Emma Compton Layne ////// 598 | Forensic Files

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Emma Compton Lane first was missing. And then things got worse. Emma has a couple of sisters.
Two that from my understanding don't get along very well. But yet they are fighting for Emma.
Seeking justice for their sister. The past away too soon at the hands of a very bad man.
A man that picks on and threatens women because he is weak, insecure, and cowardly.
But because Emma's sisters, Winona and Shauna, don't speak they are fighting the same battle but
separately. I don't know that True Crime Garage covering Emma's case will actually get justice for Emma.
But I know our coverage today can't hurt her case. You see, Emma's case is very solvable.
But because Emma lived in a tiny town her case lacks awareness. Well that ends today.
Something else that I wish would end today is this bad blood between Emma's sisters.
Now, I would think after losing your sister and one of your best friends you each would need a sister to help you
with your hurt. To help you with your battle and your fight for justice for Emma.
You need a sister and you both still have one. So pick up a phone and say something nice.
No one has to say that they are sorry. Just say, "I miss Emma and I want to fight for our sister
together because nothing else matters. Because as it stands now you've both lost two sisters
and all you have gained is heartache and a Facebook page. The Justice for Emma Compton Lane
Facebook page. But you both have the power to change that. The following is from that Facebook
page. Justice for Emma Compton Lane which I encourage our listeners to go to. Show your support by visiting the page
to let the sisters know that people care. Now, this is a post from one of Emma's
sisters and it reads "Five years ago on Tuesday, June 20th we filed a missing person's report for
Emma. We know now that she was murdered after midnight on the 18th. But I've wondered
if we had filed on Monday, would Halifax County Sheriff's Department have taken us more seriously?
Would they have worked Emma's case harder? Five long, sad years and we still are waiting for justice for Emma.
We are still waiting for an arrest, a trial for the person who murdered her to be
held accountable. No one except the person who killed her knew she was missing until that Monday
the 19th. That person had the time to remove evidence and clean up the crime scene.
I also believe that person had help covering the crime. Over this five years, we have been told
by Halifax County Sheriff's Department and Commonwealth Attorney Martin her case is a priority.
At first I believed them with their assurances. But after five years, I have to wonder
just how truthful they've been. When something is a priority, things get done. Things happen.
And results are seen. I pray that next year I will have a reason to believe that they really have been working
Emma's case and that we will see justice for Emma before another year passes. Thank you to those who remember and love
Emma. Thank you for your continued support. Still waiting for and seeking justice for Emma.
I love and miss you every day, Emma Jean. This is True Crime Garage. Emma Jean Compton Lane loved
hummingbirds, Christmas, and more importantly, helping other people. She was 52 years old when she went
missing. Emma was married to a man named Russell Lane. Russell was a truck driver and may still
be. Emma was a store owner. Cody is a small community. This is where they lived.
It's a small community in Halifax County, Virginia. It's one of those small unincorporated towns, kind of a
tiny dot on the map. Emma owned the Cody Store. Listen to this, captain. To give a better idea of
what kind of store we are talking about, this is from one of the old signs on the
Cody Store and it reads "Full service deli, open 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Pizza, grocery, beer, ice, dog
food, hunting and fishing supplies, slab bacon, and fatback meat." Mhm. "Store hours 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday
through Saturday, closed on Sunday, accepting all major credit cards." Sounds like my kind of store. Has about
everything that one could think of. I I couldn't imagine needing anything else. And I know you were like me, captain,
when given the option we prefer a mom-and-pop type operation and that's very much what this was. I'm
assuming that there was a larger grocery store in this tiny town that people could go and spend their hard-earned
money at, but a lot of people preferred to go to the Cody Store because of the friendly service. You know, you're
getting the you're getting that kind of personal service when you walk in and somebody goes, "Hi, captain."
or "Good to see you, colonel." "How about some slab Or fatback meat. And you go good to be seen. It's good to be seen.
