Heaven LaShae Ross ////// 859 | Forensic Files

[Music] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
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tastes of passion fruit, grapefruit, and apricot. making for one hell of a good heavenly brew. ABV 4.8% garage grade
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>> All right, everybody. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
[Music] Evan Lache Ross was 11 years old. Friends and family called her Sheay andor Sha Shay. She was described as a
friendly and obedient child. Several sites and online posters say that Sheay was a sweet girl who adored her father
and was known as the peacekeeper in the family. On Tuesday, August 19th, 2003, what would become a stormy morning, Shay
Shay set out solo on foot, walking to the morning pickup bus stop. She never arrived.
Something happened between home and the bus stop, and it seems she was intercepted and removed quickly from the
area. A very small window of just a few minutes remains. is the time frame in question.
A few minutes that turned into years and then decades of wondering what happened
to Heaven Lache Ross. This is True Crime Garage. Heaven Lache Ross was born June 11,
1992. We talked a bit about Sheay, her personality, and good nature during the trailer for this week's true crime
story. known as Shay or Shay Shay to family and friends. She loved bike riding, swimming, basketball, and her
favorite restaurant was Red Lobster. And she was a hugger. A big hugger. >> I love those Red Lobster rolls.
>> Mom, her name is Beth Lowry or Beth Thompson. She remarried at some point. And she says of Sheay that she was
spoiled in a good way as she was the baby of the family. One of Shea's teachers talking about the little girl
wrote, "I had the amazing privilege of knowing your daughter. She touched my heart with her sweet spirit and hugs. It
always made my day to get a hug from her." End quote. So, for this week's true crime story here, Captain, we are
going down to Northport, which is a city in Tuscaloosa County in western central
Alabama. This is located on the Black Warrior River across from downtown Tuscaloosa. The 2020 census tells us
that we have a little over 31,000 people living there. But more importantly, where our story starts off and our
timeline starts off, we have considerably less than that with about 21,000 people. That's because we are
going to go back way back to 2003, 22 years ago. In August of 2003, little Sha Shay is living with her mother Beth
Lowry. Kevin Thompson, her stepdad, who she considered to be her dad, both due to their closeness and the long-term
nature of Kevin and Beth's relationship. They had been together for years, and Sheay was only 11 at this time. Also in
the home is Shea's older sister, Alex. Now, some articles refer to her as Jaime. As I understand it, Jaime is her
first name, but back then, 20 years ago, she went by Alex, an abbreviation of her
middle name. They lived at the Willow Brook Trailer Park, which is an all ages manufactured home community located at
2823 Hunter Creek Road in Northport. They are lot number 25. Sheay is in the sixth grade attending Collins Riverside
Middle School located at 14003rd Street in Northport, Alabama. Let's start our timeline off in the
early morning hours of Tuesday, August 19th, 2003. This was Sha's first few days as a sixth
grader at Collins Riverside Middle School. It would become a stormy morning after she set off for the bus stop down
the street from the family's mobile home in Willowbrook trailer park. Starting at
6:00 a.m. at the 6:00 a.m. hour, the stepdad Kevin says that the girls and everyone in the house slept normal and
through the night. As we said, August 19th was a Tuesday, a school day. So, starting between 6:00 and 6:30, Kevin
wakes up the girls. They each have their own rooms. The girls start getting ready
for school. Kevin then lays back down in bed with Beth, who is still asleep. Now,
I won't pretend to know the family's typical routines, but what I do know per the family's words, two things. One, it
was not abnormal for Kevin to get the kids up and off to school in the morning. And two, Beth had been working
a lot lately. This is like several long shifts in a row, many days in a row. And
because of that, on this morning, Kevin agreed to step up to the plate, get the girls up and off for the day.
>> Yeah. One of the things I I was wondering when looking at this case, was the mother working overtime because they
were tight on money, or was it a situation where she worked at a job that if they told you you had mandatory
overtime that you had to work? the overtime. >> When you have two kids, you're always
tight on money. So, that's probably part of the equation. But, I believe this she
started a new job recently and she had had one or two previous jobs. I wonder if there was some overlap between
starting the new job and still being committed to the old jobs, right? As you transition out, sometimes you give two
weeks notice if you're responsible, if you care about your resume. I've even given several months notice before uh
for people that I've worked for very long for and and had a great relationship with. So, I think that it's
a matter of she's kind of transitioning into this new position. I think she took
this new job just a couple weeks before our timeline starts. It might even be as
much as a month before. You can find a bunch of different versions of this morning timeline in old newspaper
articles and online. And I'm not I don't say this to be overly critical of the reporting on this case, but I cannot
stand how brief and vague these reports are. You will often hear me sending out kudos to the different news outlets when
they have great coverage. This case thankfully did receive a lot of media attention. Something that we can only
hope for for every case out there, God forbid. But I think a more detailed timeline of that morning could have
helped to eliminate a lot of the confusion and the misconceptions from the public about this case. If we
can do only one thing here today, Captain, I hope that it is to have us clearing up some of the information and
us cleaning up any of the confusion and those misconceptions about this story. Most of the cases that we cover here,
the timeline is absolutely crucial. That's typical. It's a no-brainer. But here, it is the most important part of
this case. So, please listen up and pay attention. Digging in here, the girls are up and
getting ready. At 6:50 a.m., Alex, the older sister, she's 13 years old at this time. She leaves the house to walk down
to the bus stop. The two girls share the same bus stop, and they share this bus stop with several other kids that live
in the neighborhood as well. >> Right. Most articles say 6:50 a.m. I believe that it would be most
appropriate to adjust that to 6:50 to 6:55 a.m. that Alex leaves the home. And my adjustment will make more sense as we
go through the information. Most reports states that Sheay then left the home after Alex with Sheay leaving at 6:55
a.m. I question that time stamp. The key here is absolutely 100% we know that Alex left first, then minutes later
Sheay leaves. That's not in question. It's just the time stamps that are in question. On this morning, Captain Sheay
is wearing hot pink shorts and shirt, blue shoes, and she's carrying her yellow and gray book bag. Now, mom says
that her book bag, Sha's book bag, contains Shaya's math and science books and a folder for her schoolwork. And mom
says she knows this because the night before her and Sheay were cleaning out and organizing that book bag
>> and the bus stop is roughly 50 yards or so from their house. >> That is every report says 50 yards.
