Chelsea Small /// Part 1 /// 495 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that would like for everyone to know that the attendant did
not strap him in here is the captain it's gonna be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening and thanks for
telling my friend [Music] this week we are very excited thrilled even to be featuring sneaky effin
vanilla Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial Stout with Madagascar vanilla by the hard-working crew over at Arcane Ale
Works we're going to drop a four and a quarter bottle cap rating on this one and let's give some cheers and thanks to
our good friends that helped us out with this week's beer fun first up let's do a
big big cheers and thanks for listening to Morgan wallet and Prosper Texas cheers to you Morgan a big shout out to
Justin in Alpharetta Georgia next we have a cheers to Carmel in Daytona Beach Florida the big we like your jib to
Catherine and Groton Massachusetts and here's a double cheers to our friends up north to Sally and moosey and Canada and
last but certainly not least we have Megan in North Chicago so a big thank you goes out to everyone who has
contributed to the True Crime garage beer fund yeah BW e double r u n beer run and if you're on the mainland list make
sure you check your inbox there will be a promo code to the store if you're not on the mailing list get on
the mailing list and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
talk some true crime foreign [Music] [Music] most crimes are solved fairly quickly
this includes the worst and most heartbreaking of crimes murder law enforcement used information
collected at the crime scene and eyewitnesses to lead them to the perpetrator or perpetrators of the
crimes they are investigating and then an arrest is made after that it's left to the courts and often a jury
of one's peers to sort it out and it's another bad guy or killer off the streets but then
there are those crime scenes that yield little in the way of Clues and after talking with persons in the
area you discover they too are able to provide only a tiny amount of helpful and useful information
it doesn't happen often but when it does law enforcement rely on their greatest of allies
the General Public because the public together is powerful and generally despises criminals
especially the violent ones as much as the women and men with badges working so hard to track them down
and that is what we have on tap here in the garage this week it's a unique crime of the worst kind
a killer with a brief interaction with the victim and then just seconds later he vanishes
leaving police with little to work with one of the first articles regarding this
murder is from the Detroit Free Press from November 13 2013 and reads Taylor Michigan
clerk at cash advance store killed police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 30-year-old female clerk
at an Advance America cash advance store 8229 Telegraph one question facing detectives is
whether Chelsea and small a mother of two from Gibraltar knew her attacker an alarm was pressed just before noon
Tuesday police say officers found small dead the killer had fled security tapes show a male suspect
call 1-800 speak up if you have information but garage regulars will know that we have a much larger story to
tell join us as we tell this horrific True Crime Story and ask the Public's help to track down
a killer this is true crime garage before we get ear balls deep into this week's case I think it is most fitting
to paint a picture of the area of where this horrific crime took place this week's unsolved homicide does not belong
in any town or city but it's incredibly out of character for where it did take place so today we are going to go to
Taylor Michigan which is located in Wayne County Michigan and Taylor is southwest of Detroit the population is a
little more than 60 thousand good hard-working people the crime rate in Taylor is not what I would call
particularly high for a city of that size but we should know in the last 20 years on a scale of 1 to 100 the U.S
violent crime rate is 22.7 and Taylor Michigan's violent crime rate comes in at 27.1 so a little above
the national average but 60 000 people is a considerable population and due to the city's
location it's near Detroit and the other nearby cities are pretty well populated
too Taylor sees its fair share of traffic and passers through now I've never been to Taylor only drove
through myself but from what I can tell this is your typical nice Michigan City Taylor is named for Zachary Taylor a
one-time national hero and our 12th president and Taylor we have a well-traveled road where the unsolved
homicide that we are discussing this week this is where this went down this is on Telegraph Road Telegraph is part
of U.S Highway 24. the highway runs through three counties in Southeastern Michigan this is Monroe Wayne and
Oakland counties so obviously this is a well-traveled road this is Telegraph Road now back in 2013 on Telegraph Road
we had the Advance America check cashing store this is one of those High interest
rate loan joints every city has one in larger cities you'll certainly see several of these types of businesses if
Advance America specializes in lines of credit payday loans which is a short-term loan typically paid
typically due on your next payday installment loans and title loans where you get money by offering up the title
to your vehicle but you still get to drive your vehicle as you pay that back and I don't know about today but back in
2013 some of these locations offered Tax Services as well I'm unsure captain of the business hours
eight years ago but I wouldn't imagine that the business hours would vary Too Much from the current hours which are as
follows closed on Sunday important especially in this case now we are going to take you back to
