Getting Away With Murder /// Part 1 /// 551 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you 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's got a curse that he cannot lift here is the captain
it's time to buckle up buttercup it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
my friend [Music] this week we are drinking old scout straight bourbon whiskey that's right
we're really stepping it up here in the garage this is a very Rye forward spicy and somewhat intense bourbon check out
old scout straight bourbon whiskey I love the color and I love the taste garage great let's go ahead and go with
five bottle caps out of five and let's get some praise and thanks to our good friends right here in the garage helping
us out first up a big thanks to Molly Wood for sending us some old scout straight bourbon whiskey I think she may
have stolen it from her husband there Captain so shout out to Molly Wood and a big shout out to Emily and West Liberty
Kentucky next up at cheers a double fisted cheers that is to Joe and Bridget listening to True Crime garage together
in Fishers Indiana a big we like your jib to Stacy and Santiago California next up we have a cheers to Amy and
Winter Garden Florida she thank us for all of the garage goodness that we are sending out each and every week and I
want to send out a big Heavenly cheers to Mike Brinks a lover of the Funky Buddha gone way too soon we pour a
little out for you here today friend rest in peace and cheers to everyone who listens to the show Cheers everyone who
has helped us with the beer fund and with things like the porch light project and all of the other great causes out
there on behalf of victims and their families thank you for contributing to the Beer fund yeah bwe double r u n Beer
Run we have some new shirts for the ladies campfire long sleeve tees you're gonna love them they are going fast like
hot cakes so check those out at True Crime garage.com and if you need more True Crime for your ear balls check out
our bonus show called off the Record but only if you're nasty and you can find a
link on our website at truecrime garage.com Colonel that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music]
this week's True Crime case takes us to the Tiny Town of Wampum Pennsylvania Our Story begins on the morning of
Friday February 20th 2009. tree workers are busy working at a cattle farm on Wampum New Galilee Road
they are on day two of a job that consists primarily of cutting down trees and splitting and stacking for firewood
around 9 40 a.m one of the workers spotted a little girl maybe four years old standing in the doorway of The
Farmhouse the screen door was open and the girl was crying then the little girl shouted to the
worker my mother is dead [Music] the worker stopped what he was doing and told the girl to stay right where she
was he picked up his cell phone and called 9-1-1 he reported to Emergency Services
exactly what the child had told him that her mother was dead minutes later he and the men working
with him were assisting by flagging down the responding state police officers troopers were on the scene at 10 13 A.M
[Music] two Troopers entered the home they tried to calm the girl as they started to
search the home almost immediately they saw what the little girl was talking about
in a downstairs front bedroom they found a woman lying lifeless on a bed under her there was a large pool of
blood she was clearly dead and even more horrific the dead woman appeared to be pregnant
the Troopers cleared the scene and quickly ushered in paramedics they confirmed the officer's suspicions
the woman on the bed had been shot in the back of the head right where the head and the neck meet
she and her baby were both deceased this is true crime garage and this is the case of Kenzie Houck and Jordan
Brown [Music] come on [Music] this week we go to the tiny rural town of wampum in Lawrence County this is
Western Pennsylvania about 40 or so miles Northwest of Pittsburgh on the morning of Friday February 20th Chris
Brown is at work he works in the shipping Department of a local tableware company called steel light while at work
that morning he receives a phone call from the police this is around 11 A.M an officer told Chris come home something
happened Chris Brown rushed home when he gets there he's greeted by a State Trooper in the front yard of the
property officer Jeffrey Martin told Chris that his fiancee 26 year old Kenzie Houck was dead from a shotgun
blast and the News got much worse Chris and Kenzie's son who was to be born in just a matter of weeks did not survive
the fetus a 34 or 35 week old boy died within minutes due to oxygen deprivation after his mother was killed Chris
collapsed on the ground in the yard obviously he was devastated at this horrific news he was then taken to the
state police barracks where he could be interviewed by police he told them that Kenzie had been alive and well when he
left for work that morning police are going to need to find out everything that went on at that house on this
morning they are going to have to figure out who shot this 26 year old mother callously
cutting short her life and in the process ending the life of her unborn baby and why was she collateral damage
maybe a victim of a house burglary gone wrong or was she the target all along before we go through the events of the
murder let's give a little background information on the family yes a little background information is in order and