Kevin, the stepdad later says that that Tuesday morning, Sheay was in a cheerful
mood. The last thing that she said before leaving for the day was, quote, "I love you, Daddy. I'll see you in a
little while." Now, as the story is often told, at 6:55 a.m., Sheay left home that morning to
make that short walk to the bus stop, as the captain pointed out, 50 yards roughly. Then a storm erupted a few
minutes later and at 7:01 a.m. Kevin after hearing the storm roll in, he leaves the trailer. He
went to go pick the girls up from the bus stop because of the weather. >> Anybody that was a kid that had a bus
stop knows this all too well. If your bus is supposed to get there at 7:00, it might be 5 minutes early. It might be
10, 15 minutes late. So, you could be out in that thunderstorm for 10 or 15 minutes waiting for the bus to come.
>> Yeah. And this is one of those thunderstorms where you can hear it from inside your home, right? You you know
that there's trouble a brewing because you can hear it rolling in just like Kevin said. And I did a little checking
on this trailer park, this neighborhood in particular, and it was prone to flooding. There were many people that
would say that it would flood once or twice a year just because of the landscape kind of the layout. So if you
get this big storm rolling in it double trouble for you if you live in this neighborhood. So as said she left the
house about let's say about 7 a.m. and we'll find out that that seems to be more accurate. Her older sister Alex 13
had left earlier. That's not in question. The bus stop is on Hunter Creek Road in front of their trailer
park. Just after Shay left the house, a large clap of thunder bmed overhead and Kevin sprung into action. He decided on
the spot to drive Sheay and the older sister, Alex, who was already at the bus stop to school instead.
When Kevin drives up to this bus stop, he finds Alex there, but discovers that Sheay for some reason had not shown up
and is nowhere in sight. >> Yeah. So, my first question was, did Sheay even leave the house? But it seems
like we have eyewitnesses that spot her going to the bus stop. Yes, I struggled with those eyewitnesses for a good deal
of time when examining this. >> Why was that? >> It it'll be it'll be more clear as we go
through. The point here is based off of these timelines that are often put out, she seemingly vanished during a span of
just 6 minutes. Now, that seems like pure insanity, but keep in mind when we covered the
Amber Hagermanerman case, that was reported as what, Captain? 8 to 9 minutes time that she vanished
>> or the Mara Murray case, that's very short time period. The Brian Shaver case, a very short time period. While it
may seem on the surface to be pure insanity and could not be accurate at all, we're here to tell you this is not
the first time that we've experienced such a small window of time that is in question. Yeah, but you know what's
extra bonker butts is not just a 6-minute time period, but the distance. It's 50 yards.
That's not that far of a distance. It's not like, well, my sister left to go to the bus stop and it's a half a mile away
and and then the dad leaves to go pick them up in his car and I'm guessing he headed down the same path that Shay
should have went down. So, that's just extra bonkers. >> Yeah. So, if you look up the trailer
park on a map and where the bus stop is located is on Hunter Creek Road. So, Hunter Creek Road comes in off of Hunter
Creek Road comes in off of McFarland Boulevard. And another road there that would be of importance is Watermelon
Road. So going off of memory here, Captain, the Hunter Creek Road, where the bus stop is located, runs from
McFarland to Watermelon, and I believe it continues on. But the key here is trying
to paint a picture for all the listeners out there. Hunter Creek Road, off of Hunter Creek
Road to go into any of the lots, the parking lots if you want to call it, for the trailer park. Each one of these
lots, it's one way in and one way out. All roads leading to Hunter Creek Road. So, it only stands to reason that Kevin
Thompson, unless he hopped in his monster truck and decided to drive over top of several trailers, he went
straight down the same path that the girls walked to get to that bus stop. So, that's how the story has been told.
And it is, some may say, very accurate. I say that it is fairly accurate. Time and distance is everything in this case.
It's absolutely everything. Now, back to the story. Her stepfather, Kevin Thompson, he's 32 back then. And again,
he said he went outside to drive the girls to school because of the oncoming storm. He says that when he couldn't
find Shay, he went inside the house back home. He shook Beth awake and said something to the effect of, "Baby, did
she come back in the house?" "No," the mother says. Why? And Kevin says, "I can't find her." Then
the three of them, Kevin, Beth, and Alex, they all drive to the school off to Collins Riverside Middle School
together. Once there, Beth says that she runs up to bus number three. This is Sha's bus. The driver said she never saw
Shay that morning at all. So Sheay's not on the bus. Driver never saw her. Mom says, Beth says that as soon as Kevin
woke her up, said that he couldn't find Shay. She just just something in her gut
told her that something was terribly wrong. >> Right. >> So there mom is in full on panic mode
right here. Mother intuition stepping in saying there's something serious going on here. She's desperately trying to
find her little daughter right out of the gate. Well, and I think one of the problems too is if you think that the
the father, the stepfather had something to do with this or that the mother had something to do with this, you have to
remember that the older sister, there was even if you take that 6 minute gap and turn it into 10 minutes, that's not
a lot of time for the stepfather or the mom to do something and hide the child and and basically cover up all your
tracks so nobody else in the family is suspicious. So if you think that one of the parents is involved, you almost have
to think that both of the parents in are involved and also the sister is involved.