Yep, I like my grocery stores like I like my podcast, homegrown, independently owned, no network. The
troubling thing about this case, well, there's many troubling things. But the first that stands out is that
often on the materials that we see that talk about Emma going missing, they will
say that she was last seen at the Cody Store, which is not really true but it goes along with the story or
some people's narrative of this story. So, keep in mind, the store is very important to our timeline and it's also
very important to this case because I think that it also includes and gives us a good idea of Emma's personality. Can't
you kind of picture her 52 years old, owner-operated store, very friendly person, always a smile on her face when
you come in the door. But the store itself, remember we read the hours of operation
there. They're closed on Sunday. The last that she is seen on some of these materials states that it was at the
store on Saturday night. Right. However, we have some information of locals that
say, "Yes, we saw as we drove by the store, we could still see her vehicle there." Remember, this is the kind of
town, the small little town where everybody kind of knows everybody and everybody knows what kind of vehicle you
drive. And of course, people that frequent the store are going to know Emma, they're going to know what kind of
vehicle that she drives. So, we have several people who are saying, "Yes, after the store closed on that Saturday,
I saw her vehicle in the parking lot." Which is not uncommon, right? You have closing duties, you have to count the
till, you have paperwork to do, everything that you have to do before you officially leave the business for that
night. That's enough of the business. Now, the troubling thing to me is when I see these materials, my mind instantly
makes the leap of, "Oh, no. I put myself Somebody must have went to the store, attempted a robbery or abducted her for
any number of reasons." Right. And that's what went down and that's what we're looking for here.
However, that's not the case. Mhm. Even though the materials read that way, she made it
home that night. And so, she would have left the store at approximately 9:30, maybe 10:00 at the
latest, but she closed the store, she closed the shop on that Saturday, she went home. The other problem for our
timeline though becomes the fact that the store is closed on Sunday. Now, this store was I was about to say that it's
her life, but there was other things going on in her life. As we mentioned, she was married to Russell Lane.
But also a very important thing that's going on at this time in a very stressful thing that's going on for Emma
at this time is her mother was recently put in the hospital. And I believe it was only about two or three
days before that Sunday on our timeline. Her mom's having some health problems, health issues, she's in the hospital.
So, her sister, Winona, and Emma are taking turns visiting mom in the hospital, making sure that she's has
somebody to talk with, somebody to visit with her, someone to help her pass the time while she hopefully heals or
recovers from whatever issues that she's facing. The first red flag on our timeline goes up
Sunday when Emma fails to go to the hospital to visit her mother. All and everyone has agreed, this
completely out of character for Emma. If she says, "I'm visiting mom on Sunday at the hospital," she would be there
visiting her mother. And we know that she was supposed to be there on Sunday because of a phone call and some
conversation that took place the day before with her sister, Winona. Well, and we know that she doesn't work on
Sundays, so she shouldn't have anything conflicting to stop her from going to see her
mother. And I don't know if both were going every single day to visit mom or if they were rotating days going to
visit mom, but we know that she was going to go on Sunday because the conversation with Winona went something
like this. Emma is saying, "I can't make it there on Saturday to see mom. Don't worry, I will be there 100% on Sunday."
Right. She doesn't show up on Sunday. Well, again, red flags go up. Mom is worried, sister is worried. They're
trying to call Emma and this is late Sunday by the time they start calling her because the way that I think that
this works is it's not immediately known to all that Emma didn't show up there, right? It's it's a conversation that is
had between her other sisters and mom. And mom's saying, "You know, Emma never showed up today. I didn't see her. I
know you guys said she was coming or she said she was coming, but I never saw her
today." And so, it's not until about Sunday night that the sisters are aware that
Emma did not arrive that Sunday. So, on Monday, one of her sisters is Shauna and she lives in another
state. So, any communication that is going on, any interaction between Shauna, Winona
and their mother, the three that are all very concerned that Emma didn't show up at the
hospital, that conversations are happening over the phone. So, Shauna convinces the other sister,
Winona, "You know what? Why don't you go by and check on Emma. I can't get a hold of her on the
phone. She didn't go see mom. So, on Monday, her sister goes to her home and Russell, her husband, lets her in.
And Winona looks at the property and looks inside the home and nothing seems really out of place.
But therein lies the real problem. Right. She says that everything seems to be there
except for Emma. Her car's there, her purse is there, her cell phone is there. Yeah, this doesn't really add up.
is there. Everything that you would expect to see, but no Emma. This is when we start to get some kind
of weird story. Russell has some explanations as for where Emma is. And he says, "Oh, I think she ran off
with somebody, with some other man." Well, if she did run off, she didn't take anything with her.