we need to introduce the members of this household as we said Chris Brown is the
man of the house he and his former partner Mildred Krauss were the parents of 11 year old Jordan Brown
when Chris and Mildred split Chris got custody of Jordan Chris dated another woman for seven years from 2000 to 2007
and after that relationship Chris started dating a friend he met years ago in middle school and this is Kenzie
Houck when they reconnected Kenzie was working as a hairdresser Kenzie already had two young daughters of her own this
is four-year-old Adeline and seven-year-old Janessa Chris and Kenzie got engaged and rented the Wampum
Farmhouse together four months before Kinsey was shot Chris Brown's son Jordan lives at the house as does Kenzie's two
daughters Adeline and Janessa Jordan the son would be 11 at the time because of the imminent arrival of the baby there
is going to be some bedroom shuffling that's going on at this house Jordan's upstairs bedroom was being taken over by
the parents Chris and Kenzie because it had a smaller room off of it that would serve as a nursery you want to be close
to the baby Jordan was moving into the downstairs front room bedroom currently being used by Kenzie and Chris so we
have five people living in the house there Captain two little girls Jordan Brown who's 11 and then we have Kenzie
and Chris who are now engaged they're going to join forces join families here and they're moving upstairs when the
baby comes along and Jordan Brown's going to be switching bedrooms with his father and soon to be stepmother on the
day of the shooting Jordan's clothing and some of his personal items had already been relocated into this
downstairs room although Chris and Kenzie were still using it and Jordan was still sleeping upstairs at this time
remember Kinsey unfortunately was killed lying in her bed in the downstairs bedroom the front bedroom located on the
ground level or main level of the home and Chris said that Kinsey was alive and well when he left for work that morning
Christopher Brown said he left for work at 6 45 a.m he backed his vehicle out of
its parking spot which is behind the two-story Farmhouse Chris recalled that there was fresh snow on the ground his
vehicle made the only tire tracks down the long driveway to the main road Chris got to work around 7 A.M and was there
and accounted for all morning until receiving that terrible phone call from the state police at 11 A.M seems as
though Chris has a solid Alibi but obviously law enforcement will have to check him out and then the tree workers
were at their property that day yes we know that the tree workers were there and they were there the day before as
well the six workers arrived on this morning at 9 15 a.m to gather and stack firewood even though there was a fresh
coating of snow on the ground which was about a quarter inch deep now they parked there three trucks near the woods
line in front of the house and got to work when arriving the workers weren't there too long
because one of them spots the crying girl which was four-year-old Adeline around 9 40 AM
this is when the workers call the police and during this time Captain they actually discussed the two sets of small
footprints that they could see in the snow dotting the driveway between the house and the road Troopers gust of sin
and Trooper Bowser arrived on scene at 10 13 a.m they entered the house through the front door after searching the home
the officers noted that the house had four entrances and that none of them were locked when the police arrived
while the Troopers and paramedics were still working on Kenzie to see if they could possibly save her baby
Kenzie's cell phone rang Trooper Gustafson answered the phone and it was the school
nurse from Mohawk Elementary the nurse told him that eleven-year-old Jordan Brown who's a fifth grader at
this time was in her office with a stomachache and he wanted to go home the trooper told the nurse that you need to
keep Jordan there until we can make some kind of arrangements for him right not telling the nurse exactly what has gone
down four-year-old Adeline the youngest daughter and the only other person in the home other than the deceased when
the police arrive was questioned at the house that morning by Trooper Janice Wilson
but she was deemed to be in a State of Shock and not able to provide coherent answers Wilson said in her report that
she was able to make out that Adeline woke up that morning went downstairs watched cartoons for a while and ate
some food in the kitchen she said she was up for a while and heard her mom's phone ring and went into
her mom's room to look for her when she saw her mother she started crying and went to the screen door seeing the wood
cutters working outside and that's when she shouted at one of the workers that she believed her mother was dead she
also told the officer that she did not see anyone else in the home that morning and I think it's important to point out
that Jordan and Janessa are not there that morning because they took the school bus to school yes and one thing I
want to hit on here too Captain before we move on too far is for those of you out there that are familiar with this
case many years after the events of that day this case was on it was featured on 2020
and Adeline gave a different version of the events of that morning on 2020 than what we just reported here now I want to
be completely clear about something I don't I'm not trying to accuse Adeline of changing her story we need to keep in
