Jabez Spann /// Part 1 /// 366 | Forensic Files

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crime garage and that is enough of the beers yes all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's
talk some true crime [Music] a 14-year old from the Newtown neighborhood of Sarasota still remains
missing tonight the best span was last seen back on Labor Day along 23rd Street in Sarasota ABC sevens Rick Adams joins
us live tonight from Sarasota Police Headquarters with more on the story Rick it's a parent's worst nightmare
having a child's vanish off the face of the earth Tawana spans 14 year old son Jabez has been missing now since
September fourth span her boyfriend and other family members are pleading for information to find him and hopefully a
safe return home anybody know anything like don't just let him be I hope they're like Jabez was last seen playing
near his grandmother's house in the 1500 block of 23rd Street in Sarasota the Sarasota Police Department are following
all leads and asking the community for their assistance we have dying that searches grid searches we have tried
pinging his phone we have followed up leads at this point we know and believe that there are people within our
community that has information about this young man and his whereabouts in fact the ping to Jabez his cell phone
tracked it to an undisclosed the wooded area near Sarasota but police weren't able to find the phone or any evidence
of him being there and one of the ways the community is trying to help is they're going door-to-door and store the
store with flyers like this groups are now going out daily handing out hundreds of these flyers with the hopes they get
in the hands of somebody who knows something this is an additional another opportunity for the community to come
together and to support one another to show love to collaborate you know to do what's right
Jabez Spanish describes as a bright teen who was very athletic he is between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall
weighing 120 230 pounds with black hair and brown eyes he was last seen wearing a turquoise shirt somebody got to know
something somebody has to know something where this boy is and if you know more information on Bess's whereabouts are
being asked to contact authorities immediately reporting a live from downtown Sarasota this evening I'm Rick
Adams Scott back to you alright Rick thanks so much that update this week we are discussing the case of Jabez Eugene
Spann who in 2017 was a 14 year old boy living in the Newtown area of Sarasota Florida Sarasota's population was about
56,000 people newtown is majority african-american in fact a historic plaque posted by the Sarasota County
historic Commission dedicates the area as the quote first black community in the city Newtown is near downtown
Sarasota Jabez was a great kid according to everyone who knew him he was full of
jokes and humor his mother Tawana Spann whom true-crime garage spoke with at length had various
troubles throughout her life Jabez was actually born in prison and as a newborn he was handed over to a foster
family but his grandmother Lucille Hillary tracked him down and put up a fight to raise him herself she got
legal guardianship of Jabez when he was just two months old she kept the biblical name Jabez that Tawana gave him
which means bearer of pain Tawana felt that this name would make him strong and bring him God's protection throughout
his life Jabez adored his grandmother Lucille although they sometimes butted heads because she was old-school in her
child-rearing ways and he would rebel a little and give her a hard time but everyone loved each other and
generally Jabez toed the lines drawn by Lucille Jabez also had a good relationship with his mom who was
released after serving her for you sentence she moved to Tampa Bay Florida not far away
Jabez was thriving in his grandparents home so his mom made the decision to let him continue to live with them Jabez his
mother Tawana was very involved with Jabez even though they did not live together or share a home Jabez his
father however lived in Jacksonville Florida and was not much a part of the boy's life now on the other hand it's
pretty clear the Jabez had some poor role models in his life an older brother was serving 15 years in prison another
brother was in rehab and his uncle Cornelius was in and out of prison multiple times for some pretty serious
crimes Tawana Spann told Dateline that Jabez had seen these family members making
serious mistakes throughout their life and he was determined not to go down these same paths he did have one
incident involving the police but generally he was a good kid with his head screwed on properly he got good
grades in school and in fact he was a teacher's assistant and was a football star according to his mother
Jabez was always carrying a football around his family had hopes of him playing football in college and maybe
even making it to the NFL one of his friends described Jabez as fun energetic and very athletic he was great at
basketball football and he was also known to do these flips at a moment's notice you see these people sometimes
you see a football star on on TV who will just do one of these flips randomly just standing there and all of a sudden
they're in midair and then they're back on their feet again crazy stuff yeah that's how I get out of
bed on flip at a time Jabez was usually found somewhere in the neighborhood often playing ball or