>> Yeah. So let's throw another wrinkle into all of that as well. So once at the
school after they talked to the bus driver, Beth calls the Northport Police Department. She reported that there was
a problem and that her little girl was missing. This next part is reported two different ways. One, police met the
parents at the school and then followed them home back to the trailer park. Two,
police told the parents to return home and they will meet them there and did so. It's hard for us to say going off of
simple reporting which is more accurate. Regardless of which is the true statement, police are back at the home
with the parents very quickly. I actually believe the more logical sequence of events here is that the
police tell them go back home and we will meet you there. And I say that because of of several things. One, the
two most likely places that this 11year-old girl would be is school or the bus. The bus is at the school. She's
neither at the school nor the bus. Bus driver never saw her. We law enforcement are going to want to go to your home and
talk to you there, get the information there and search your home. >> Right. Because it's a possible crime
scene. >> Exactly. So, what I would be telling the parents if I'm the one taking the call
or the responding officer, I'm telling them, look, and I think it's like three miles between the distance of the home
and the school. So, I would be telling the parents, "Look, I think you guys should return home because if she, let's
say she decided to, you know what, I'm going to fart around. I I'll go play with some kids or I'll go check
something out or go exploring, whatever, and she happens to miss the bus. She's she's going to go back home and either
enter the home if it's unlocked or if she has a key or she's going to be sitting on the front porch hopefully
somewhere sheltered out of the rain waiting for somebody to take her to school or let her into the home.
>> I agree. >> So naturally, you should go home anyway if you've already covered your bases at
the school. So we will meet you at the home and I want to search their home. So that seems the most logical
of the two options here. So with that in mind, the parents return home very quickly. The the trailer park will be
swarming with law enforcement officers from the Northport Police Department. What we're told here is that police
spoke to various residents at the mobile home park. They learned, like the captain had said, that a few neighbors
had seen Sheay that morning walking by herself toward the bus stop. No one reported seeing her with anyone, nor did
anyone report seeing her get into a vehicle. The other part of this that is very problematic is you have mom and
stepdad who are adamant when talking with police that she would not get into a stranger's car willingly. She wouldn't
go with anybody unless she knew them. They even say she wouldn't get in someone's vehicle unless she knew them
very well. So, police are combing through Sha's room. This is in the back of the mobile home, looking for clues,
leads, or anything. You're also looking for the little girl. Kids hide, right? Sometimes there's been several missing
kid cases where police show up and they find the kid in a closet, hiding in the basement, or at a friend's house. This
is all very common stuff. Unfortunately, none of this was the case here. And as I
understand it, they didn't find any clues or leads as to where she may have gone or why she was gone to begin with
when she did not return home by the time that school was over for the day. Now, a
full-scale investigation was launched. And some people point at this as a big misstep. And and look, it this is not a
perfect investigation. I'm not going to tell you that. Very few of them are. I will tell you that. But here with this
case, what I think that we're looking at is police are probably while they are actively working the case looking for
the little girl. There's also a thought by, well, we're not going to call in every resource that we have because if
this kid decided to just skip school, it would be natural for her to return by the end of school to her home because
all she pulled the wool over mom and dad's eyes and went out and did whatever for the day. But at some point, she has
to be home. So, if she wants to try to sell it to mom and dad that she went to school that day, she's going to return
home after school. She does not. I really wish that she would have, but she did not. And then a fullscale
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Colonel. >> Cheers to you and cheers to everybody out there. Cheers to the folks that are
going to Crime Con this year. It is inching its way here and I'm very much looking forward to it and to seeing
everybody. Heaven Lache Ross at the time of her disappearance was 4 feet 6 in tall, weighing approximately 100 lb,
brown eyes, red hair. She was wearing a hot pink shirt with Bratz that some people may remember the Bratz brand. So
the Bratz were on the front of this shirt. She's also wearing hot pink shorts and a light blue canvas shoes and
carrying a book bag. At first, Northport police were treating Shea's disappearance as a missing person's case
rather than an abduction. The department also decided against issuing an Amber Alert as Shea's disappearance did not
meet the criteria for an Amber Alert to be issued at the time. Very quickly, authorities from both local police
agencies were involved. To recap, on August 19th, 2003, Heaven Lache Ross, an 11-year-old girl, disappears from the
Willowbrook trailer park in Northport, Alabama while on her way to the school bus stop. Later that day, a large-scale
search effort is launched by police, but it is initially yields few leads, if any. They were going door to door. A
little knock and talk action here. Near the bus stop, there was a business within view of the bus stop. This is
Steve's Grill and Billiards. So, police naturally go there. They collected all the video from Steve's hoping maybe to
pick up something from one of the outdoor cameras, but ultimately found nothing related to Shay. That was
Tuesday. By Thursday the 21st, now we have some road blocks set up in the area. We're stopping drivers. We're
asking questions, showing pictures of the little girl, hopefully searching cars. The local businesses jumped in in
a big way. In a very big way here, Captain the Wind Dixie donated yellow ribbons, you know, the return home
ribbons that teams of searchers pinned to their shirts. We had all kinds of volunteers show up to help search for
Shay. >> Well, this was a huge case in in that town. This is this is a pivotal moment.
Buddy's Food Mart immediately offered a $5,000 reward. The Olive Garden, the local Olive Garden, sent food for the
volunteers, for the searchers, for the families, even for the media people that were starting to gather. Kmart sent
snacks. Kinko's and Office Max and Quick Copy. They ran off tens of thousands of
missing flyers. And as said, several agencies including the Northport and Tuscaloosa police departments were
involved. After a couple of days, we get the FBI involved. We also get the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Department join forces in the search efforts for Sheay. Ultimately, none of this all of
this work led to finding the little girl. They never found her. And in fact, they didn't really find any trace of
where she had gone or any explanation as to thoughts of where she might be, even
speculation. There was a command center that was set up at the Northport Police Headquarters. I think they called it
Heaven's Team, something with her her first name, which was which was very smart. Members of the
local and the Birmingham and the national media were involved with some even camping out with family and friends
under tents at the trailer park waiting for any kind of update there. I can't remember what company, what box store it
was that donated these tents so that people could they would have a place to set up shop, so to speak, at the trailer
park, but be shielded from the August heat and sun a little bit, standing out there working together, trying to
formulate a plan as to where to search and who to call and all of these things that you're doing out of desperation in
these frantic moments. Do you know if they ever called in scent dogs? >> I would hope that they did
>> cuz I didn't see any report of that. >> There was. You're correct. I didn't see
any report of that either. Uh we also have that thunderstorm that rolled in very quickly. The scent dog thing is a
little difficult here and and I'm basing that off of what I think happened in this case. How h how much fruit would
that have bared? I don't know. I I I I don't know it would have not saying that you don't go to the effort. You always
go to every effort in the investigation, but I don't know how much it would have
panned out as far as leads go. And again, I'm I'm simply basing that off of what I believe happened here. And I
could be completely wrong. Even with what I think happened here, it could have it could have told you everything.