Tuesday November 12 2013. we have 30 year old Chelsea Small she is working solo at the Advance
America located at 8229 Telegraph Road in Taylor the business opened up at 10 A.M that
day so I would imagine this means she is arriving shortly before 10 a.m depending
on the opening duties Chelsea is working in a manager capacity which would be expected if she is opening and operating
the business by herself which is the case on this day according to Chelsea's mother Debbie Cayman around 10 30 a.m
the two of them talked briefly on the phone Debbie says Chelsea told her that she had just finished up some of her
early morning tasks and really everything sounded like business as usual Chelsea's only complaint was that it
seemed like they were dumping a lot of work on her at this current time we all experienced this at work right just
another day especially middle of the week when you just want to get all of your work done get the work day over
with and go home so this is very likely the way that Chelsea felt on this Tuesday so
everything was plain and simple normal this is until 1204 PM so this is lunch hour on a very busy road
a man knocks on the door of the Advance America now we say Knox we don't know for certain
but in the dramatization that they show the man knocked or tapped on the door but what we do know for certain is that
there would be some type of notification that the man wanted to enter the business
be it simply visual or otherwise because the store Front is glass including the front door but the door is always locked
it's typical for these businesses to always be locked even during business hours and you even see this at some
banks and jewelry stores and such so think of a jewelry store or a bank where you have to be buzzed in this is the
same thing you can't enter until a staff member hits the button which unlocks the
door and then you are free to proceed inside now some robberies are obvious right you see a mask you see a weapon or
someone you know to be bad news and you don't hit the button you don't unlock the door some robberies are obvious this
one was not what Chelsea would have seen when looking at the man standing at the
door waiting to be buzzed in is a pretty average looking stocky middle-aged man she buzzes him in he opens the door and
walks inside now the layout of the business is very basic you have the storefront where the customers enter
Then There is probably about eight feet deep maybe a little more but all the way
across the entire width of the store this is standing room only space where lines can form
this standing space leads up to counters where staff can assist the clients the counter goes all the way across so
picture a line that goes from one wall all the way to the other this completely separates the staff from
the customers on the other side there is a little door in the middle of the counter and the counter is like chest
High and the little door looks to be just slightly shorter than the counter Now Chelsea is sitting at the counter
space furthest to the left of the man so he walks in and approaches Chelsea at this counter space to the left it
looks to me like she starts to get up and this could be for any number of reasons simply just to greet the
customer or she could have noticed something because this man has a gun now the gun is not obvious to me before
he is standing right in front of her in fact he brought with him a dark bag so I
have seen and heard this bag described two different ways one like a banker type bag this could be
with a zipper or some of them even have maybe a lock but the way that it's most commonly
described and described by detectives as well is that the bag is more like one of
those flimsy drawstring type bags and again I've seen and watched the security camera footage repeatedly and
it absolutely looks like a cheap drawstring bag to me and I gotta tell you Captain it looks way too much like a
drawstring type bag that I'm awfully shocked that there's even that bank bag description I think
that that just kind of muddies the waters a bit let's go a little more in depth of what we see we have a white
male wearing a black baseball cap dark blue I can't tell if it's a shirt or if it's a jacket but it looks like it's
either tucked into his pants or maybe it's a elastic waist if it's a jacket he's wearing black pants and it looks
like um they look like tennis shoes to me but I can't tell if they're just like dirty
white tennis shoes or if they're supposed to be like tan they're described by law enforcement as
light-colored boots or shoes and then also you notice on the baseball cap there's a little white marking on one
side so there's an emblem on the front of the ball cap and an emblem on one side of
the cap and there's also some kind of white tag or some kind of white emblem somewhere on his pants it might be it's
near the belt area uh if for those that have not seen pictures of this perpetrator but from what I can tell the
perp arrived at the Advance America store with the bag so then he will take this with him
when he leaves so other than what can be seen on the security footage of course no one knows for certain exactly what
kind of bag it is we can only look at it from the footage and describe it it's dark in color and if I had to guess it's
black but again we can't say for sure and I'd agree with you most of the pictures that you see
of this bag I would agree with you it looks like a cheap drawstring type bag but there is one image where it looks
like maybe there's a zipper across the whole top or maybe it's an envelope or something
sticking out there's one picture that maybe looks more like a bank bag yeah it definitely appears to open on the top or
on one side okay so the man walks in and goes to the counter at the far left Chelsea is sitting and appears to start
to stand up either to greet him or because she is alarmed by seeing the gun my guest Captain is that the gun was in