hanging out at the park with his friends Jabez was not tiny I mean he was 14 years old he was 5 foot 9 inches tall
120 pounds and we talked about Jabez being full of humor and just really a fun kid almost every picture I've seen
you can see how happy he is in these pictures he was a kid with a great smile a broad and warmth
just a good-looking all-american kid yeah they say when you smile that big you also smile with your eyes let's talk
about the night in question the evening in question that the night that Jabez vanished this is on the night of
September 4th 2017 Labor Day it's a Monday Jabez attended a Labor Day party this
was held by his family family members said Jabez did not appear to be having fun at the party this is probably
because there weren't many kids there he's 14 years old he's probably bored at a shindig that's just full of adults he
did hold his uncle's baby for some time but around 5:30 p.m. he left to go hang out with some buddies his grandmother
reports that she saw him around 6 p.m. near a memorial recently erected for a shooting victim from the neighborhood
this man that was killed his name was Travis Combs there was a vigil held for Travis and Jabez attended this one of
Travis's female cousins had a relationship with Tawana spans brother so he was sort of family to Jabez this
vigil was in the 15-hundred block of 23rd Street at Palma Dahlia Avenue right near Lucille's house where Jabez lived
Chavez returned to Lucille's house with his buddy whom we are just going to refer to here as t because he is a minor
the two were there sometime in the 8 to 10 p.m. range they left after that Jabez
was supposed to spend the night at a friend's house that night as he often did but he always would come home to go
to school and the next morning you know this is a Tuesday morning there is school that day when he did not show up
at school well this is unheard of for Jabez he had good attendance records and his grandmother is now quite concerned
about where could this young boy be where could this young man be and so she tries calling Jabez and gets no answer
on his phone Lucille says she knew something was wrong immediately she was calling around looking for him to no
avail finally she called tuwana Jabez his mother who immediately jumped in her vehicle and sped off to Sarasota now
she's actually thinking while she's making her way there how much trouble Jabez was going to be
in once she locates him because she's upset that hey you worried your grandmother you didn't go to school
you're gonna be in trouble when I find you yeah it could be something simple like he spent the night
at his friend's house supposed to wake up in the morning to go home to get ready for school
but they overslept or something the other thing too I mean even though it was unheard of for him to miss school he
had great attendance records kids get older they do things maybe you stay the night at your buddy's house but he
doesn't want to go to school you find something stupid to go off and do instead and then you go that way the
problem here we have is now we're talking about getting close to the 24-hour mark of when the last time he
was seen he doesn't go to school and he's not responding to phone calls going to his phone so his kid yeah well good
kid and the family thinks he's a good kid but you also have all these people in his family that started making wrong
turns at some point in their life and so you had to be concerned with that as a parent is this an action of him going
down the wrong path correct and with any neighborhood be it I don't care where it's located I don't
care the class of people there are ways for teenagers to slip into the wrong crowd very easily now his mother arrived
in this new town area after dark again this is right around the 24-hour mark after she last saw him
so Lucille then calls police this is to report job missing this is on the evening of
September 5th after some persuading the Sarasota Police Department did issue a missing persons report but of course
initially treating this case as a possible runaway situation this was based off of past behavior as Jabez was
known to stay with friends sometimes for multiple days at a time and occasionally
you know he's going to get into it with Grandma from time to time you know as teenagers
we don't always agree with those with our parents or those who are raising us and sometimes you get in an argument and
you stomp away and police I think we're kind of thinking Jabez is 14 years old that's a
possibility here we don't have any reports of that from Jabez family on September 8th with Jabez missing now for
four days and no activity on his phone or social media the Sarasota Police Department upgraded the case to a
missing child case the Department issued a media blast about Jabez being missing
and this blast said it's unclear what the circumstances were leading up to his disappearance detectives are asking
anyone who knows the whereabouts of Jabez who called detective Megan buck and gave a phone number but then six
days later this is I'm sorry six days after Jabez vanished the area was hit by a hurricane this is hurricane
Irma this knocked out the power to much of the area for quite some time it wasn't until after the storm was over
that police began to take Jabez disappearance much more seriously they reissued the missing child alert and the
request for information this on September 18 while police were probably thinking well the whole city's under