Talking about leads, you have the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office. The division chief Lloyd Baker goes on
record very quickly saying, "We checked out every lead." You never know if someone is giving you a good lead under
a guise because they don't want to incriminate themselves or someone else. What he's referring to here, Captain, is
there were a lot of these reported possible sightings of Heaven Lachché Ross that were phoned into police. There
were a lot of tips that were being called in. Many of them were very strange and bizarre. I don't even care
to go down the road to tell you some of the the weirdness that I encountered when going through some of these tips
that were phoned in. But that's what he's referring to. He's like he's like, even if it's something crazy, we check
out the lead because we want to know. Of course, your number one goal is to find
the kid. Goal number two, when anybody's phoning in leads is, I want to know why
that person is calling. Did they just simply are they trying to be helpful and they may have seen something that could
be helpful to the investigation or are they connected to the missing person's case in some shape or fashion?
>> Right now, let's jump ahead just a couple weeks. So, let's get into September of 2003. We get a couple of
potentially positive things that happened for our investigation. The story is covered on America's Most
Wanted. The FBI had a member of the behavioral science unit sent to Northport working on the case. But we
also have some other situations play out in September as well that are not so good for our investigation. Actually, I
would say three important things that take place. This is from a.com and it reads, "The relationship between
the family and volunteers disintegrated as the case dragged on without a resolution." They say Lowry, but we'll
use her first name to keep things simple. Beth accused the head of the volunteer group of stealing $500 donated
by a church. And police were called to the volunteer center to resolve a shouting match that erupted between
family members of Shaes and the volunteers. Another thing that happened here is there was a fire, a house fire
that started in Shea's room a month after she disappears. >> Bizarre. >> The fire starts in her room. And the
report is that it destroyed furniture in most of Shea's belongings, >> which some people speculate online that
maybe this fire was started on purpose to get rid of evidence. It could be a complete accident, coincidence. I think
that it was as you said or as people online are saying that it that it likely was started to destroy potential
evidence or or to or to cause confusion and chaos within the investigation. And if that's what someone's goal was, well,
they were successful because all around the same time, what do we have here? We have family fighting with volunteers. A
strange fire that starts in Shea's room, destroys a bunch of the belongings and the things that were in Shea's bedroom.
One would think that if you're going to find a connection to what happened to this girl, you might be able to find
some kind of clue in her room. And you also have members of law enforcement. You have volunteers and members of the
general public that are openly speculating out loud. >> Yeah. that you know what as this thing
drags on we're really starting to think that Sha's parents know a lot more than what they are telling us. Maybe Kevin's
to blame. Maybe Kevin and Beth are to blame. Maybe something was going on inside that house that that we should
know about but we don't know about. And so this really to me throws a big wrench
in the whole investigation for a multitude of reasons. But it what it also does is many of the volunteers are
going to withdraw their support, right? They're no longer going to volunteer their time. People are going to stop
volunteering and donating their money. Things are going to really start to fall apart at at the ground level, at least
for the family in this investigation. And we're sitting here just at most 6 weeks after the little kid disappears.
>> Were they able to figure out if it was arson or was it an accidental fire? So,
I'll jump ahead here because it the fire took place September 26th, 2003. I have I don't have it in my notes here,
Captain, but going off of memory, I believe that the fire was phoned in at about 2 in the morning. So, they show
up, responders show up, they put out the fire, they figure out that the fire started in the missing girl's bedroom.
So, let's jump forward here to early in the next year of 2004. This is when it was announced to the public that the
fire was ruled suspicious. I think what happens here, I don't love this. I think this circles back to what
we were talking about prior where some of local law enforcement were really starting to believe that you know what,
these parents, they likely know more than what they're letting on. Maybe one of them's responsible. Maybe one of them
knows who did this. I don't like this because I think that what the general public natural reaction to this, oh, the
authorities ruled this fire suspicious. These parents, this stepdad, don't like them. Don't like them.
They're up to no good. I'm on to you now. >> Yeah, I'm the stepdad. Could I be any
more suspicious? >> The problem with that is it's such a generic sentence. So, let's take it
apart and analyze it for what it is. The fire was ruled suspicious. It's not ruled in arson, right? It wasn't.
They're not coming out and saying this is absolutely not an accident and we can scientifically prove it. They're saying
the fire is suspicious. I think that was to maybe turn up the heat, no pun intended, on the family, probably the
stepdad. But even if that's your intention, your generic statement is still true that it could mean something
entirely different. the fire was suspicious means it we that to me tells me that you're you're dancing around the
idea that it was arson, >> right? >> You're leaving the door open as to who could have set the fire. Just because a
fire is suspicious doesn't mean that it was set by a family member. It could have been set by anybody.
>> Yeah. And just because somebody wants to destroy potential evidence or physical
evidence that may be used at a later time doesn't necessarily have to mean that it came from one of the parents or
somebody inside the home. So while the statement I believe is true, I think that most of the herd of the public very
quickly turned an eye to one of one or both of the parents when really you should you should be looking at anybody
who had the means of setting that fire. I think the other problem with this case, short time period, short distance.