It's not until Tuesday, the following day, that the family actually report her missing to the authorities. Well, the
authorities in this case are the Halifax County Sheriff's Office. One concern that the Sheriff's Office has is
they question why would Emma's family delay reporting her missing. Well, the family does have a good
explanation for this. They tell the sheriff, "Our mom is not in great shape, she's in
the hospital. We were worried that us reporting her missing and mom finding out about this,
that it might be unnecessary stress for her at her time when she she cannot handle anything else." Right. And so,
they delayed this, but mind you, they only delayed it about a day. And I think that they were wanting
or hoping, like does happen in so many other situations, that oh, Emma will come home or she'll pop up. No
reason to scare mom while she's in the hospital. Well, that would make sense to me if the only
if people saw her on Saturday and she had nothing to do on Sunday and then boom, Monday she doesn't go to work, but
because she had this obligation on Sunday that she missed and then she misses work on Monday,
I'm calling Monday. I think I would, too. I can't fault, you know, I'm not going to look back and say, "Oh, you
should have done this, you should have done that." You know that these sisters are second-guessing everything that took
place within that first 24-48 hours. But yeah, you're right here, Captain. Cause for deep concern, right? Didn't
visit mom on Sunday, but let's let's compound that with the issue that she doesn't show up to her owner-operated
store on Monday. We went over the hours she should have been there prior to opening at 6:00 a.m. on Monday. Right.
And then by the time she's reported missing on Tuesday, she should have arrived at the store prior to 6:00 a.m.
to open the store on Tuesday. Those three things, none of that happened. And in the course of that 48 hours or so,
she's not responding to any calls or texts that's coming from anybody that knows her. So,
you got to be fearing the worst at this point. Well, do we have any details of what people were doing to find her?
Yes, there was an effort put together to try to locate Emma. The best description
I have reads as follows. The Cody community is abuzz with concern over popular store
owner Emma Compton Lane being missing for a number of days now. The owner of Cody store on Highway 40,
which is located on Stagecoach Road, was last seen Saturday around 7:00 p.m. Again, this is one of those things that
kind of troubles me and bothers me. The store is open till 9:00 p.m. There's no reason to believe that she
went missing at this 7:00 p.m. hour or anytime shortly afterwards. Right. Her car didn't drive itself home
from the store that night. Are you sure? I well, I can't be sure. I mean, maybe she had one
of those Knight Rider cars, but my guess, you know, I am a betting man, I would wager a $100 bill that it did not
drive itself home Mhm. on that night. And I also have some information in our timeline that
indicates that she made it home that night because she had interaction with other people after leaving the store
that night. But continuing on on this report, Sheriff Fred Clark said a Virginia State Police search team,
Virginia Department of Emergency Management search personnel, and a local search and rescue team and
EMS have been searching the perimeter of Lane's Cody residence. So again, they're starting their search at her
residence and fanning out from there. So they have something telling them, something indicating to them that the
residence is the place to start your search, not necessarily the store. A dive team checked two ponds near her
residence, but found nothing. During the search of her premises, a local search and rescue team member
suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Lane is described as a white female, 5
ft tall and approximately 135 lb. She has short brown hair, brown eyes, pierced ears and may wear glasses.
The sheriff asked if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of Emma Compton Lane to please contact the
Halifax County Sheriff's Office. Now, some of the later reports that I've read, Captain, was that unfortunately
this man who's trying to help out, who suffers the heart attack during the search effort,
that that may have triggered them calling off the search a little prematurely. Yeah.
Um obviously they didn't find Emma during the course of their search, but we should also note that there was
what appears to be, based off of this report, a good effort put forth to try to locate her and what would have been
a rather well-managed search, right? They they made the determination to start off
at her residence and work their way out from there. We know that they're searching
uh the some of the water in the area. They're not finding Emma. They're also not finding any clues as to where she
may be. Now at this time, you have several stories that are coming out from people that know Emma
The old rumor mill. or know her husband, Russell. And and keep in mind, I say that, but this is a small town. You can
make the assumption that whoever knows Russell knows Emma. The stories start to pop up that there's a couple different
theories here. One, that she left with some man that she was having an affair with and was in a hotel in Danville.
Well, that's pretty easy to figure out if that's true or not. You go to the hotel in Danville and if you don't find
them, you can figure one of two things. Either the two of them moved on to another
location or this is not a plausible theory. Yeah, you don't even have to go knocking door to door. You just stand
out front and start yelling, "Show yourself! Show yourself, you cowards!" There were
some other theories that are somewhat similar, Mhm. but one that she had gone to New York and one that she had gone to
the state of Florida. And and possibly for an affair she was having. Possibly. There was also a theory that
she was some type of drug dealer and that drugs were involved either in her disappearance or were the reason for her
to leave willingly. Was she selling drugs out of her store? No, she wasn't selling drugs at all.
Um It's interesting how sometimes these rumors come out of nothing. Well, and that's the other
thing, too. Keep in mind, the Danville story has her having an affair. Well, the overwhelming majority of
people spoken to and and asked these questions, they don't believe she's having an
affair. They've never seen anything any indication right that she's having an affair.