attack by weather if this kid was just mad at his family he'd probably come back for safety correct and we're
getting up there in the number of days now that he's been missing at this point Sarasota police chief bernadette de Pino
updated reporters on the investigation and affirmed that it was officially a missing purse
investigation while the police had issued a florida missing child she said the case did not meet the
criteria for an Amber Alert because there was simply no evidence to suggest that Jabez was abducted and this is
something that we've talked about in other cases captain that this one is a little trickier this one's a little more
difficult and I just base this off of one victimology and to kind of the movements and behaviors of everything
involved right we we've discussed plenty of cases where somebody see somebody go
missing off of the streets or somebody see somebody actually grabbed her snatched and grad we don't have any
reports of anybody claiming that Jabez was was spotted being attacked or being pursued by someone and then on top of
that when we look at victimology just the just the nature of his age his gender and his size makes him a less
likely target for you know the more traditional that's a terrible word to use but some of the more trash that
we've discussed on this show in regards to child abduction cases in in the predators and the perpetrators of those
crimes only you said he's five nine one twenty highly athletic so he would be a lot harder to kidnap yeah and I think I
don't know that I can emphasize the athletic part enough I mean given what I've been told by several people
this is the kind of kid that if he wanted to get away from somebody he could I mean he was fast and it was very
athletic doesn't rule out the possibility of several people right and also the scariest thing is one the days
are really starting to add up here and there's zero absolutely zero activity on his phone
chief de Pino also stated that police had pinged Jabez a cell phone she would not say anything further other than to
state that it did not lead to anything but it came out later that the phone had pinged in a wooded area near an
industrial park and nothing was found when this area was searched apparently this area is mostly water in
woods okay now for the general timeline this takes us to about the two weeks mark Jabez his family had been searching
for him now for two weeks at this point credit to his family they were doing all
the right things they were vocal and outspoken about demanding action on Jabez case they pushed for searches they
handed out flyers and they spread the word about their missing boy Jabez is aunt set up a Facebook page for missing
Jabez span which publicized the boy's disappearance and posted about volunteer searches and flyer distribution Tawana
had been able to determine Jabez movements on the night that he was last seen she figured out that he had gone to
the park this was to play basketball but he didn't stay very long he he left before too long because he was not
really dressed appropriately for sports activities right we all know the situation captain you like to play a
little ball in the neighborhood you want your t-shirt on you want to be in some shorts and in your basketball shoes and
given that he was just coming from the party he was on you know wearing a nicer shirt wearing the pair of slacks wasn't
really dressed for any sports activities yeah I like to do my whooping and penny
loafers and shorts from the park she was able to figure out that he did in fact go back
to his grandmother's where he lived this is in the 8 to 10 p.m. time frame that we discussed he was at his grandma's
until he left with a friend this kid that we're calling T after that the trail went cold
Jabez 'as mother Tawana and grandmother lucille knew that the boy would not have
just run away their mother's intuition was telling them that something was very wrong
and Tawana told ABC Action News at the time that she believes someone knew where her son was saying quote I don't
know if they are holding him or if something has happened to him I feel as though if there was nothing wrong with
him he would have contacted someone by now there has to be information out there
there is somebody that knows something Tawana told true-crime garage that she had a sinking feeling very early on and
she didn't really want to communicate that with anybody but it's mother's intuition so he misses school the
grandma is trying to make contact with them the mom is rushing back like you said initially thinking that he was just
doing something wrong misbehaving then they do another step by starting to retrace his steps which is there's
something that everybody should do if somebody goes missing right and this is also you know when they're doing all of
this and trying to put the puzzle pieces together to really fill out this timeline and follow it to the end or to
the last known point they're also talking to people in the neighborhood and she's talking to other kids in the
neighborhood especially kids they're Jabez 'as age right just simply you know have you seen him have you heard
anything is there somewhere that I should be looking that we're not and during the conversations amongst these
different kids and and whatnot at some point one of these kids tells her frankly just blurts it out says quote
you know he witnessed a murder so she begins to hear rumors about Jabez disappearance
Tawana told the ABC reporter that she had heard from various people that Jabez was in danger she said quote Jabez was