So, you start leaning towards this idea that maybe it's somebody in the family, but because of the neighborhood and that
it's a trailer park, it's a condensed, congested area. And so, it's possible that somebody could have grabbed her
really quick and took her into the into the trailer. And there are some eyewitnesses that claim that they saw
her. I don't know how legitimate these eyewitnesses are because I think a lot of times when you have kids in the
neighborhood, if you don't know the kid personally, you're like, "All these kids
look the same." The thing here is that I want to circle back to Captain is right
around the same time. Okay, we got the fire going on. We talked about some of the arguments and the falling out
between the volunteers and the family and I praise them for this because they are on the edge
and they don't deny like they don't claim to be above any of this. Beth and Alex I I would think this would carry
over to Kevin too but I couldn't see any direct statements from him. I I do know
there are two articles that I could not find that were cited in other articles where he seems to be uh being directly
interviewed which I would have loved to have reviewed those but they say that uh
the internet never forgets well they managed to forget at least one of these articles but I know for a fact by
reading the words and hearing the words Beth and Alex mom and daughter duo separately and together were both very
open about their family and about what was going on in the community after Sheay went missing. Beth said at the
time that the scrutiny of her family was likely because she and Kevin Thompson were a interracial couple and because
they lived in a trailer park. Alex, God bless her, says that kids were very mean
to her after her sister went missing. I also think that she probably struggled with the idea that her sister went
missing and may have been abducted between their home and the bus stop. I mean, what are you going to do? You
going to stand out there and wait for the bus every day after your sibling goes potentially got abducted?
>> Not me. >> No. So, she's starting to have problems with kids picking on her, teasing her,
and probably telling her like, "Hey, your stepdad's a killer. Hey, your mom's a a bee." All this. I guarantee you she
heard every bit of it. And so Beth, God bless her, she goes and gets a a certificate so that she can homeschool
Alex. Okay. Now, if you think that that they're closing doors, that they are banding together, you could look at it
that way, that the family's closing off everybody outside of the family, and they definitely have something to hide.
But I think, Captain, it was even as early as November of 2003. Alex is now, from my understanding,
being homeschooled. That fire was in September, late September of 2003. So, even before it was publicly
announced that the authorities believed that the fire was air quotes suspicious,
we're going to jump ahead quite a bit here. We're going to go to August of 2006. So, this would be just before just
days before the three-year anniversary. Heaven Lache Ross is still missing at this time. The
police come out and they're talking with the papers and they say that Heaven Lache Ross' disappearance may be linked
to two other abductions from trailer parks. And I hate this. I hate this because the summary of all of these
reports are like two other abductions from trailer parks in the same area. These are not the same area. I would not
I don't know who who came up with that general term other than they probably listed it this way so somebody would
read the article. It goes on to say that which occurred two years apart and within one week of August information
adds that the the girls look the same. Right? So there's there is a bunch of similarities. I'm not going to argue
that. Right. Trailer parks the the girls that were listed here were about all the
same age. Some have said that they they look very similar, but I also find that this to be a a very odd point in our
timeline here, Captain, because some of these connections were made right from Jump Street. So, one was
this. This is from an August 2003 article from from three years prior, right when Sheay was missing just for
about a week. and it reads, "A possible link between Sha's case and that of a Nashville girl who'd been missing since
April 29th." Her name was Tabitha Tutor. She was 13 years old. She also disappeared on her way to the school bus
uh to the bus stop. So, you can see the similarities there. However, she lived in Nashville. She lived in a different
state, hundreds of miles away. >> Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Should we go through any of these cases
or should we and I'm asking you your opinion here. Should we go through any of these cases even just kind of on the
surface level here or go right to what happens next in our timeline? Let's go to the next stop on our timeline. We can
circle back. Okay, because this is December 19th, 2006. This is when Heaven Lache Ross' skeletal
remains were found in an abandoned house located in Hol, Alabama. So, this is approximately eight miles from her home.
>> The story told No, the story is told several different ways that a man was out collecting cans. He was out walking
his dog. What is not in question is a dog was present, so he could have been doing both. So, in in mid December of
2006, 3 years and about 3 months from the day that she disappeared, her remains are found. This man is
walking in the area of on a dirt road off of 44th Court near Hol, Alabama, when his dog runs into the
house's crawl space. The man follows his dog and then notices inside this crawl space there's a bright
pink shirt. Some articles say that he saw the Bratz doll logo and a backpack. What all the articles state is that he
could see visibly see human skeletal remains. So he calls the police. Police arrive on the scene and this is really
sad. One of the detectives, he said as soon as he stuck his head into the crawl space, he knew even before they went and
did the scientific positive identification, he knew that it was Shay because he says, "I saw that backpack." He goes,
"I've been looking for that backpack for three years." He goes, "You believe me,
I I know what that backpack looked like. It was it was tattooed on my brain." They find the little girl in this crawl
space. She's wearing the same clothing that Sheay was wearing when she left her house on that morning of her
disappearance. And as we said, they found the backpack as well. Every article with this case and with the
other cases, okay, the other cases, some reference two cases. I've found enough information out there that they've that
when talking about Shea's case, they've mentioned up to four other child cases. Okay. Now, to be fair to the authors
that penned those articles or typed them up online, all these cases are still unsolved.
And and as we've always said, they're unsolved for a reason. We don't know everything. We clearly don't know
everything in all these cases and in one of the ca at least one of the cases the
remains have never been found. So there's a whole lot of mystery. So I think that you can say grain of salt
there's a chance that they're connected. I think it's highly unlikely that all of
them are connected. I actually think it's highly unlikely in my humble my humble garage opinion that any of them
are connected at all. One thing that I don't like is we are told what is found at the scene. General description. We're
not told what was missing from the scene. I I believe there's a high probability that
there was something some piece of a personal item that was with her when she left for
school that day or woke up that morning. Whatever. I think that there was something that's missing from that
scene. Police aren't going to tell us that. What they're also not going to tell us is the exact cause of death.
They did rule the death a homicide. So, it went from a missing person's case to a homicide investigation. And I'm not
trying to muck up anybody's investigation here, Captain, but I also think that as where some people are
giving the police kudos for not releasing the the cause of death, the exact cause of death. I look, they
deserve it for that. You have to have some holdback information. We know that. But we've also been doing this long
enough that I can tell you if she if she laid there for 3 years, they may not they may not know themselves. Also, the
difficult thing is because she wasn't sitting at this bus stop for a while with her sister, she was running late.