mind she was four years old when this happened she finds her mother dead she's got to be in a State of Shock we know
that based off of what Trooper Wilson's report says I want to point out here that we don't have any incorrect
information what we are reporting here is what was in Trooper Wilson's report from that day and then later we have
Adeline giving a more simple different version in her statement on 2020. so that out of
the way before we move along now after Trooper Janice Wilson finished questioning Adeline now she's going to
go to Mohawk Elementary to talk to the two older kids Jordan Brown and Janessa Hoke during his interview Chris Brown
told investigators that the family never used the front door but the state police Corporal Andrew
Pennell noted that blood was on the front door frame the Corporal also found a blue blanket on the floor near the
front door of the home he entered it into evidence when he noticed it had a hole in it which appeared to be
consistent with a shotgun blast now consistent with the shotgun blast is very important to our case as later Dr
James Smith a forensic pathologist determined that Kenzie was killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of her
neck and he found the presence of shotgun pellets in and around the entry wound which was the shape of a large
slanted oval the size and shape of the wound told him that Kinsey was asleep in bed lying on
her left side when she was shot in the back of the head and neck to make sure that we don't leave anything out here
the following is a statement from Dr Smith quote hot gas from the shotgun blast entered the wound through the skin
and muscle of the victim's neck and caused the skin to bulge out and ruptured near the point of entry this
phenomenon known as blowback formed a tract or laceration in the skin the nature of this type of damage indicated
that the gas from the shotgun blast was mostly contained within the entry wound and did not have time to dissipate this
Factor coupled with the presence of powder in the wound and suit around the surface of the skin near the point at
which the pellets entered the skin caused me to conclude that the shotgun was very very very close to or maybe
even touching the back of the neck when it was fired Dr Smith estimated that the
shot was fired from a distance of closer than two inches from Kenzie's neck Chris
Brown remember told police that Kenzie was alive and well when he left for work that morning the cops very quickly
confirmed Chris's Presence at work all morning and a swab of his hands detected zero gunshot residue Chris was basically
cleared very early on in this investigation so our key window of time is getting small and more manageable
right the shooting took place sometime after Chris Brown left for work at 6 45 a.m
and sometime before Adeline found her and 9-1-1 was called around 9 40 a.m so less than three hours time to work with
here now the tree guys arrived at 9 15. and they said that they had not seen or heard anything
to further narrow down the window of time cops needed to talk to the two older kids Janessa and Jordan who were
at school that morning Trooper Janice Wilson arrived at Mohawk Elementary around noon she found Jordan asleep in
the nurse's office so she started by questioning Janessa and when they called Janessa to the office she assumes at
first like most kids would that she's in trouble yeah the dreaded call remember when we were young I don't know how they
do it nowadays but they would announce your name over the the loudspeaker Captain to the office yeah Captain to
the office and you're like oh no what did I do well she gets to the office and very quickly she realizes that she's not
in trouble of course and the officer is going to inform her of that now Janessa calmed down and upon
questioning quote didn't have much to offer about what happened that morning end quote that's from Trooper Wilson
Trooper Wilson at that time did not tell Janessa that her mother was dead we do need to point out something here too
that is really kind of disappointing I understand why it didn't happen but again it's still disappointing looking
back on this case these interviews so far that we've discussed have not been recorded there's not a recording of
them anywhere it's simply we have an officer writing down statements and taking notes based off of a meeting the
nurse then took Jordan to meet Trooper Wilson in a conference room a school guidance counselor was present for this
interview as was for Janessa's Trooper Wilson later acknowledged and this is kind of key here when we get into
technicalities and the law and and witness statements and things like that Trooper Wilson later acknowledged that
she had not contacted the father Chris Brown for permission to for permission to interview or at least
to inform him that he that she was speaking with the children now Trooper Wilson said quote at that time Mr Chris
Brown was possibly a suspect in the incident and that's why that phone call or notification wasn't made so while the
state claims that the children were free to leave and not answer questions well we all know that no 7 or 11 year old is
going to stand up and March out of a meeting with a police officer and a guidance counselor
it doesn't seem reasonable right anyway Jordan told Trooper Wilson that he was awakened that morning at 8 00 a.m by
Janessa yelling at him after she in turn had been awakened by Kenzie just a minute or two before that Jordan said he
went downstairs and got some clothing from the room Kenzie was sleeping in which of course would soon be his room