supposed to have witnessed something of a violent crime whether or not that's true or not a 14-year old does not fall
off the face of the earth no social media no nothing you're going to contact your friends or somebody Sarasota Police
had clearly heard these rumors as well chief de Pino said that they were following up on every lead but the
rumors and the gossip surrounding Jabez disappearance had not been verified as credible she made the following
statement alluding to the word on the street the Jabez had been victimized by someone
quote we have done grid searches and we tried pinging his phone we have followed
up on leads at this point we know and believe that there are people within our community that has information about
this young man and his whereabout as she's asking around in the community she also knows that some of these kids are
more likely to talk to her than they would be to law enforcement but but now she is getting these rumors but she's
not able to connect some of the dots on September 26 2017 Tawana Spann and Lucille Tillery made a
public plea for the return of their beloved son and grandson Lucille was pouring tears as she said quote I just
want to say I know somebody out there knows what happened to Jabez we love Jabez all we want is for anyone who
knows anything just give him back to us we just want him back this could be anybody's child
I'm begging pleading just bring him back she went on to say quote the house is so
empty without him in it that's my baby somebody please please help us Lucille emphasized that she was no stranger to
emotional pain she had already lost a husband who dropped dead in their yard she lost a brother a sister who was
killed by a lightning strike and she had lost her parents as well but she said this is a feeling I've never
felt before in my life chief de Pino also spoke addressing the frustration that her department felt at
not finding anything she said quote we're doing everything we can but it's very frustrating we are not getting
information from our community so we are asking again and reaching out to the citizens in our community to please
consider coming forward she was appealing directly to people in the neighborhood who police clearly felt
knew something specific about what had happened to Jabez she stated that foul play was not being ruled out but
reiterated that there was no information either way under pressure from the family Sarasota Police announced a
reward in Jabez case on September 30th this reward offered jointly by Sarasota Police Department the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement this was for $6,000 in addition a digital billboard had been donated this was to be used to ask for
information in Jabez case by october 3rd the FBI got involved they had joined in
the case helping in the search for Jabez volunteer searchers organized by the family continued to spend their days
looking for clues throughout the neighborhood and surrounding areas the family put together prayer vigils and
marches down Martin Luther King jr. way to where Jabez was last seen this near his grandmother's house keeping the case
in the public eye the reward for information leading to Jabez whereabouts grew all the way up to $25,000 19 was
contributed by the FBI 5,000 by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and 1000 by the Sarasota Police
Department all right so but now we have the family doing their due diligence talking to the community getting answers
relaying that to law enforcement now law enforcement is making public statements
and also adding a reward so it seems like everybody's doing as much as they can everybody's on the same page everybody's
working together they all have the same goal in mind let's find this fourteen-year-old boy the family did
report to the media that they were receiving daily calls from Sarasota Police with updates on the case it
seemed that the police department was actively investigating the case and legitimately interested in solving it
this should not sound like information that we need to report but sometimes we've seen that police do not give their
full attention as much to inner city victims at least publicly that does not seem to be the case here I want to
really underline this and reiterate this very strongly true crime garage spoke with Jabez family and with people very
close to the case every single one of them said that they firmly believe and have seen so much evidence of such that
the Sarasota Police Department was fully vested in this investigation that they were they were being driven emotionally
and by the community and by their just their own wants and needs to find Jabez themself they were fully all in on this
case nobody on the inside be it the family or otherwise has questioned that now I think one thing that we see here
captain when a child goes missing and has been missing for weeks this is a crime or
this is this is something that truly affects the community it's a crime against the community and
when that takes place we want the community wants something physical to point at and to blame you know why did
this happen why would this happen here and unfortunately in this case we had kind of two different approaches to it
where we had some people were saying look if you had been a better mother your kid would have never gone missing
and I won I I won't stand for that at all I can't cannot stand that I understand that his mother has made