But it doesn't seem like a lot of times in these small towns when these crimes take place,
the rumor mill seems to ramp up a lot faster. Yeah, I think when you have these small towns, a
lot not only a lot faster, but I almost feel like some of the rumors are more of the wild variety. Yeah, they
become a little more redonkulous. But we've seen crimes and cases that we've looked at here in the garage where often
when a case first breaks, that there are some early rumors going on. And sometimes,
even if it takes years to solve them, you find out that one of these early rumors, well, it must have been based
off of a lot of truth or fact because in the end when they get the result, when they get justice for the victim, they
find that a lot of the information in one particular rumor turned out to be true.
Now here in this case, I think that all of these rumors are completely false. 100% false, but I also think
that these rumors are what will help you ultimately solve this case. Today's show is sponsored by Care/of.
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All right, we are back. Trying to sift through the rumors. Cheers, mates. Cheers, Captain. Now in
this case, we have a woman who is missing and as said, there are some rumors that are
being bandied about that maybe she has taken off and left on her own. Here's a follow-up report on
Emma's status of still missing. And this says that on Saturday, June 17th, Emma closed her store
as she did every Saturday and finished with closing duties and she left for the day. So now, keep in mind,
this report is coming out quite a bit later from the previous one. We've already noticed the shift in the
narrative, right? That they have figured out she finished her closing duties, she
left the store for the day. The store is always closed on Sunday, so Emma told her family she'd spend that
Sunday with her mom, Sylvia, in the hospital. Emma had admitted her mom just 2 days
earlier, but Emma never showed up to the hospital. The next morning, Monday, Sylvia, her mother, called her sister,
Shauna, to see where Emma was. Shauna lives in Mississippi, wasn't able to get a hold of Emma, either. So she sent
their other sister, Winona, to Emma's house since Winona lived nearby. Quote, "Everything was there.
Emma's credit card, clothes, car keys, cell phone, her dog, everything was in the basement except Emma."
Shauna said the family knew something was wrong. The next morning, Winona called the police. "When I first got the
call on Tuesday, June 20th, around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m., Investigator Burton of the Halifax County Sheriff's Office
said some of the family had been looking for her prior to the call. We keep going back and forth with why
they waited so long to call us. The family told police they waited until Tuesday to call because they didn't want
to panic their mom who was in the hospital at the time unless it was absolutely necessary.
And then we have the Sheriff's Office that goes on to say, "I got in contact with Emma's husband, Russell Lane, who
gave us permission to go into the house and look for whatever we needed." Investigator Burton said Emma's husband
has cooperated with police since the beginning of the investigation. So, a little bit more information coming out
later as to the timeline itself and pointing out that police were suspicious for the delay in reporting the family
member as missing. And now we have the statement from the detective saying, "Well, the husband said, 'Yeah, go ahead
and search the property, search my home. You can look for whatever you need to help your investigation.'" Which doesn't
always mean anything we've seen that in the past where the husband says, "Come on in.
Take a look around." And we know that son of a [ __ ] is guilty. So, but it does let us know where
they're at in the investigation. And then you have to, again, like you were saying,
start from the inner circle and start moving your way out. Well, there's a little bit of
information in there that I think we need to dissect and put it right under the microscope.
Let me grab my lab coat. Listen to this statement from the sister who searched the home or went to the home shortly
after Emma was missing. Everything was there. Emma's credit card, clothes, car keys, cell phone, her
dog. Everything was in the basement except Emma. Strange. Everything was in the basement except Emma.
So, I was curious about that statement. That to me makes me want to know, why would you expect to find Emma in the
basement? And I was able to track down a few people that are very close to this case
and they told me the following information. That her and Russell had not been getting along for quite some time.
In fact, there was reason to believe that Russell may have been aggressive or even violent toward his
wife in the past. Douche. Now, the information that I have here, Captain, is not exact. So,
we need to we need to point that out to be perfectly clear to everybody out there in listener land.
The information that I have found was saying that Emma was living in the basement of the
home. And Russell was living in the ground level or the upstairs of the home. And
this arrangement had been going on for quite some time. Some sources say as long as 3 years and
some say as little as 2 years. But, regardless of that information, whether it's 2 years
or 3 years, that's a long time for a husband and wife to be basically living almost like roommates, separate lives in
the same dwelling. Well, so then the rumors of her having possibly affair is not really out of the question.