this bag as he gets to the counter and then he pulls the gun from the bag and he immediately shoots Chelsea Small
shoots her once he then appears to place the bag on the counter and then he walks
and I want to strongly emphasize this for those who have not seen this footage he walks he does not run
in fact he walks very calmly to his right to that little door the door that separates the counters
he reaches over the door again the door is just a little shorter than the counters to the left and he
hits some kind of latch or lever on the staff side of the door this frees the door for him to push it
open and he walks still very calmly behind the counter to the left up to the victim and then fires the gun again
he then can be seen looking around like on some of the counters behind the counters and then he walks towards the
back wall still in the same room appears to check some kind of cabinet and calmly walks
back to the front of the store now he's in the customer area again and then I believe he puts the gun back
inside of this bag I can't tell for certain but right the gun goes away and then he walks out of the store
when officers arrive on the scene they arrive within minutes and they find Chelsea Small Dead behind the counter
now a few things happened during the course of these events and we'll go through each item after I list them here
one the killer did make off with some money two Chelsea activated the silent alarm this is how law enforcement knew
to arrive on the scene indicating that a robbery was in progress and three at some point during this
whole situation the Killer's gun jammed or malfunctioned at some point so the killer entered the Advance America store
at 1204 PM this is a very specific time and detectives would know this obviously
based off of the security camera footage but likely from the electronic magnet door lock as well
now the building I worked in years ago it would make an electronic record every time the door was unlocked and opened so
while he would need to be buzzed in one could simply trigger the infrared proximity sensor and click the door
unlocked so he could leave the story it needs to be buzzed in but does not need to be buzzed out
now before we get into those three pieces of information Captain I want to talk about the timing of all of this
along with the door to the business so we know thanks to the security measures and technology that the perpetrator
entered at 1204 PM this again is the lunch hour on a very busy road and then as far as we're being told
nobody sees a thing what we are being told is simply that the security camera is our only eyewitness so the timing
seems weird but notice when we went through the business hours on Tuesdays Advance America is open only from 10 a.m
to 2 P.M so it's the shortest hours of operation for the entire week remind me where they
open on Mondays the business is closed on Sunday open from 10 a.m to 6 P.M Monday
Wednesday Thursday Friday 10 a.m to 2 p.m on Tuesday and 9 A.M to 1 p.m on Saturdays so maybe the
perpetrator knows that there could be less customers on Tuesday or possibly he knows that there's less employees on
Tuesday because of the shorter schedule right and so where my head goes is I believe
this tells us one of two things possibly both for the business itself either the
structure of this day is significant to the business due to some kind of operational procedure required by the
business right or and maybe it's an Andor this is most often the day when the business receives
the least amount of traffic the least amount of opportunity to generate more business less traffic means less staff
so you got to wonder is this kind of random did he just pick this day at random because it was good
for his schedule or did he want to do this on this day because of the Limited hours right so did the killer know this
and was this Cho his choice of hitting the business on a Tuesday part of some kind of bigger plan right if I'm robbing
the place or targeting someone that works there well this is a good day for me to carry
this out as I should in most likelihood encounter less tellers or staff also less customers less people in the
parking lot but then my other question though too is if this is the day that the business is going to see the least
amount of customers is it possible this is the day that they carry the least amount of cash with inside the building
that's a good question and again I I also point out the possibility that it has something to do
with the the behind the scenes operation of the business right and that might just be the case we don't know for
certain but regardless these are hours that are posted that people could easily find I personally believe that it's it's
not so random that he picked this day and it happens to be their shortest day I kind
of feel like we're working with a sophisticated criminal someone that takes a lot of time and
and planning goes into crimes as well as a man that a criminal that's patient I agree because like you
said when he come when he gets into the building he shoots her right away it's almost
like he he had a plan and he really stuck to his plan and that's what's so damn tricky about this case because you
go all right well he shoots her right away so was he was he there just to commit the murder and then take some
cash to make it a little confusing right to appear as the mode of being robbery and not murder or did he decide in
advance you know I'm making this robbery I'm not leaving any Witnesses right or did he
did he somehow figure out that she hit the panic button that she triggered the silent alarm so I spoke with one of the
detectives that's worked this case and he told me it was in fact you know a very traditional silent alarm the the
robber would not have heard anything it's not a you know like most people's home security systems there's a loud