mistakes but she is a good person and I believe that she is a good person she made mistakes just like anybody is
capable of especially when we're younger well here's the thing you gotta love though is he was basically being put
into the system right foster family mm-hmm his grandma steps up to the plate and says oh no but he's gonna stay in
our family I'm gonna raise this boy and then the mom starts getting her life together and she has the love for her
child enough to say you know what maybe he's in a better situation because I made
these mistakes and I don't want him to go down the same path I want to give my child the best opportunity and maybe the
best opportunity is with my mother and with me being as much of a cheerleader as I can from the sideline and being as
much of his mother from the sideline yeah and I think that's exactly right and the thing here too is she is upfront
Jabez --is mother Tawana she's upfront about her mistakes that she made and she says look I didn't make these mistakes
because I had a bad upbringing she says I had a very good upbringing the problem
was that once I got to a certain age I started making bad choices I started hanging out with the wrong people going
to the wrong areas doing the wrong things and that's what ended her up in prison for that 4-year sentence and as
you said she gets out she finds that her son is in a very good situation thriving
in that situation and she allowed him to continue to thrive in that situation the
other thing too that the family pointed out especially Jabez his mother was that
the people that were friends with them and you know community co-workers whatnot they also wanted somebody to
blame they wanted something physical to point out and to blame and it was a whole different blame game they wanted
to blame the police and say that the police were not doing enough that maybe they didn't care that they weren't
trying as hard as they could and the family has said straight up anybody that was wasting our time with that
we had no time for that that is not helping this case along and that in fact was just not what was going on at all
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all right cheers mates from very cold parts unknown I'm in the garage and normally I like to
say cheers to you through the glass captain because we're separated by glass like a couple of wild animals but today
we are separated by several state lines so it cheers everybody out there I am in
beautiful sunny Florida uh-huh and that's a lie I'm actually I'm joining you from a bunker at the bottom of the
ocean yeah and it smells a lot better in the garage this way all right well cheers everybody out there back to our
case captain by the end of October law-enforcement officials were stepping up efforts to find Jabez agents from the
FBI the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Sarasota Police Department we're recanvassing certain
areas of Newtown and the surrounding areas they're knocking on doors and talking to
people trying to uncover new leads in this missing persons case this is because by this time there was some
information about what likely happened to Jabez and this comes in the form of a probable cause affidavit as you recall
we said earlier that Jabez 'as mother Tawana stated that she had heard rumors that Jabez had witnessed something he
should not have a violent crime of some sort yeah while Jabez had not told his family about witnessing anything Tawana
had learned through her inquiries that Jabez had talked to others about what he had seen and then something happened on
october 29th that would confirm for the family that these rumors were true all of this information is from a probable
cause affidavit filed in the Sarasota County Clerk's office on November 8th 2017 bear with us here because this gets
a little complicated here's what the probable cause affidavit says on October 29th 2017 when Jabez had been
missing for nearly two months a man named Reginald Parker came to the home of Lucile Tillery
on 23rd Street in Newtown he said he had information that might help the family in their quest to find out what happened
to Jabez he told her that he had witnessed the murder of Travis Combs you might recall that Jabez and his friends
had been seen near a memorial for combs and this of the guy that was connected to his family yes and he was murdered on
August 28th 2017 and that combs as you stated was connected well known to Jabez his family well known to Jabez and it's
kind of considered a member of the extended extended family and you would think this would put him in a situation
that he felt like he could talk to his family about what he saw but obviously we had reports kids stating this other
people in the community and now I witness claiming that that Jabez was a witness to this murder
okay so let's step aside for a minute and discuss this other case here that we have referenced several times but let's
take this opportunity to go through the murder of Travis Combs in some detail Travis Combs was a pretty regular dude
he was a working man a proud father with a son that loved him very much but the one thing that would make him
different from other working regular dude fathers Travis was a weed dealer now many of the papers report him to be
a drug dealer of course marijuana is a narcotic but nowadays when we have several states in
this country where it's declared legal to dispense sell marijuana and cannabis THC products I think the term drug