Not out of the question, but let's examine this a little bit further. So, the the basement itself was actually
set up to be like a living quarters. Almost so that once she was home and once she's in the
basement, there's little if no need at all to go upstairs Right. to have any interaction with her
husband. Let's back up the bus a little bit more where, yeah, you can look at this and go, "Okay, well, maybe these
affair rumors have some truth to them." But, let's also examine the idea that there's information out there that her
husband has been violent towards her in the past. Now, where are these rumors of
being a drug dealer and the affair and all of that coming from? Well, she put out a mix tape and she did
she was rapping about her drug dealings. There is nothing that I have found to make me believe that either of these
rumors have any validity at all. They have any truth to them at all. So, the thing here is, we have to start
really wondering where these rumors are coming from. And based off of these rumors, think about the other thing
that's a big part of those stories, right? The story is that she left town with another man.
Or she left town because of some misdealings that she was doing. That's all going to become a very big problem
for everybody 5 months later. Yeah, so what you're saying is we have these rumors that she's a drug dealer and she
left town with a bunch of money or to go sell drugs somewhere else. Uh expand her
empire. was the cause of her leaving town. It doesn't necessarily have to mean that
she's dealing drugs. That's just one of of several rumors that were going on. One was that that she left town because
of drugs. Right. And then there's other rumors that she left town to go live with somebody or she left town
with somebody. Which if somebody else locally left town at the same time, wouldn't we know who
that person was? Or it could have been a man from out of town. Again, these these
are rumors. These aren't things that we have direct statements from these local people that are giving us detailed
statements, right? I'm sure they gave detailed statements to the authorities. But, we, the public, don't have access
to that information. Right. But, the problem becomes this whole idea of her leaving town is that her body is found
in the county. Yeah, so here's the report we have here, Captain. Authorities are awaiting the
identification of human remains found in a wooded Cody area. Keep in mind, Cody's
a pretty small town. Remains found in a wooded Cody area after a hunting party came across the
find Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 around 1:30 p.m. Halifax County Sheriff Fred Clark said
foul play is expected in the death, but Clark declined to comment further, including whether there is any
indication of how long the body may have been left in the woods. The remains were
sent to the state medical examiner's office in Richmond to assist with the identification. On Wednesday, a member
of a hunting party came across the remains in a heavily wooded area approximately 700 yards from Sandy Ridge
Road at the 4000 block of the Northern Halifax County roadway. The location is a short distance
from the Cody store. The discovery comes as police continue to investigate the disappearance of 52-year-old Emma
Compton Lane of Cody, who has gone missing since mid-June. She was last seen at the Cody store
where she worked on the evening of June 17th. Since that time, police have conducted multiple searches for Lane,
including in the vicinity of her home nearby. The searches produced no evidence of her whereabouts. Other
missing person cases have gone unsolved in Halifax County and it goes on to reference some of these other cases.
Now, the thing here, Captain, it will take a little bit of time, but ultimately the
body that is recovered is identified as that of Emma Compton Lane. Right. The other items that they find and some of
the information that we learn here is that the ruling from the medical examiner is that
the cause of death is homicidal violence with traumatic neck injuries. There was also a
sleeping bag that was found. And the way that it's described to me, it sounds like she may have been inside of the
sleeping bag. There was also reports that someone had tried to burn the body or that there was indications that
someone had tried to burn the body. The reports also state that she was in a very shallow grave.
There's a whole bunch of things here that we need to kind of consider. Russell Lane
and Emma Compton Lane, husband and wife, living separately in the same home. They
owned some property throughout this Halifax County. The place, the wooded area of Cody,
Virginia, that her body is located is really like a stone's throw away from the property line of one of their other
properties. And that's suspicious. And I've also seen it reported that the property that she was located on. Now,
this is a an area where we're talking like farmland. There's not a bunch of people out there.
This is an area where you would put something that you hope and wish will never be found.
But, the property that she is found on, there are reports out there belong to one of
Emma's husband's friends. Now, again, it's a small town. This could be all coincidence. We're not talking about a
whole lot of people. We're talking about a lot of land and not a whole lot of people.
So, it could be complete coincidence, but it's still suspicious. Huge red flags.
Mhm. Well, on top of that on top of that, we have a lot of rumors happening, right?
And you'd think for 3 years if if it's true that their friends are saying, "Look, they just really were
kind of separated for 3 years." There's going to be a lot of rumors happening between their friends and in
the town. Does that make sense? There are some people in this story that have said they were unaware
that they were living separately in the same home. Right. Now, it sounds like the people closest
to them were well aware of this, like the family and friends, the direct friends that you're talking about.