siren that's going off this would have been a button that she would have pushed that that he may have seen her push it
he may not have we can't tell from the security footage I'm on this idea right now of the parking lot Captain because
if he did choose this day I think he chose this day for the purpose of there being less staff there probably number
one good chance of less customers less people in the parking lot you don't want people seeing you in and out of this
business on this day So speaking of the parking lot we've already mentioned that this is a
major road there are a lot of businesses obviously on this street in 2013 the Advance America was located at 8229
Telegraph now it's no longer there there is a tax place there now I believe from my understanding is that once this
homicide took place I'm not certain that the business ever opened back up or if they did
people stop going there there's a tax there the tax place there now so this was on the east side of the
street in a shared building there's room for four businesses in this building with their own storefronts so
you would have the addresses of 8225 8229 8233 and 8237 8229 is Advance America it's the second
from the left when you're facing the building there were two other businesses in operation at that time
so I imagine the parking lot in 2013 would have been configured about the same as it is today and it looks to be
that there are just six parking spaces in front of the businesses that's a total of six not six each
the building is bookended by additional parking the problem with our case is we don't
have any Witnesses to the crime other than this single security camera inside the Advance
America we don't have security footage from outside Advance which could provide some answers right like what I'm
guessing the other workers and the other building never even heard gunshots you'd
love to know what kind of vehicle this guy was driving yeah you know make model year maybe even
a plate number you'd you'd love to know where this guy parked because here's the
other troubling thing we don't have any eyewitnesses saying they saw this guy outside
of the Advance America we don't have anybody telling us what kind of vehicle he was driving where he came from and of
course where did he go makes you wonder if somebody dropped him off and I mean this is such a quick attack
quick plan executed that did somebody drop him off stroke her back around and pick him up and head out of town wonder
if he didn't park there or didn't get dropped off and I'm basing that off of fact that we don't have anybody telling
us that they saw him coming or going from the store and this is bizarre because it really
reminds me a lot of the I-70 killer case where we had a suspect description and a
gun description but out of all of those attacks no one seemed to know what the guy was driving where he came from and
where he went now one suspicion in that case in the I-70 case was that the perpetrator was parking in the
neighborhoods that the businesses backed up to and that could very well be the case
here as that is a possibility if you look it up on the map there are houses behind the Advance America building West
Point Street runs behind the businesses and in fact West Point dead ends twice so the road stops it's not complete so
there are houses on West Point it dead ends there's like one lot size of space that is grass
and then the road starts again and there are some more houses so someone could park their vehicle
along West Point Road or at either of the dead end spots cut through a yard again there's
that space that is just grass so you don't even really have to you don't even need to cut through someone's actual
property you walk calmly no one notices you if you look like you should be there it's a
busy road lots of people moving about you walk calmly to the parking lot walk past the pizza place up to the door of
the Advance America and earlier we said knocked on the door to notify Chelsea that he wanted in
because that's the way it went down in the dramatization but from the news footage
I looked at the news footage from that November 2013. now mind you the cameras that are trying
to film this this is After Crime Scene tape is set up and everybody already knows what went down
but the cameras are back by the street so they're a little distance away so it's a little hard to tell but it looks
to me Captain like there's a button to the left of the door this is probably a bell or a buzzer that
the customers push that trigger some kind of noise notification to the staffer so they can make a quick visual
check of the person unlock the door and let the customer in in this case the man
in now your thought goes to well then this buzzer or Bell would be the one thing
for certain that we know the killer touched so let's try to pull some prints off of
this thing now again I've watched the security footage that was released to the news outlets
over and over again and I am 100 convinced that the man is wearing gloves in fact I believe he's wearing white or
off-white latex gloves and if so fingerprints won't be a factor and the only thing you really see him
touch on the camera footage once he's inside is that latch on the back of the door to go behind the counter
on the footage I believe that I'm seeing a much different color let's pretend he's not wearing gloves it would look to
me like his his face color in hand skin color are completely different and that's what I'm kind of basing that off
of that it looks to me that he could be wearing gloves foreign [Music] [Music] [Music]
all right we're back cheers me mateys cheers to you crispy of the crispiest kernels cheers captain and I will be
posting this surveillance footage on our Instagram Facebook and also our website
at True Crime garage so check it out because I'd be interested to see if people will see anything different than