dealer probably sounds a little too sinister for a man who is selling a product that is well frankly legal in
other states yeah it's very confusing in this country because we've talked about this before and one
state he would be looked at as an entrepreneur and in other states he's a criminal
yeah and then we have our state like Ohio that is now allowing medical use of marijuana and down here in Florida
they've just recently made use of medical marijuana as well so it seems like a lot of the states are going that
way whatever side of the fence you fall on I think it's a fair assessment to say
that a weed dealer is different in to me anyway it's different to me than then somebody that would be labeled a drug
dealer or a pitcher of hardcore drugs another interesting fact about Ohio is once a medical marijuana was legalized
glaucoma has gone up five thousand percent I well the thing here is I think often to people here someone is a drug
dealer and they say silly things just really nonsense things like oh well he got what he deserved
right I want to point out Travis overall was a pretty good dude he was selling marijuana simply for two reasons one
this was a good amount of extra income and two he was a smoker or user himself I want to be clear I'm not condoning
illegal behavior and frankly in my opinion he probably should have got out of this the moment he became a father
but that's a whole nother conversation and from everyone I spoke to and everything I could find he was in fact a
good father now Travis's mo was he sold weed out of his vehicle this is much more common
than I think most people would truly know in fact it's happening on several streets in your neighborhood or town as
we speak you have a basic system of you park your car or vehicle in a certain location on certain days of the week and
you're open for business on the day that he was killed Travis pulled his car into
a vacant grassy lot on 22nd Street this is a spot where he was known to deal and
customers would approach him there to conduct business yeah he called his weed dispensary the
grassy knoll this lot is located according to reporters and others who have written about this case four
hundred and fifty three feet from Jabez grandmother's house just four hundred and fifty three feet from Jabez
grandmother's house we should point out on this night August 28th this reginal Parker the man mentioned in the
affidavit happened to be nearby at a rooming house this is right down 22nd Street Parker said that he saw three men
surround Travis Combs and his vehicle in the empty lot he heard the three men yelling something like give it up and he
said he heard Combs yell back I ain't got it Travis tried to flee on foot and then Parker heard a gunshot
Parker saw two of the men run north on Palma Dahlia Avenue and saw the third guy get into Travis combs car and then
drive off combs lie on the ground in the vacant lot having been chased and then shot once in the upper torso someone
called the cops or emergency medical tax it's unclear who exactly called for first responders that has not been
released to the public the rumor is that this call came from a woman either way poor Travis was dead when first
responders arrived on the scene the neighborhood together mourned the death of one of their own
Travis Combs was just 31 years old he was found dead at about 9:20 p.m. near 22nd Street in Palma de Lea Avenue well
this is the problem when when something is illegal then they're selling like you
said he's just parking out in the open and so people know that he's also profiting from this so he's gonna either
have product to steal or he'll have money to steal yes this is very problematic for for Travis okay so and
these are other people's words not my own but I got the same vibe as well when I was going through this
Travis even though he was selling weed and he was doing this on the side let's keep in mind this was a guy with a with
a family with a growing family and with a job okay he was not what these other guys might refer to as street or thug he
was not that kind of guy and this as you pointed out captain might be the icing on the cake
right because if it's known throughout the neighborhood and it totally was the Travis was a man that was able to move a
decent amount of marijuana well that means one of two things are both the on any given day especially
when you know he's parked and open up for business he very likely could be in possession of large sums of cash or
large sums of marijuana or both and this makes him a desirable target and then if
we factor in on top of that that he's not considered thug or street or whatever he might be considered a soft
target someone that would be easy to rob and at the time at 2017 and actually a little before this you can back it up
about a year or so and even a little bit after all of this was taking place there
was a few groups around town that were known for committing armed robberies for robbing a drug dealer like Lake Travis
or holding somebody up just really taking advantage of the situation and bullying other people in robbing them
the police said that this was an isolated incident and that there was no indication that the public was at risk
early on detectives were not releasing information to the public they were asking that anyone with
information on the case that they called Detective Kim Laster at 9:41 three six four seven three two seven from what I
could find Travis was shot in the upper torso police would not release what kind of