Mhm. They were well aware. That's where this information comes from. But, it's it's all a very weird
situation because some of the reports are that Russell almost had Emma in a situation
where it appears like she works for him, like runs errands for him. She's not really allowed to go to many places on
her own. She's not allowed to have a lot of friends. She We know that she works a
lot of hours based off of the store hours that we covered at the top of the story.
But, this to me when you have a situation where she goes missing, why do they find all of her things
there? You know, people I do understand it. People do have affairs. People do have
misdealings. People do leave town on their own free will. Rarely do they do it without taking a
single thing with them. And so, of course, that's the cause for concern for the people that know her
best early on in the missing persons investigation. They all believe that something terrible
had happened right then and there. They None of them were convinced that she was missing. And then we learn 5
months later that she wasn't missing. Yeah. Somebody killed her and somebody placed
her body in this area, not terribly far from the Cody store. If Russ is being physically abusive, he's probably being
mentally abusive. And so, he's also seems to be controlling her, so he should know about if there's an
affair happening cuz he's controlling. Exactly. Now, in Russ's defense, I couldn't find any report
online or otherwise that states that there was any type of police report based off of that previous violence.
This all seems to come from people that knew the two of them best. The The it only takes one, right? So, it's like
she So, maybe she was beat up thousands of times and she never called the cops. Or once or twice. Right. But,
or or none. That doesn't rule him out. Bastards like that are very capable of If If she came home and said, "You know
what? I'm just so tired of all this stuff. My mother's sick. She might be dying. I need to do something with my
life. I need to change. I'm tired of this situation. I'm I'm living in a basement.
This is not This is not the life that I wanted." If she If they got in an argument and she said, "You know what?
I'm leaving." And he's this controlling, it just seems like there's a lot of signs pointing to
you know, the the typical the husband did it. Well, and we cannot say the name of the person, but
this is where it gets a little I feel like the picture gets a little clearer of what may have happened. Yeah.
There was a friend, a close friend of Emma's who was texting with her that night. After she got home, she's
in her basement watching TV and they are trading texts back and forth. There was a text from the friend
that came in at approximately 15 minutes after midnight that Emma never responded to.
That later, when her phone was looked at by family members, Emma had never opened up that text.
Now, that does not mean that 100% of what I'm about to say is accurate, but it makes me
It makes me think that very likely this is what happened. Okay, lay lay it down.
Well, they're trading texts back and forth. Mhm. Something happened before she opened and
responded to that 12:15 text. That's where the timeline I would be concerned with with what's
going on with Emma at that timeline. Yeah, very good point because she's talking with somebody back and
forth and she has this husband that is going, "Who are you talking to? Give me that phone. I want to see what's
happening." Her phone's found at her residence along with all of her other belongings. Mhm. And what I'm pointing
out is this is one of those things, one of the the rare occasions in these types
of cases where we may have the exact marker, the exact minute marker of when all things stopped for Emma. Right?
Because we know that she All of the activity she was supposed to be a part of on Sunday,
she did not She didn't go to the hospital. She was unheard of. She was unreachable. She didn't show up to work
on Monday. She doesn't show up to work on Tuesday. Well, you can backtrack that all the way to that 12:15, 15 minutes
after midnight text that does not get responded to. Well, look, her her And look, her family not reporting her
missing till Tuesday, okay, fine. But, if you care about your wife, even if you're
separated or you're kind of living this roommate lifestyle, you're calling the police right away.
She gets She got home from work. We know that much. She's missing the next morning. You're calling the police.
That didn't happen. That didn't happen. And so, it it seems like there's this text message conversation.
Maybe there's an argument happening at the same time. Like you said, it gives us almost to the
minute of when this conversation took place. And where was she? At her house. Where is her phone? At her
house. This reminds me This is very similar to me like the Chris Watts case where he had her phone and had all her
stuff. And And it's just like, "Oh, well, she must have just went missing." Don't know where she's at.
Well, and I don't want to question or call to fault the Halifax County Sheriff's Office.
But, isn't it one of these cases, Captain? We've seen bigger mysteries in other murder cases.
They probably bigger mysteries. You have to sit here and wonder, "Okay, guys, what's the
hang-up here? What What's the problem with the investigation?" Well, hold on. Here's
what we do know, right? We we can surmise this, right? We're not that dumb. I mean, we are two
dumb guys in a garage and we stand by that till the end of the time till the end of our days.
See? But, we're not that dumb. We know that law enforcement at least has a short
list of suspects, especially where the body was found, her items still being at home.