we are picking up on the other thing too is think of this week's episodes as more
of a commercial right it's a commercial asking everyone for their help put your eyes on this footage let us know what
you see let the police know if you know something or recognize this man and the captain every week thanks you for
listening thanks you for telling a friend this week we would like to thank you for
telling a friend about this case not necessarily about our show but about the Chelsea Small case her sister has said
that she believes that the reason why this case has not yet been solved is that the right set of eyes have not seen
this case the local police department the detectives say that they put the probability rate of solving this case
very high we just need a lot of people to take a break and take a quick look at this footage somebody out there will
recognize something now the general autopsy information in this case Captain is that our victim was shot twice once
in the chest and then once in the head the killer did make off with some money the reports I have seen states that the
killer made off with two hundred dollars cash so very simple the shooter comes in
walks right up to Chelsea now there is no audio on the security footage but it does appear that very briefly that there
are some words exchanged between the shooter and victim and at some point Chelsea activates the silent alarm
indicating a robbery in progress the killer shoots her once walks around the back of the counter and shoots her again
and then he looks around very quickly this is interesting to me because he could be looking for more money
obviously but when he goes to the back part of me wonders if he's looking to see if there was anyone else in the
business you know making sure that there's no that's very good point no other eyewitnesses or or maybe he's
looking for somebody else he he makes a move to go to the back but as calm as he
is he does seem to want to get in rather get in and out rather quickly but again
could just be looking for money their their business is money I just don't understand why they only have one
employee I I almost I'd almost assumed that they would have two employees even on a half day like on their half day on
Tuesdays and maybe just one of them didn't show up that day and from every report that's
out there the he's only inside of this business depending on which report you look at 60
to 70 seconds 60 to 70 seconds so everything was happening very fast and unfortunately
this man was very efficient at whatever it was that he was doing now we said two shots fired but at some
point in the commission of these crimes the Killer's gun jammed or malfunctioned
at some point so this left a live round this is on the side of the store that is
nearest the door so a silent alarm at that business on a major road is a very high priority call for police my guess
on a Tuesday around noon you're dispatching multiple cars to that scene when police arrived the Killer is gone
the door is locked and now given the current situation there is no one to buzz open the door for the police to
come in and take a look around but that live round that bullet is on the floor and police see this
and that changes everything right because then they very quickly break the glass door they go in and unfortunately
they find this young woman Chelsea Small then on arrival well this case is so frustrating because like you said I
don't know if I see that he's wearing gloves but we have no fingerprints as far as what he was setting out to do
did a good job of that other than the gun being jammed and possibly this uh shell casing
I don't see what mistake he made it's but I can't definitively tell you what the motive
was was the motive to kill Chelsea and then to get a little money to then confuse cops
or make people think that it was just a robbery or was it just a simple robbery and she
was a innocent bystander dude your feelings are spot on because the detectives that have worked this case
there it's a mixed bag between their opinions on the motive of what went down there are some detectives that say
absolutely this was a robbery he didn't want to leave any eyewitnesses there are other detectives that say the
robbery makes no sense he walks right in shoots her he makes sure that she's dead too with the second
shot right and that makes me lean towards the motive being murder correct and he the
other thing too is he doesn't attempt to access a safe or some of the detectives
and again these are just this is just speculation in people's opinions nobody really truly knows for sure
but some detectives say look him looking around seems like he's not really looking for anything in particular or
looking for money and that's why I wonder with the idea when he went to the back if he was
looking for another person to see to make sure that there was nobody else in that building
because like you said regular dude myself included we would expect there to be more than one person
inside that building at that time so one of the best things that I've heard a detective say in this case
as as for what the motive may be is that if he was simply going in there to rob the place and make sure that he
didn't leave any Witnesses this man would be smart enough to know most people would be smart enough to
know that the best witness the best eyewitness in this case is the camera not necessarily our victim unless the
victim knows this man so you can take out the human element the human eyewitness
but he doesn't take out the computer I witnessed so that's it's very interesting it's a it's a mixed bag
amongst the Taylor Police Department as to what the motive may be and that carries on to the public as well
now her family Chelsea's family seemed to think that there has got to be some kind of connection between