How much time did she spend with her stepfather in in that morning? Obviously, her mom was asleep laying
down. Back to your point of was there something missing? They might not be able to state every item that she left
the house with. >> Correct. Correct. There's, and I don't want to go down too far down this road
because she's a child. There's a couple of items that I think we can all assume she would have left the house with, and
if those items weren't found at the scene, that would be of of particular interest to me, especially when I'm
trying to figure out the suspects here. Now, the this house, as we said, where she was
eventually found is an abandoned house. The other thing that is it's reported two different ways that either they
couldn't conclude if she was killed where she was found or they didn't know. One of the other items here captain is
it sounds like they are saying openly saying they being the authorities that they were unable to determine if she was
killed where she was found or if had she been killed elsewhere and then placed there at another time.
As we said, this home was abandoned. It's run down is all get out. There's broken glass. There's trash. There's
stained carpets. the part of the It's a shame, too, because the pictures I saw, it looks like at one time it was a nice
home, but the front porch had kind of collapsed in and they were saying it was even dangerous to walk on some of the
flooring inside of the home when they're in there trying to collect items and debris. So, a rough place to find, but
this was also, it's been reported that this was kind of a known area for transients, for homeless, for drug
activity, maybe even criminal activity. So, if she was there the entire 3 years or any extended period of time, which I
think just based off of the general descriptions, we have to believe that she was there for an extended period of
time. if it was in fact being frequented by people. I have a hard time believing
that nobody else ever saw the bright pink outfit that came along with this finding.
>> I agree. >> I do want to point something out here, too. Several news articles go way out of
their way to report, and I think this is just good reporting. I'm not being critical. In fact, this comes from a a
woman named Stephanie Taylor for the Tuscaloosa News. She reports, "Hey, by the way, she's mother and stepfather at
one time lived in Hol, Alabama." Also, not completely crazy. It's 8 miles away. It's it it's not crazy to think that at
some point they didn't live in this general area. She does also point out though that it has been told to her. I I
don't know if this is coming from police or if this is coming from the family, but the reporter states that both Sha's
mother and stepfather took polygraph examinations. Police administered polygraph test and that
they passed them as well. talking about accidental fires, suspicious fires, whatever. The house where she was found
eventually was destroyed because of a fire. And I think that one may have been ruled an accident. Very strange though,
right? Very strange. She goes missing. Some point her room catches on fire. Then three and years and three months
later she's found at this location and then that location is burned as well. Seems like it's too much of a
coincidence. >> Let's get back to these eyewitnesses cuz dude, I'm not going to lie. I struggled
mightily with this case for three days and I talking migraine headache for three days because usually when we
review a case and we spend enough time on it, I can't usually tell you who's responsible, but I usually walk and and
I'm not saying I'm right. I want to be clear here because I think people get crazy with thinking that I I'm some kind
of know-it-all. I'm not saying I'm right. What I'm saying is that when we review a case for long enough, I can
usually walk away feeling confident that I have a general understanding of what happened here. I had that migraine
headache because I had I sat there and go, "This doesn't make sense. There's something missing." And I've bumped up
against this a few times during our garage experience. And anytime there's something missing,
there's one of two I'm usually left with one of two conclusions, >> right? >> Either a
somebody that is crucial to the timeline and to the a relationship with the victim is
lying and that's what's mucking everything up. or there's such big gaps and holes in the information that's been
reported or even that made its way to police that it's hard to kind of tie everything up and make it nice and neat
to have a conclusion or a general understanding of what probably happened. So, I'm going to give a big kudos here.
We'll get into these eyewitnesses because I questioned deeply the eyewitnesses. I had a problem with the
eyewitnesses and you touched on this a bit earlier here today. We had three people
that were potential eyewitnesses, right? One one is a person that's sitting by a
window. I think they had um like a computer or TV by their window so that it's natural things catch your eye. That
person said told police, "Yeah, I saw Shay walk by this morning. looked like she was heading in the direction of the
bus stop. One person tells police, "Yeah, I saw Shay this morning and even described the
outfit that she was wearing." So, this sounds like a very legit eyewitness account.
>> Yeah. >> Where I had problems with these eyewitness accounts was this was the
second week of school. And remember what we had said earlier that the police Yeah. They're they're working the case.
They're looking for the little girl, but they don't seem to really step it up until after the school day is over. The
older I get, the more I sympathize with this, and the more I understand it to be
true. If you ask me at 7 o'clock tonight if I saw some little kid in a pink shirt
walk past my front window at any time today, I am not immune to confusing it with
seeing that same little girl in a pink shirt walking by my front window two days ago, three days ago.
>> Yeah. But I think that's most people. >> Yes. And and and I think the older we
get, it's to me that's been my experience. The older I get, the softer the brain is getting, my friend.
>> Squishy. So squishy at this point. >> The more >> the beer is not helping. >> Squishy. Squishy.
>> But here's the reason why I kind of questioned that for a while. Is one thing is what if this was her favorite
outfit? It's not crazy to believe that maybe she wore it on that Friday morning to school
and then wore it again on Tuesday morning, >> right? >> You know how kids are. I there are some
kids that you're like, man, that kid is always wearing the same shirt. And so you think like maybe their parents are
lazy, they don't do laundry, maybe they can't afford a bunch of clothes, and no,
you you once you get to know the kid a little more, you figure out very quickly that's his favorite shirt. And you have
to fight him every day so that he doesn't wear that shirt every minute of every day.
>> So that's why I question that. And I just felt like >> I think it's a interesting thought.
>> I think that I just felt like there's something missing. And so back to the 50
yards, right? I went out, marked 50 yards and walked it three times. And I get it. I'm I'm 6'1. I'm I'm a grown
man. Maybe I'm moving a little faster than Sheay would have moved in her 11year-old body. I walked it three
times. And on all three occasions, my time with the stopwatch ranged from 38 1/2 seconds
to less than 44 seconds. And the reason why that was so important to me is we talk about the timeline, but it's also
the distance. Timing is more important than the timeline. distance is more important than the timeline because
every article, every regurgitation of this story has always been it was six minutes between the time she left the
trailer and the time that dad went outside and couldn't find her. So, she disappeared within 6 minutes or dad did
something to her and now we we've been looking at an abduction case all these years and it's
not an abduction. I say, "No, it's not the six minutes that are in question." And we'll go back to
>> we'll go back to that timeline because that timeline's off. It's a skew. It's
the 38 1/2 seconds to 44 seconds that it takes to walk from the trailer to the bus stop because it's a straight shot.