And I think there's a lot more motive, too, not just the separation, not just the rumors of possibly an affair,
but also financial. If we get a divorce and we have all these properties, we have to split this
up. This also could be something that's not planned. Good point. Let's pretend for a moment that these previous acts of
violence from her husband are in fact true. If they are true, this seems to me like somebody with a
temper, with somebody that can fly off the handle. This is a guy that's been married and
divorced before his relationship with Emma. What I'm getting to here, Captain, is
I wonder what the hang-up is in this investigation. Now, we do have the Sheriff's Office on record early in the
investigation, especially when she was still missing, saying, "You know, Russell's been cooperative."
And they even go as far to say that he's not a person of interest. Well, Wow. we know that he was a truck driver. Is
there a chance I would love to know this information. I don't believe that this is true at all,
but is there a chance that he was not home or they have reason to believe that he was not at the residence at any time
that night? Now, let's fast forward a little bit. Mhm. Keep in mind what the Sheriff's
Office was saying. He's cooperative. He's not a person of interest. Well, that does change.
That blows my mind. At some point, it's stated that Russell is no longer cooperating with the
investigation, that he lawyered up, which is his right, and I recommend everybody does have an attorney.
However, he stops communicating and stops cooperating with the investigation. There are some reports
out there that state that he failed a polygraph test, and that's when boom, communication and cooperation ended.
Yeah, shame shame know your name. I just I want to point out that those are reports. I've not seen
100% stone-cold evidence of the fact that he failed a polygraph test. Well, let's just assume I'm the
detective, right? Let's Hypothetically, I'm the detective. I go I'm giving statements. If I'm a
detective, I start talking like this, right? I I'm giving statements to to the public
and I'm saying, "This guy Russ, man, he's a he's a stand-up guy. It's It's her husband.
They own a bunch of property together. He's been cooperative. Seems to have an alibi of some kind.
He's not a person of interest at this time. No, he's not. He's been cooperative. You're going to say that
anyways, even if he's being a little bit of a scumbag cuz you kind of you you want him to soften up, right? You don't
want him to be guarded with everything he's saying. But also, when you talk about that she's found in a shallow
grave, there's a lot of individuals, a lot of victims that we've talked about where
they're just dumped on the road. This is somebody that put her in a area and tried to conceal her.
So, she wasn't found. Maybe I can get behind the idea that maybe this wasn't planned out.
But, the disposal of the body definitely was to some degree. And Oh, I think to a big-time degree. There
was evidence that someone had tried to burn the body. Right. a sleeping bag that was recovered
recovered from the scene. There was an attempt to bury the body. Yeah, that was was what I don't know if it was well
thought out or not, but somebody went to a great deal of effort to try to conceal
the body. And the other thing, too, there's no reason at all for anyone to believe that she was killed where she
was found. So, she was moved and transported as well. Now, here's here's the problem. This
this is where I'm going to go, okay, I understand that there are complications. Every murder
investigation is complicated for any number of different reasons. But, I'm sitting here 5 years after the fact,
4 and 1/2 years after her body's found, and I'm going, what is wrong with this case? What is wrong with your suspect?
What is wrong with the investigation? Why haven't we charged anybody in this case? And here's where my mind goes. And
these are things that I hope and pray that the sheriff's office has already done. The cell phone. We know that she
was actively using the cell phone. And I believe right up until the point where something happened to her, or she was
abducted or attacked and killed. Subpoena those cell phone records if you could. Could you find out where that
phone was located? We know it was later found at her home in the basement where anybody would expect to find it. Right.
Subpoena those phone records. Let's find out where that phone was during the course of that text activity.
Let's subpoena somebody else's cell phone records and see who was in that same area at the same time. We know that
she shared the home with another person. There's reason to believe his phone may
indicate that he was home at the same time that that text exchange ended. Here's some other things that I would be
doing. I think that in this case, in this murder investigation, that the sheriff's office actually has a
very powerful weapon in their arsenal. And that would be their missing persons investigation. I
would be using the information that they gained and learned during the course of
their missing persons investigation to drive and spearhead my murder investigation. And what I mean by that
is every person that told me that Emma left town, I want to know, why did you think that
she left town? Who told you that? Yeah. Is that something you came up with on your own?
Because we know that her body was found in town. So, she didn't leave town. We know that. So, why would anybody be
telling law enforcement that she did leave town? If you told me that, you're a suspect.