one day and got dressed in the bathroom he said Kenzie was awake at this time but in bed then he watched TV with
Janessa in the family room which is adjacent to Kenzie's room on the first floor he said the only people in the
house at that time to his knowledge were the three kids in Kenzie whom he was calling Mom by this time but he
never saw Adeline the little girl as she was still asleep his father had already left for work by
this point at some point he and Janessa heard Kenzie yelled to them that they needed to leave or they would miss the
bus this from Trooper Wilson's report quote when I asked what time it was Jordan
Brown stated that they usually leave the house at 8 12 but since his mom was telling them they needed to go or they
were going to be late he stated that it was probably 8 13 or 8 14 end quote the older kids bus would come between 8 12
and 8 15 every morning according to Jordan Kenzie was awake when they walked out the door
Trooper Wilson asked if he had seen any vehicles at or near the home and Jordan said that as they left the house through
the side door which is important remember the father saying earlier that they never used the family never used
the front door Jordan said that as they left the house through the side door he noted a large black pickup truck parked
by the garage of the home and he said it was the same kind of truck that was driven by the guy who would come to the
farm to feed the cattle not the same truck but the same kind of truck right then Jordan and Janessa got on the bus
and they went to school I'll just back up a little bit Kinsey is a mother of two soon to be a mother of three one on
the way she's laying down I would assume that she was asleep it's almost like she was
executed in her sleep that's what the pathologist would tell us in his report and basically what I see here Captain is
a situation where the timeline is very crucial to this case more so than a lot of other cases out there and we are
really talking about a short window of time here when this murder occurred and then you try to piece well who could
have been there at that time when the murder took place that's got to be your suspect or your suspects right and so
what we have here is a very simple time frame and timeline of Chris Brown leaving for work at 6 45 a.m if we
are to believe Chris Brown his his soon-to-be wife is alive and well at that time it seems like that's probably
the situation because later we have the kids saying that she was alive and well later before they leave for school right
now they're getting on the bus about 8 15 at the very latest We have tree workers arriving at 9 15 and then by 9
40 we have the littlest kid four-year-old Adeline who's at the door crying and she shouts at one of the
workers my mother is dead we're talking about a window of three hours when this execution style murder took place we
also have this unidentified vehicle so this case has a lot of moving pieces and parts and every minute counts
foreign [Music] cheers to everybody in the front back to the sides to the windows to the walls
and all the unfortunate people in the middle yeah of it all spelling the goodness Cheers Cheers meanwhile Captain
back at the house around midday on Friday investigators are still processing the murder scene Corporal
pinell searched the upstairs of the home and went into Jordan's bedroom in the front left corner between a dresser and
the wall stood six long guns partially covered by an orange blanket Parnell began to remove individual guns from
this group one at a time and he handed them to Sergeant marklinsky for him to examine and determine if they were
loaded the first gun removed by Corporal pinell was a flintlock rifle which sergeant malinsky
examined and noted nothing unusual about it the second weapon Corporal pinell handed to Sergeant marlinsky was a
Harrington and Richardson youth model 20 gauge shotgun Sergeant mcclinsky opened
the breach of the shotgun and smelled burnt gunpowder in the breach which he pointed out to the Corporal who also
smelled the odor the sergeant also observed gunpowder residue in the breach and in the barrel So based off of their
personal experience with Firearms they both believe that the shotgun was recently fired however they could not
opine with any degree of scientific uncertainty exactly when the shotgun had been fired just that it had been fired
recently yeah meaning it could have been fired that morning or sometime within that week now in the first floor bedroom
where the victim's body was found corporal panel noted that the television which sat on top of an armoire located
in the right hand side of the room was still turned on observing the doors to the armoire were closed he opened them
now inside the armoire he saw a locked gun safe on the bottom shelf which was later determined to contain two handguns
and ammunition on the top shelf Corporal panel saw a work helmet and two boxes of
shotgun shells one opened and one closed the open box contained 16 unfired Federal Premium brand 20 gauge shotgun
shells okay so people were trying to figure out why so many guns in this home we already pointed out this is a a small
tiny rural town this was it was common in this area for people to be gun owners and not uncommon for
people to be Avid hunters and in fact we know that Chris Brown and his son Jordan
Brown they would go hunting together so Chris Brown owned several guns and one gun was actually owned by his son Jordan