the Killer and their loved one they say that it could be something as simple as she may have known him but only knew him
through that business right this is a type of business so there's a lot of paperwork a lot of paper trail here I
almost feel like if it was somebody that's related to the business to her her from work
that they would have been able to come up with something but therein lies again a whole nother
set of possible motives that do not have to include robbery do not have to include Chelsea as the actual Target
well like you said it could be a customer and yes there would be a paper trail but
how many customers are we talking about you know at a bank maybe you see a thousand some different customers within
a month that that just brings a very large suspect pull and yes you can start breaking it down by age weight and
height but I don't know It's Tricky one and this guy is so common looking I mean to me he
looks like uh somebody that would be out on the delivery or maybe a maintenance worker or maybe something that works in
a garage you're spot on again the detectives have all said that it they believe that he might be wearing some
work type clothing you know that that is more of a uniform rather than a casual outfit yeah I agree and the same thing
that I said you know Chelsea's family has said that they think she probably buzzed him in because
maybe she recognized him and I don't I'm not trying to take anything away from them they know this case better than I
do obviously and but I what I see here captain is what you just said such an average
looking Regular Joe he's gotta look like there's got to be a thousand other guys that look like this
guy in that area there's 60 000 people plus living in this area he looks just like a regular
guy that you would oh he hits the buzzer you hear the notification you look up regular dude at the door buzz him in
he's just a customer regular old customer but like you said when we were talking about
um uniform this also looks like a uniform that maybe a delivery driver would wear like somebody that was like
delivering like let's say appliances or it could be like a semi truck driver so like it still looks like a work uniform
to me almost head to toe uniform to me yeah right like from from the Hat all the way down to the possible work boots
I can't say 100 certain that those are boots that's what it appears to me other people say they see tennis shoes
but yeah to me top to bottom work type outfit now if we're going to go into this and
say well was Chelsea a Target is that what was going on here I think we should briefly discuss victimology who was
Chelsea Small she grew up in Gibraltar Michigan that's pretty close to Taylor just about a 20
minute drive right maybe about a 28 minute drive north from Gibraltar to the crime scene but in 2013 Chelsea was 30
years old with two small children she obviously was working at Advance America but was also attending school at
Wayne County Community College where she very proudly and appropriately so to be
proud Chelsea was on the Dean's List these cases are all sad and heartbreaking but especially so when we
are talking about a mother a young woman from a close family I I want to emphasize that this seems like a very
close family to me she's also a person who was doing all of the right things working and going to school
and this really this job is just that it's just a job this is not a career for her Advance America this was just a
stepping stool something to build her resume make a decent wage to pay her bills provide for her kids until she
graduated collagen and would be moving on to bigger and better things and unfortunately in 70 seconds that's
all gone for what 200 bucks yeah what's her relationship with her ex it seems to me and I only have
to base this off of his words but he's the father of both of the children they were never married
and at some point they they separated but they according to him remained very much a team in regards to taking care of
the kids I wonder if he ever fought for custody because that would be a motive he says that he considers Debbie Cayman
who is Chelsea's mother to be like a second mother to him so I don't know if he stayed close with her family since
2013 but according to him and his name's Rick Fairley according to Rick they were in
the process he and Chelsea were in the process of of discussing building they're rebuilding their lives together
their family together now we were just talking about money 200 bucks I want to make sure we are very
clear on something before we move on I've said 200 bucks a couple of times that is the amount cited in a couple of
different sources news coverage sources I don't have proof of this but I believe that that is just
a generic number again I don't have proof but I think somewhere along the line someone said
200 and it's been repeated ever since then but I believe that the Taylor Police Department stance on this information
has never been in a an exact dollar amount their statement has always been a small
amount of cash less than 250 dollars so therein lies really another big piece of this mystery what was the gunman's
motive for going into the store as you pointed out earlier captain in any of these cases we've seen this with yogurt
shop with the Lane Bryant shooting Las Cruces bowling alley I mean the list just goes on and on
when when the dollar amount look no dollar amount is equal to Taking Lives but when the dollar amount is so small
and the loss of life is so significant there's it's unbalanced right that doesn't seem to be
it doesn't seem to be right or make any sense and then you go we're sure that the
motive was even robbery here's my other issue with the way that this um dickweed looks like the
we were talking about his outfit and we go well it looks like uh a worker's outfit
but it wouldn't be that uh crazy if I was going to become a hitman and it was my my first hit I could see