If you told me that, you better tell me who gave you that information, because then they are my
suspect. And the other thing that I think happened here, too, Captain, I think that there's plenty
of reason to believe that whoever transported the body had help. Yeah. I almost feel like the the finding
of the sleeping bag screams to me at least two people moving the body. Yeah, I know. I I was actually going to
bring that up as a question to you earlier was, doesn't it seem like because one thing was tried, then
another thing was tried, and and then the distance that she would have been found in this property
kind of leans more towards two people than one. So, I'm glad that you brought that up,
but I I know that they said he was being cooperative, and I and I and I know he um
I know that they said the husband was being cooperative, and and and maybe there was some alibi
that didn't check out. And that's why he lawyered up, and he stopped being cooperative.
But, once he lawyered up and and stopped being cooperative, it's one thing if you
want to lawyer up and have the questions go through your lawyer, and you answer what you can, and
and you protect your client. That's fine. But, my list of suspects would be a list of one.
My list of suspects would be rather short because I want to know, again, we're both sitting here believing that
two people at minimum transported the body. Or the and and that's more likely the person
that will come forward is look, I was told this story uh that she was cheating on him, or that she was
stealing money from him, or whatever, and it was an accidental death, and so I helped move the body.
But, that person is more likely to come forward. Come forward. We all sit here, too, believing that more than one person
likely told law enforcement that Emma had left the area of her own free will. Again, those are the tools that that the
the phone Mhm. activity, the phone activity of others inside that residence or on that property at that same time,
15 minutes after midnight on the night that she air quotes went missing. I'm looking at that. I'm looking at the
people that told me that she left town of her own free will. And I'm also looking for the point of origin of that
sleeping bag. Because guess what? If I can figure out and prove and have reason to believe
that person A owns that sleeping bag or owned that sleeping bag at one point, and he was
one of the people that told me that he was with a certain person on that night, and that is that person's alibi, well,
guess what? That alibi don't mean jack [ __ ] anymore, because we have your sleeping bag found at our crime scene.
Well, no, and I think one of the things that they could possibly do is, you know, obviously test
the sleeping bag for for DNA, but I would also test it for fibers, like carpet fibers, because that
that could have been a sleeping bag in her house that they used. Just like when Chris
Watts went to transport his wife, didn't he use the bed sheets? So, I I I just feel like it's so similar.
And we don't always agree, mainly because you're normally right, and I'm wrong. But, I think in this case, we at least
agree that the suspect list is very small. It's very small, and again, anyone that told law enforcement that
Emma left town for any number of reasons, they should be people that you really want to question, and you want to get to
the truth, because they obviously told you a lie at some point. And anybody willing to lie is somebody that is
either directly involved or is helping to cover up what actually happened. So, those nasty rumors about an affair, or
drug dealing, or being involved with drugs, boom, none of them are true. Somebody murdered this woman and didn't
take her body very far from where she was killed. Emma Compton Lane was last seen alive on
June 17, 2017 in Cody, Virginia. On November 22, 2017, her remains were found by a hunter in
the woods near her home on Sandy Ridge Road. She was buried in a shallow grave. The person responsible or persons
responsible for her murder have never been identified. If you have any information regarding the murder of Emma
Compton Lane, or recall seeing any suspicious vehicles along Sandy Ridge Road between June and November of 2017,
please contact the Halifax County Sheriff's Office at 434 476-3334. Thank you so much for joining us here in
the garage and letting us be a part of your week. We appreciate it. Make sure you go to truecrimegarage.com and sign
up on our mailing list, so you're in the know for everything True Crime Garage. Colonel? Until next time, be good, be
kind, and don't litter.

Emma Compton Layne ////// 598

Part 1 of 1

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Emma Compton Layne loved Christmas, Humming Birds and helping people. She was a friendly face in a tiny town. Everyone knew her because she owned a general store in Cody, Virginia. Emma was missing for approximately five months. Later the missing investigation turned into a homicide case. If you have any information about Emma Compton Layne’s disappearance and death, call the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office at 434-476-3339.

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Brief Summary

Emma Compton Lane went missing in 2017; her body was found later, and her murder remains unsolved.

Key points

Sisters Fighting for Justice. Emma's sisters, despite their differences, are united in seeking justice.
Emma Compton Lane's Disappearance. Emma was last seen at her store, but her absence raises red flags.
Community Concern Grows. The Cody community is abuzz with concern over Emma's disappearance.
The Missing Woman. Emma Compton Lane goes missing after leaving work, raising alarms among her family.
Suspicious Circumstances. Emma's belongings are found at home, but she is nowhere to be seen.
Discovery of Remains. Human remains identified as Emma are found in a wooded area, raising foul play suspicions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Five long, sad years and we still are waiting for justice for Emma.

A sister's poignant reflection on the ongoing search for justice.

5:41WatchOct 20, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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