Guess what didn't happen? Sister doesn't see Shay walking to the bus stop. sister
doesn't see Shay arrive at the bus stop. We have these other eyewitnesses, but the sister who is a distance of 50 yards
from the trailer doesn't see. And if we're to believe the dad's story, he goes out of the trailer and between his
route of the trailer to the bus stop, he doesn't see Shay as well. So, it's really just those 44 and 1/2 seconds.
And so this migraine headache of mine was only relieved by a gentleman that we've met a few times. His name Derek
Lavasser from detective perspective. He had the opportunity, we've met him at Crime Con a few times, great guy, smart
guy. He had the opportunity to speak with Alex and Beth. They filled in a lot of the blanks here
because I gotta tell you, Captain, where my suspicions were that Kevin did something in the middle of the
night and got rid of the evidence in the body before the bus stop story even starts.
>> Right. And that's why I was saying like did the sister actually see the other
sister in the morning? >> We know that she did. So because the where I was with this for a while was
that there the timing was so short, right? Remember police meet them back at the mobile home, meet them at their
trailer shortly after they call it in. And so there's no time to get rid of the body if something happened after she
left that morning to walk down to the bus stop. And thank God Derrick spoke with Alex and Beth. And this should
clear up. I think that people have looked at Kevin and Beth the wrong way all of these years. And that's why I was
critical at the top of the show saying that I think that if had this been reported differently had it not had the
reporting not been so brief, not been so vague that these poor people wouldn't have had to deal with people looking at
them with a suspicious eye for all of these years. Because Alex says this of that morning we got up, our dad woke us
up and I was helping Sheay get ready that morning. And she does say, "Yes, I left the house before, Shay." But that
was common. I would typically, she's a couple years older. She would usually leave a little bit earlier.
>> The other information that she filled in was fantastic because she says, "Look,
my sister, while she was not interested in boys at the very least, but she had friends, she was outgoing. and she would
typically her and a boy would typically walk down to the bus stop together and she would pass that kid's trailer on the
way to her bus stop. So most mornings they would pair up and walk down to the bus stop. They kind of hung out. She
says on that morning, yes, I left early as usual, walked down to the bus stop. No, I never saw my sister after that,
but she absolutely woke up that morning and absolutely was getting ready for school because and she remembers
something very specific. She asked me to borrow some colored pencils, so I gave them to her. Furthermore, look, so one
thing I learned prior to Derek's information was that unfortunately the parents have divorced. They actually
separated about 10 years after Sheay went missing, 7 years or so after her her body was found. But you know,
>> very common when you when a couple loes a child, >> even if it's an even if it's an
accident, >> right, >> that it's very common for the parents to split up. Very difficult to stick
together after >> a medical issue. Well, and the thing too is the relationship wasn't Disney World
prior to Shay going missing. And and that's what I give Beth the a world of credit for. She says, "Look, I get it.
We lived in a trailer park. We're an interracial couple. We got in arguments a couple times where police showed up."
She goes, "But we're not bad people. He's not a bad guy. These kids love this dude." And Alex says many years later,
she's like, "The guy wasn't perfect, but he was a great dad. Filled the role of father wonderfully. He never did
anything weird to the kids." Uh, anyway, to further fill out the timeline, Beth too says that she saw Shay that morning.
She says, "While I was laying in bed, half asleep, whatever, she says, "I specifically remember how good this
little kid was. What a sweet little soul she was. She popped her head into the bedroom to say goodbye to her mom or say
good morning to her mom, something to that effect that morning. And Beth says, "I I looked over at her, said something
nice to her, and I happened to look at the clock before I laid my head back to the on the pillow and fell fell back
asleep." She says, "It was 7:03." She goes, "I last saw my daughter at 7:03 that morning." So that's why I moved
that marker of 650 to 650 to 655 because the story always said that Sheay left the home at 655 and then it was at 7:01
that dad realized that she was missing. No, that can't be. She left the home shortly after 7 and then a few minutes
after that Kevin realized that she was missing. Those statements by both Alex and Beth to me tells me that that
eyewitness statement of seeing that little girl walking in her pink shirt that morning is accurate. And so then
what we are left with here, Captain, is this. If you can figure out how in the hell
somebody got her out of that trailer park, you can really start to hone in on who is responsible. Dude, there's one
way in, there's one way out. There's a there's even with her little legs, there's a 50 second walk from trailer to
bus stop. 50 seconds somebody took her. And guess what? I don't think I'm going back, circling back to what parents
said. They were adamant she would not get into somebody's car that she didn't know. And I don't think she got into
anybody's car at all. I don't think that she got into anybody's car at all. Because had somebody snatched her in a
vehicle between the trailer and between the bus stop, I think it puts a high probability that somebody sees her in a
car leaving that area. Even though you could get to two pretty welltraveled thoroughares rather quickly that um
McFarland Boulevard is also State Route 6 and Interstate 82. So, I mean, you could you could get
out of dodge real quick, but but there's no reason for us to think that the killer got out of dodge. The body's
found eight miles away. She did not walk to the bus stop with her little friend that morning. Many questions. One, if
she was abducted, was she abducted by somebody in a car or was she abducted in the sense of somebody took her back to
their trailer? And the other question would be was it common for her to was it common for her
to walk with different individuals and is it possibility before going to the bus stop she stopped at one of these
individuals houses? If she had people that she walked to the bus stop with did we question their parents? Did we
question their stepparents? And then also with this time passing and with really lack of information, where
does this investigation go? >> I'll tell you where it goes. Again, I think that the the probability of her
being spotted in a vehicle would be extremely high if somebody was trying to tear out of there with a little girl in
their car. I just don't think that happened. If you look at this on a map, there is no way that you don't encounter
people seeing you try to pull her into a vehicle or her being spotted through one
of the windows of your vehicle as you're driving out past the kids at the bus stop. It just it cannot happen. Again,
unless you have a monster truck and you tear over top of a bunch of trailers, it
ain't happening. And what we do know based off of those eyewitness accounts is two things. These folks lived on lot
number 25. So she would walk out of their trailer on lot 25, make her straight shot all the way down to walk
down to Hunter Creek Road where the bus would pick her up at the bus stop that she shared with a bunch of other kids.