wearing an outfit like this yeah you see what I'm saying and so like even if it was your second or third hit
right but yeah I mean like it's like it it's very plain Jane let me there's not a lot of identifiers on any of the
articles of clothing yeah unfortunately we can't make out the emblem on the pants nor could we on the hat and I did
say earlier that there's an emblem on the front of the hat and the side there's 100 an emblem on the side of the
Hat yeah the the front is a little we should leave that open-ended a little in question there because I don't think I
can say 100 that I see an emblem on the front of the Hat well again there's so many pictures and
earlier when we were talking I kept on going I don't really see the gloves now I can not not see gloves so yeah once
you see them there there seem to be there every time one it's like like you said they're not that it's not like he's
wearing bright uh white gloves they're it's almost like there's something just kind of distorting his skin like like
maybe he's like clear I think it's like latex gloves yeah but clear latex gloves
or something um but it just it doesn't make a lot of sense you know because you go well
so the so you're saying that and I'm not saying it's a Hitman but it's very Hitman like when you watch there's been
other people to say that even police have speculated that and the thing is he he walks in he's in
and out and he's again the clothing you said the same thing it would be nondescript clothing and
everything's tucked in nice and neat right there's not like he's very buttoned up in a way to not to show
reveal too much of him or to possibly leave strands of hair there's very little interaction with the victim herself
there's no indication that he even physically touched her right which is strange because he
openly has his hair flowing uh underneath his baseball cap but he's got to look normal enough for her to buzz
him in but he has to look normal enough to get into the building right like not not
just for her to buzz in but for other people walking by to just walking to and from the building right to not raise any
alarms but but what's weird hearing her mother talk about well there were customers that maybe had crushes on her
that maybe she wasn't interested in but you can't roll those guys out no just because this looks like a hit
because some people there is no emotion even though people would go well well they killed
this person because they weren't receiving their advances right but some people are just that cold oh
well she doesn't care about me well I want her dead but I can do it in such a way where I I
can leave my emotions out of this to make sure I don't get caught because it seems like very cold
come into the building shoot the victim go look around for some money shoot her again take off well think about when we
covered the Superbikes case out in South Carolina Superbike was the name of the business
someone went in and shot several shot and killed several of the workers it went unsolved for many years they
eventually solved it ended up being Todd kohlhepp who committed those crimes but it went unsolved because they
couldn't they were looking for a connection between one of the victims and the killer a personal connection
yeah there was no personal connection there was a business connection but he didn't care who it was that he
killed he wanted revenge against the business itself he went in there one day and he thought
they were laughing at him and poking fun at him and he went in there he waited until he
didn't think he would encounter anybody else so the place would be empty and almost very hitman-like even though he's
acting on his own behalf goes in there and shoots everybody up well it could be the same thing here
where it has nothing to do with Chelsea has nothing to do with really the money it's just I mean like you said people
stop coming there so they shut down the business and could in a way he be an indirect customer right like let's say
because he's we can agree on his age he he's a middle-aged man or appears to be could he be somebody that
I don't know purchased a vehicle for their son or daughter and then they went and
took out a loan against the title you don't pay that loan back they come and take your car
could he could he have wanted some kind of Revenge that he's not directly a customer not directly
affected by something the business was doing it it all gets a little it gets very tricky but I think we're
gonna start to see some leads here now kind of wrapping up on the victimology here a little bit in regards to Chelsea
herself uh you brought up the the ex-boyfriend it's my understanding that since 2013 he has had custody of both of
the children and her mother and her sister so she has uh her parents were separated at some
point and her mother remarried so unfortunately she left behind a sister mother step father father and
um some stepsisters but her sister and more so her mother Debbie Cayman have been the loudest voices to keep this
case alive and the most visible of the family to keep this case alive again the ex-boyfriend Rick fairly the father of
the children has answered questions and done interviews publicly so he's not hiding or ducking from anyone I've been
told by detectives that he was looked at you know you're going to look at anybody
that's close to the victim and he was looked at and it sounds like he's not our guy they don't have
anything to connect him to the case but one thing that's really tricky and so there have been three detectives who
have been up front and center working this case over the last eight years that seems like a lot the case lead has
changed due to retirement but the retired detectives keep a close eye on this case this is a case that's
being worked as a team by the Taylor detective Bureau when I asked the current lead this is