Brown well again going back to the footprints in the snow we only have two Footprints leaving we don't have
other Footprints coming into this house so it makes you almost want to rule out an intruder Theory yeah you're starting
to see where this case is going here everyone we have a situation where as the captain pointed out we don't have
any signs or evidence that someone came into the home and then killed this young
woman what we do have though is potentially underline that word potentially signs that maybe someone
inside of the home shot and killed this poor young woman right but at this moment they can't scientifically prove
that now all we have is a bunch of guns and ammo and we have guns that are also consistent with the the weapon that was
used to kill her we have ammo in Kenzie's room and we have guns in Jordan's room
the shells that were found in Kenzie's room well these shelves fit into the so-called Smoking Gun that was found in
Jordan's room the one that the officers both smelled and said hey this thing was
recently fired right and we also need to remember too that Pennell had already found a blue blanket which had burn
marks on it and a hole the size of a quarter remember he found that near the front door they also found Blood on the
door frame Chris Brown acknowledged that the gun found in Jordan's bedroom belonged to Jordan
he said it was a Christmas gift from Chris Chris said the two enjoyed hunting together and in fact Jordan won a turkey
shoot competition just six days earlier on Valentine's Day even beating out some
of the adults Chris adamantly denied that there was any way that Jordan would have shot Kinsey he said and told the
police the boy was excited about the upcoming wedding and he was excited about the new baby brother well
basically what that statement to me though the way my brain reads that statement and say that Jordan wouldn't
kill her but that doesn't mean that he didn't kill her by accident well and of course after finding these guns and
finding the ammunition we're going to have to have a second round of interviews with everybody that was in
that household specifically they wanted to re-interview Jordan so they went to the home of his grandmother this is
where he was staying since she had picked him up from school that day Chris Brown was there as well this is about 10
p.m at this point Jordan has yet to be told that Kenzie was murdered so Chris sat down with him at this point and
broke the news that something bad had happened and she was in heaven right Jordan became emotional and started
crying at this news according to him he cried throughout this short interview uh the interview again with Trooper
Wilson now from the record quote Trooper Wilson asked Jordan for more details about the black truck and when he had
first seen it Jordan recalled that he first saw the truck as he exited the house when he reached in his pocket to
see if he had ice cream money for school and in the process he dislodged a mass of fuzz from his pocket which fell to
the ground he said he bent over to pick it up and that is when he noticed the truck parked by the garage Trooper
Wilson asked Jordan if Janessa had possibly seen the truck as well to which Jordan replies that he mentioned it to
her but she didn't respond and he believed that she was at this point too far ahead of him to hear Jordan also
informed Trooper Wilson that he had seen a person in a white hat ducking over inside of the truck Trooper Wilson
inquired of Jordan why he had not mentioned that when she talked with him that morning he then explained well he
first glanced at the truck he didn't see anybody Jordan has also recounted his observation that the lights were on
inside of the truck and when Trooper Wilson stated that he did not tell her that during their first interview Jordan
after hesitating these are her words after he hesitated then described the lights as being sort of half on which
I'm not sure what that means right after acknowledging that he owned a 20 gauge shotgun Trooper Wilson asked Jordan if
he had fired the gun that morning to which he answered no so let's unpack that a little bit basically in this
report and in this second interview we have one major thing that has changed right yeah he saw a person well we gotta
frame this with Jordan's 11 years old and that's what I want to really hone in on because when I said that one major
thing has changed here I didn't mean that Jordan's story has changed what I'm pointing out is according to the adults
in the room at this point we're being told that Jordan was just told seconds before this interview that his
soon-to-be stepmother was killed that day murdered that day and she's now in heaven that's the major thing that has
changed between when he was first interviewed earlier that day around noon at school and now at 10 pm at his
grandparents house that's a major change right when you're asking me about my morning
well the events of my morning don't seem so important and then you tell me oh my
soon-to-be stepmother was murdered inside of our home guess what now the events of my morning seem to be much
more important and maybe I'm telling you some more details because you've now told me something different right you're
questioning me why I'm telling you something different you just told me something majorly different from the
first time we sat down yeah again if he was 30 years old and he mentioned the truck before and then started adding
details you would question if he's misremembering or if he's lying to protect himself from maybe maybe to
