea of charging those individuals
with conspiracy unfortunately it just didn't shake out as good of a job as I believe that they did it's that
convoluted of a case it it's that tricky of a case that it's just too hard to get a
conviction in something that that uh confusing really I mean that's the best way to describe that
case is confusing yeah and a little behind the scenes for the listeners we we have had to argue for the fact that
when you have ads on your show they want a set schedule and what we've had to argue or push back on consistently every
time we have a a contract negotiation we have to argue we let the case determine how many
episodes it's going to be if there's enough to talk about for six episodes we're going to do that if there's only
enough information to give the public for one episode that's what the case will be let the case dictate how we
cover the case yeah and I and I don't want to chastise other podcasts because everybody they have their own they have
their own formula but but one thing that I think is a little Annoying and it's not most True Crime podcasts most True
Crime podcasts don't handle it this way but there are some out there and the listeners will they've come across the
same thing so they'll share they'll share my disdain for this with me but there are some shows out there that are
very cookie cutter where it doesn't matter if they're talking about the Zodiac case or a case that happened an
hour down the road that you've never heard of before they're a 30 minute show and they they put it they put what they
can into 30 minutes or 45 minutes or whatever whatever their time SCH is and that's it for their coverage of the case
whether whether it warrants further coverage or not and I just I can't you and I can't operate that way yeah that's
not the show that we want to put out right and it so we will dedicate an episode to each and every one of these
victims that we possibly can but sometimes the case warrants the story warrants a second third or fourth
episode and we've gone even further fur than that before and like we said before
we always try to revisit a case when it is warranted we always try to revisit a case when needed and so we just
absolutely cannot stress this enough and cannot say it enough we shout it from the mountaintops captain that we we love
each and every one of you and we thank you for being along with us for this incredible ride and enjoy and joining us
each and every week in the garage I say that with open arms uh group hug you can
just do a quick group hug right here they always tell me every year at crime con they always pull me aside the people
from crime con they pull me aside they say captain can you explain something to me
and I go what is it I'm pretty knowledgeable what do you need to know they go why is it that true crime garage
fans are the smartest best looking they smell better they feel better why are they the best
listeners on the planet and I say I I don't know they just are they just are so we want to thank you so much for
listening and joining us each and every week thanks for a great 2024 onward and upward in
2025 make sure you tell your mother make sure you tell your brother and make sure
you subscribe to True Crime garage and until next week be good be kind and don't let him
[Music] prepare for the crime and investigation event of the new year with the premiere
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Best of True Crime Garage 2024

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

Happy New Year to everyone. This week we take a look back and discuss our Top True Crime stories that we covered here in the Garage in 2024. Both the Captain and Nic deliver to you a Top 5 from the True Crime Garage 2024 catalog. If you are looking for some top stories that you may have missed, you have found yourself in the right place.

Want to learn more about the True Crime Garage podcast catalog? Check out these episodes for more recommended pod listening.

Best of True Crime Garage 2021 - Episode #546 from January 4, 2022

The Very Best of True Crime Garage - Episode #453 from December 22, 2020

Best of True Crime Garage 2020 - Episode #452 from December 16, 2020

More True Crime Garage can be found on Patreon and Apple subscriptions with our show - Off The Record. Catch dozens of episodes of Off The Record plus a couple of Bonus episodes and our first 50 when you sign up today.

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Brief Summary

Nick and the Captain review their top five True Crime episodes from 2024, highlighting significant cases and community impacts.

Key points

Will Trent is Back. The series returns with a two-part season premiere featuring new cast member Gina Rodriguez.
True Crime Garage's 2024 Recap. The hosts reflect on their favorite episodes from the past year, sharing insights and memorable moments.
Ran Brazelle's Case. The hosts discuss the unresolved murder of Ran Brazelle and the ongoing fight for justice by his mother.
The Florida Vampire. Exploring the chilling case of John Brennan Crutchley, a suspected serial killer.
Bob Gill's Unbelievable Disappearance. A bar owner goes missing, found dressed as a ninja in the fields.
Allan Wade Wilmer: The Colonial Parkway Killer. Linking a suspected serial killer to multiple murders in Virginia.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Happy 2025!

A cheerful greeting to the listeners.

2:36WatchJan 7, 2025

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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