The eyewitness that spots her in the pink shirt that morning. One of these eyewitnesses
lives in a trailer on lot 18. The boy that she would walk that meet up with and walk the rest of the way to the bus
stop lived in a trailer on lot 10. He and his family says she didn't show up that morning. So, he walked alone.
Somebody that lives between lot 18 and lot 10 took that girl. I think they convinced her to go into their trailer
and something happened inside that trailer. I think it was somebody that she knew from the neighborhood or
somebody that maybe even knew her family fairly well and she was tricked and trusted and went into that trailer. I
think she was probably moved to that abandoned home fairly quickly, probably that Wednesday, maybe the the by the
weekend. I think she was there for a long time. I think there were several people that probably saw her there and
didn't know exactly what they were seeing or they were too drugged out to know or to give a [ __ ] And as far as I
I know we're getting kind of in the thick of it here, and I did want to touch on some of these other cases real
quick. One of the other cases that has been mentioned in the same coverage as Sha's case is Shannon Nicole Pulk. She
was 11 as well. She was snatched from her Candlestick Park neighborhood in Prattville. Out of all the cases that
are listed and talked about with Heaven Lache Ross's case, you also have Teresa Melissa Dean
of Georgia near Mon Georgia. Actually, you also have the case of another girl who went missing from a bus stop, Maria
Solless, but she was 16 and that case took place in Houston. One interesting part here though is she was catching a
bus on March in March of 2003. So, it's the same year. Her remains were found months later. She wasn't identified
until February of 2005. If you want to try to link that case to anything, I would be looking at the Texas Killing
Fields cases who multiple perpetrators, but that one could be tied to that if you want to look at it tied to any other
case. Shannon Pulk's case. We covered Shannon Pulk's case pretty extensively in a single episode and we did that in
episode 780, August of 2024. So, a little less than a year ago. If you before you start to go down the
rabbit hole of these cases being connected, I would say go listen to that episode because we point out several
good suspects that lived in Shannon Pulk's trailer park back in 2001 in Prattville, Alabama
2001. And as far as proximity goes, that's the closest case to Heaven Lach Ross' case. And unless you can tell me
and prove to me that one of those suspects that we mentioned or somebody that was living in that trailer park in
2001 also lived in Sha's trailer park in 2003. They're not connected. Somebody in
in one of those trailer parks respectively for each victim pulled or snatched up the girl or brought or
tricked her into their their trailer. Absolutely convinced of it. And while I cannot tell you who is responsible, you
look at suspect types, right? I don't want to go down this whole I don't want to do a whole profiling thing here, but
I would look to similar types as to that of Joseph Condro, who we talked about with John Douglas and a serial killer
that we never mentioned. Well, I shouldn't say never mentioned. I'm sure we mentioned him, but we've never
covered him. And his name is David Elliot Penton. He killed girls in Ohio and in Texas. And while I don't think he
had anything to do with this particular case, in fact, he would he would have been locked up years prior, it's those
types of killers that you're looking for. Somebody that knew the girls, knew the girls families. And I think the
exact same thing happened here in this case. I really think that someone that lived between lots 10 and 18 convinced
this little girl to go into their trailer and probably had been planning this. And I'm
not trying to do any survivors guilt here, but she may have been one of two targets. She may may have been one of
many targets that lived in the neighborhood, but she also her and her older sister both could have been a
target, especially if they were walking alone on these mornings. >> I agree. It's a very sad case and and I
hate I sit here and I'm while I think that we have a better understanding of what may have happened. While I'm I feel
some relief that we don't have to keep pointing a finger at Kevin or Beth, I hope whatever happened to this poor
little girl that it was quick. It's it's such a sad sad story and such a sad sad
case and I just her mom has been through hell and and I won't get into the events
of her life since but I can tell you she's been through hell and I I hope she gets some relief, some form of healing.
And again, that can only come if if we can figure out who is responsible for this. If I were detectives, I would be
looking at somebody that lived between lots 18 and 10 back in 2003 in that trailer park. Those of you, anybody
out there with any information at all or information on people that lived in that
area at the time uh regarding Heaven Lache Ross' case are urged to call the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit or you
can call the local Crimes Stoppers at 205-7527867. That's 205752. Stop. >> Want to thank everybody for joining us
here in the garage. Make sure you subscribe. Tell your mother, tell your brother, and check out Off the Record. A
bunch of interesting episodes have been released in the last 3 months. And if you're not listening, you're missing
out. Don't forget about the Shannon Pulk episode. That is True Crime Garage episode 780 from August of last year.
And >> until next week, be good, be kind, and don't [Music]

Heaven LaShae Ross ////// 859

Part 1 of 1

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Heaven LaShae Ross was 11 years old. On Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Heaven LaShae Ross set out walking to the morning bus stop that was only a short distance from her families’ home. She never made it. Something happened to the little girl somewhere between home and the bus stop. Her family and the community of Northport, Alabama are still searching for the person who took the little girl. Those with any information on Heaven LaShae Ross and her case are urged to call the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit or Crime Stoppers at 205-752-7867 (STOP)

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Brief Summary

Heaven Lache Ross disappeared in 2003; her remains were found three years later, raising questions about her abduction and investigation.

Key points

The Disappearance of Shay. On August 19, 2003, 11-year-old Shay vanished while walking to her bus stop.
A Mother's Panic. Beth's gut feeling told her something was wrong when Shay didn't return home.
Investigation Launched. A full-scale investigation was launched after the disappearance of Heaven Lache Ross.
Community Support. Local businesses and volunteers rallied to support the search for Shea.
Family Tensions. Tensions rise between Shea's family and volunteers as the investigation drags on.
Suspicious Fire. A fire in Shea's room raised suspicions about the investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Something happened between home and the bus stop.

The moment Shay went missing.

3:55WatchJul 30, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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