protect somebody else but he's 11 years old so then you have to start questioning
the detectives not saying that they're bad but what questions did you ask differently exactly the second time
around yeah they may not be bad I actually think they're probably pretty good at their job the problem here is
they seem to lack a certain thoroughness to the job right this is where I really
am disappointed that the interviews are not recorded because by this point it is
clear to me that Trooper Wilson along with the other Troopers have already decided that 11 year old Jordan Brown is
on their suspect list this is why we're having this second interview and this is
why in the course of that interview she is asking him specifically if he had fired the gun that we now know that he
owns that morning right but you have zero evidence so far that has been presented that day that we
know of of an intruder so you you start going through the reasonable suspects and I think you start with the the
husband right and then you go well there that alibi is solid my issue is with this time frame
and and when when was it that Jordan got to school and could they narrow down when she was
murdered is it possible that it was an accidental shooting before he took off to the bus I mean I guess it's possible
but we don't have him admitting to anything and we're only talking about a window of
look at the at the at the greatest amount of time possible according to all of these stories if we are to believe
these stories they're on the bus by 8 15 and by 9 40 somebody's calling the police because a little girl said her
mother's dead so we have less than an hour and a half that take takes place and then if we're to back that up on the
shorter side of it the tree workers say that they arrive at 9 15 that morning or
around 9 15 that morning and they don't see or hear anything strange while they are there working so
now we are down to an hour a window of of Simply an hour so either something happened before Jordan Brown left for
school that day or if it happened afterward he's he's not responsible because we know he was on
the bus and we know he was at school another thing that I find interesting and perplexing of this case is when you
say tree workers what kind of equipment are they working with that day because if I have my headphones blaring some
music and then I have my my noise cancellating headphones on top of that and I'm just using my like leaf blower
if the neighbor shot his wife I probably wouldn't hear it yeah that's a good point and that's something that's
difficult to wrap our heads around here because just because they say they didn't see or
hear anything strange or unusual doesn't mean that something strange and unusual
didn't happen during that time frame right and they were just unaware of it for whatever reason but here's the other
thing I want to point out again I'm going to go back to I'm curious why we're not recording this interview right
again you are going to this scene you're now going to the grandparents house with
the knowledge that a suspect one of your suspects is an 11 year old boy and you're going to interview him there it
seems to me like you would want to record that interview and here's the reasons why right it's it's some of the
reasons that you already pointed out Captain why are my answers different why is my story different well are your
questions the same as they were earlier today because if you're now asking me different questions and I wasn't
questioned on certain things I may not have just brought them up magically on my own especially if I didn't know that
anybody was dead and that my morning had any importance on the loss of life so it's all very confusing to me and
then here we have the trooper giving her opinion when she says that well I asked
him this question and after he hesitated when I asked him why you didn't tell me
earlier in the first interview that the light was on inside of the truck Jordan hesitated and then described the
lights as being sort of half on well that's her opinion and that might go a long way to Leading someone to believe
that this guy this kid might be guilty of something where if it were recorded we could all view it and give our
opinion on it and go well yeah he did hesitate or maybe she's completely wrong again there's a lot of different things
here what's interesting to me is the things that have changed in his story are not just the I might have tried to
tell my soon-to-be stepsister about the truck oh I did see somebody in the truck and the lights
were on not only did that change but also we have the added detail of well I checked to see if I had ice cream money
and I this big piece of fuzz fell out of my pocket and I bent down to pick it up
there's multiple things that are changing here and we say changing but to me it could also just be the same story
with additional details that were left out for whatever reason the first time is there anybody else other than Jordan
other than the 11 year old son that that claims to see this black truck no there
is not and when Trooper Wilson asked Jordan if he had fired a gun his gun that morning and Jordan answered no at
that point is when Chris Brown the father stopped the interview Troopers Wilson and McGraw who was also there
informed him that they believed that Jordan was the one who had murdered Kinsey well obviously if your 11 year
old son did this you want to protect him because he he obviously has some mental