detective Alex delini about the case he said he would put the probability rate of solving this case at
very high so while we're talking about possible motives here because that's the weirdest part of this
case I mean let's say Chelsea knew her killer this guy thought he had some kind of
reason to kill her but why do it there right you would expect anyone with half a brain knows that there's going to be a
camera there yeah but if I do it there and I take a little bit of money I can fuse the whole situation right if I if I
kill her and her car even outside the place and I don't steal her purse or something then
we just know this was about murder and that's it but again for me I understand wanting to kind of confuse
the situation make it look like one crime when really it was all along a whole nother crime right but I don't
know that I love the risk of being caught on camera doing anything or the potential of encountering another
customer or another staff member yeah but if also if it was a hit that's and I don't know why
this mother or two would want somebody would put a hit out on her but it's better to do it there
because you're you're not gonna have the kids around I agree of course but again not wanting
people around we know there's going to be a camera it just seems to me like you could have
found a space a place a time where you could have you could have caught her alone
and done it then and there and not had to worry about any type of camera at all now one very tricky
variable in this case is that if somebody was planning this out well Chelsea was covering for
another staff member that Tuesday and some of the reports state that it may have been a little bit of a last
minute not a very last minute but a little bit of a last minute change the most detailed report of this I could
find says that it was a few days before the day of the homicide that she signed up for this shift
so what is not in question is she's 100 covering that shift for another team member on that day that she's killed so
this is not Chelsea's regularly scheduled work day this is out of her routine the change it sounds like came at
Chelsea's request you know you trade shifts with someone when you need a day off
Chelsea took a day off to celebrate her son's fifth birthday this was just a few
days prior to the incident again how many people did she tell how many people would have known that
then you have to wonder Captain does that mean if this person working that day was the intended target of a
homicide was this man who acted so calm and callous so he's every he's every part of the definition of a
cold-blooded killer was he targeting somebody else when he walked into the Advance America that day
[Music] thank you all right thanks for joining us here in the garage if you need more True Crime
garage for your ear balls then check out off the Record if you're nasty what is off the Record it's true crime garage's
bonus show it's every other week we do case updates and sometimes we just talk about silliness or sometimes behind the
scenes stuff this week we're doing our crime con 2021 recap that's right that's available
on Stitcher premium make sure you go and check that out you get a lot of other excellent shows to go along with off the
Record join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter foreign
[Music] [Applause] [Music]

Chelsea Small /// Part 1 /// 495

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

November 12, 2013 - 30 year-old Chelsea Small was fatally shot while working at a Cash Advance business in Taylor, Michigan. Questions facing detectives is wether Chelsea knew her attacker and the actual motive for the attack in the first place. The killer made off with a small amount of cash. Security tapes show male suspect with age ranging from 25- 50. Possible white male with dark bushy hair, ball cap with emblem, dark clothing that could be some type of work uniform and light colored boots or shoes. The man appears to remain extremely calm during the entirety on the crimes committed. Please watch the footage and look at the pictures of the suspect that have been released over the years. Someone will be able to identify this man. Detectives would like everyone to pay close attention to the man’s unique clothing and the label / tag on the man’s pants. They believe the clothing / tag could be the break in the case. We agree and would also like to point out that the weapon used was unique and the suspect may have committed additional crimes. Anyone with ANY information should submit a tip by phone at 1-800-speak-up or online at 1800speakup.org

Beer of the Week - Sneaky F’n Vanilla by Arkane AleworksGarage Grade - 4 and a 1/4 Bottle Caps

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

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

Chelsea Small was murdered in a robbery gone wrong at her workplace in Taylor, Michigan, leaving investigators puzzled by the suspect's calmness and lack of leads.

Key points

The Calm Before the Storm. The episode discusses the lead-up to a tragic crime in Taylor, Michigan.
A Shocking Crime Scene. Chelsea Small, a clerk, is shot during a robbery at a cash advance store.
Timing of the Crime. The killer's choice of a Tuesday raises questions about his planning.
The Crime Scene. The investigation reveals a lack of eyewitnesses and security footage limitations.
The Victim's Background. Chelsea Small was a dedicated mother and student, tragically taken too soon.
Cold-Blooded Revenge. A chilling exploration of a killer's motives reveals a desire for revenge against a business.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

A killer with a brief interaction and then just seconds later he vanishes.

Describing the nature of the crime being discussed.

4:15WatchNov 7, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.