issues going on it's interesting to me that law enforcement jumps to the conclusion right away that if it is
Jordan that it's as simple as he didn't like his stepmom and he murdered her I think there's another possibility where
you have 11 year old kid maybe walking around the house with a loaded gun and maybe just goes to Poker and then
somehow the gun goes off I think there's an angle here where you where you have firearms in the possession of a of a
child where you could argue accidental death well we're getting ahead of ourselves here a bit because currently
they're not looking for technically a murderer they're just trying to figure out who shot this woman regardless of
how it went down right and we can get into those details as we go so accident or no accident murder or no murder
that's not their concern at this point as an investigator you were simply trying to figure out how why and who
shot and killed this woman Jordan won't be the only person that is interviewed again for the second time that night
that same night Troopers re-interviewed Janessa as well now she tells them the same story that she told before about
getting up for school around eight watching TV in the living room and then leaving for the bus with Jordan
according to Jordan at police request Janessa was taken by her grandparents to the police barracks for a third
interview that same night this is at 11 30 pm now keep in mind the ages I'm glad that you
pointed out the ages a second ago Captain with Jordan let's remind everybody the age of Janessa this is a
seven-year-old girl whose mother was just killed that day she's been up by her own admission by 8 A.M that morning
this is now 11 30 p.m and she's being interviewed for the third time by police according to the Pennsylvania State
Police in the third interview Janessa started to tell a very different story she said that she still did not see who
shot her mom she didn't see anyone at all that morning other than Jordan she said was carrying two guns down the
stairs she asked him what he was doing and he told her his father asked him to move the guns this would make some sense
to a seven-year-old girl because remember they are in the process of switching rooms
and these guns were stored in his room and he's switching rooms with Kenzie and his father
so she says according to the story she asked him why he's carrying the guns down the stairs he says my father asked
me to move them a few minutes later she said that she heard a very loud boom and
then Jordan went back upstairs and then came back down empty-handed she later asked Jordan about the noise but he
would not answer her then they walked out to the bus and she saw Jordan Chuck something into the snow next to the
driveway these detectives aren't stupid but it seems on some level that they're acting stupid because Janessa changes
her story Jordan changes his story and we're completely suspect of him Janessa changes her story and well we don't bat
an eye if I were to have to make an argument for these children and I guess I don't have to but I will right here my
argument would be completely different than that Janessa's story absolutely changes to me there's a chance that
Jordan's story is the same story just with additional details I agree so it's it's very bizarre to me that they're
treating two children very differently again I cannot emphasize enough and I know everybody in their cars listening
or are sick of hearing me say this but I really wish I'd be sick of hearing you talk these interviews with children
should be recorded yes now per several of the officers statements regarding Janessa's statements about seeing Jordan
carrying the guns and possibly a gun covered by a blanket and then hearing a loud boom and then then seeing Jordan
later throwing something onto the ground chucking something as they're running out to the bus
these statements absolutely led to what happened next and that was 11 year old Jordan Brown being arrested for the
death of Kenzie Houck Jordan's inconsistent statements to police about the truck he saw that morning of course
were problematic for Jordan whether or not the lights were on in the truck and the changing his story to seeing a man
inside wearing a hat in the second interview these are of course Nails in the coffin I wonder if something here
Captain about what the boy said about the lights being sort of half on and this just occurred to me you know in
in your vehicle you have the ability to turn the overhead lights on and you can hit one or two
I wonder if that's what he meant by that statement that it was kind of a dim light and he suspected that only one
light was on in the truck if in fact he did even see a truck now the gun in his room that quote
smelled as though it had been fired recently this and Janessa's statements basically
give police what they were looking for and that is probable cause Jordan Brown was arrested at 3 A.M Saturday morning
for the murder of Kenzie Hauck and his unborn half-brother he was taken to Lawrence County Jail where he was kept
in isolation away from the other inmates for obvious reasons they are her adult men and this is a little boy guards
checked on him every 15 minutes at dawn on Saturday morning State Police resumed
their investigation at the Wampum Farmhouse this time their focus was on the exterior of the home they performed
grid searches of the property during these searches they found a shotgun shell that was clearly weathered it was
rusted and had evidently been outside for quite a long time so this won't be of any use to them in this investigation
but then the officers walked further down the driveway in the direction of the road to where they discovered a
second spent shell this shell a federal number six brand 20 gauge was found approximately 100 feet away from the
house on the left hand side of the driveway at the beginning of a fence line that ran the entire length of the
left side of the driveway the spent shell was located near the base of the wire fence a few feet from the middle of
the driveway and it was lying underneath leaves which were frozen and covered by
ice and snow this shell was not rusted like the other one they recovered when asked a state police Sergeant
characterized this shell as quote pristine well I can tell you why they did the grid search because of Janessa's
story when you when you when she says that she saw Jordan throw something that's what they were looking for that's
something now is this bullet casing that possibly you're exactly right Captain this shell casing
was consistent with the open box of ammo that was found in the armoire in Kenzie's room and was suitable for use
in Jordan's youth model 20 gauge shotgun a lot of little pieces stacking up against Jordan now the burning question
here Captain is Jordan is a little boy so why wasn't he sent to a juvenile facility
well the answer is that in Pennsylvania the law required that any child aged 10 and older accused of a homicide to be
charged as an adult because the criminal courts handled homicide cases in the Commonwealth
since he was technically a juvenile he was not eligible for the death penalty but if found guilty by the criminal
tribunal he would receive a mandatory sentence of life without parole and at just 11 years old he would be the
youngest American ever to receive that sentence this reminds me a little bit of our Eddie O'Brien case that we covered
not terribly long ago the trail of Blood episodes number 416 and 417 on your true
crime garage radio dial Chris Brown reeling over the murder of his fiancee and unborn child now needed
help for his son so at 6 30 a.m on February 21st he was recommended to two local attorneys this is Dennis alesco
and Dave Acker who immediately went to work trying to get the case transferred to juvenile court and to possibly
arrange for a bond so that Jordan could return home to his father rather than staying in the adult County jail but in
Pennsylvania most homicide defendants are not allowed out on bond pending trial and so Jordan wasn't either
but keeping Jordan at the adult jail wasn't going to work Lawrence County District Attorney John
bong Vigo was in charge of Prosecuting the case and had three young boys of his own and he told the Post-Gazette
newspaper quote Yeah it's enough to make me throw up I'm not necessarily sure I want him sitting in jail while we figure
all this out end quote the Lawrence County Jail Warden agreed he told the Post-Gazette that he stands ready to go
on record as saying the 10 foot by 10 foot jail cell is definitely not the right place for Jordan quote I've got to
keep him in isolation he has to be checked on constantly but he's also got the right to be able to get out for a
bit he's got the right to a shower it's really tough the warden said the price tag for the constant security needed to
ensure Jordan's safety at the jail was estimated to be about four thousand five hundred dollars a week Jordan was
eventually moved to a juvenile facility on February 27th and then to the Edmund L Thomas adolescent Detention Center in
Erie Pennsylvania on March 2nd where he stayed for the next several years [Music]
so much more to get to we want to hear from you check out our blog at truecrime garage.com and Colonel until tomorrow be
good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music] foreign

Getting Away With Murder /// Part 1 /// 551

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

February 20, 2009 - Wampum, Pennsylvania. A 26 year old mother of two is found dead in her home. She was found to be shot in the head laying in her bed. State Police quickly determined that she was found a very short period of time after having been killed, maybe just minutes. More than in most cases, the timeline of the events and movements of persons closest to our victim will be the key element in this week’s true crime story.

Beer of the Week - Old Scout Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Garage Grade - 5 out of 5 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

Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Kenzie Houck and her unborn child, focusing on the investigation and the involvement of her fiancé and children.

Key points

A Tragic Discovery. Tree workers find a little girl crying and report her mother is dead.
The Horrific Scene. Police discover a pregnant woman shot dead in her home.
A Devastating Phone Call. Chris Brown learns of his fiancée's murder and the loss of their unborn child.
The Timeline of Terror. Investigators piece together a narrow window of time for the murder.
The Timeline of Events. A detailed timeline reveals the moments leading up to the tragedy.
Jordan's Emotional Reaction. Jordan learns about his mother's death during an interview.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We pour a little out for you here today, friend.

A tribute to a listener who passed away.

2:15WatchOct 29, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High 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.