gun was used in this homicide but the rumors are it was a single shot to the back and either a shotgun or a
larger caliber gun was used you know which is very cowardly I do want to point out to all of our listeners that
the murder of Travis Combs is still unsolved and the investigation is still very much ongoing the purpose of these
episodes of true crime garage that we are doing this week are not only to get justice for Jabez span who was just 14
years old when he went missing but also to get justice for Travis Combs and anyone with information regarding the
senseless murder of Travis Combs I beg you please call or email the Sarasota Police Department or call the detective
we just mentioned at 9:41 three six four seven three two seven yeah but also is a
sign of the community and also a sign of the the cards that are stacked up against Jasmine when these three
individuals feel that they can go into to a public spot right in the open Rob somebody murder them steal their car and
almost like they're not even afraid that enough people will turn them in yeah this whole thing is difficult because
these these guys and we're gonna get into some suspects as we go along in our case an investigation of Jabez Spann but
the issue here in one of the problems is again we have these several groups that
are out in the community and they're committing robberies the thought that in the vibe that I got from people close to
the case and I feel like maybe law enforcement shares this opinion to the in Travis Combs's case they may not have
intended to murder Travis Culp's it may be something went sideways during the commission of that robbery and it led to
murder regardless of whatever their mo was or their motivation was it ended in murder and this is a crime
against the community as much as it is against Travis Combs and his family and really the police are asking for the
community's help in that case so what does all of this have to do with the disappearance of Jabez well it is
because of what reginald Parker the man who came forward the man named in the affidavit it is what he told Jabez
grandmother Lucille Tillery that changed everything for the family and for their
search mm-hmm not only did reginal Parkers say that he witnessed the shooting of Travis Combs but he also saw
Jabez span and two of Jabez buddies emerge from a home on the 1600 block of 22nd Street this during the incident
according to Parker they too saw everything and the three men involved in the shooting of Travis Combs they may
have seen the three kids or at least they saw Jabez now they may have only seen Jabez because Jabez did yell
something out when he saw this and witnessed this he yelled out oh my god you all shot him Travis combs his
vehicle was found some time later about fifteen or sixteen miles away and it had
been set on fire normally there's two guys in the garage this week there's only one guy another guy is soaking up
the Sun but if there was a third wheel I mean come on crispy kernel the captain and reginal
you like that NATO trio what a great name Reds well we don't want this reginal in the garage and we'll get into
that a little bit later but I thought we were trying to hire Carlos he is he not
returned our calls and reginal yeah well it's important to our understanding of the story to note that the gunman did
not know that reginald parker witnessed this murder the shooting this robbery of
Travis Combs furthermore it is unlikely that they knew that there was another this in addition to Jabez and his
friends on October 13th detectives interviewed a witness who stated that on August 28th between the hours of 8:30
and 9:00 p.m. this witness was walking on Orange Avenue approaching 23rd Street this witness heard a single gunshot
unfortunately after hearing the gunshot as the witness was crossing Orange Avenue heading toward 23rd Street they
observed two black male subjects running northbound on Palma Dalia Avenue the witness immediately recognized one of
the men and later revealed his name to the detectives again it seems unlikely that the gunman knew that they were
observed by this witness from across the street at night but they did know for certain that one person had seen them
that one person was fourteen year old Jabez spam what's even more important is that both these adult witnesses reginal
Parker who saw the whole thing go down and the unnamed witness later reported to be a woman on the street who saw the
men running from the scene could identify at least one of the gunmen by name the unnamed witness told detectives
the name of the man that she recognized this was a man named Curtis whose last name we are withholding so we know that
police received information from a witness as to the identity of one of the killers of Travis Combs although this
witness saw the men running away not the actual murder itself as for Reginald Parker who did witness the shooting he
did not go to police as we said he spoke to the seal Tillery Jabez grandmother and Reginald told her the name of two of
the men he saw and one of them was Curtis so we have two different eyewitnesses both naming one of the
suspects of the three and naming the same person Reginald also met with Latoya Jake's
this is Jabez aunt he told her the same story about Travis combs shooting and Jabez witnessing the whole thing he also
told the story to a third person and this was a private investigator who was working with Jabez family pro bono on
Jabez case and reginal told this private investigator junior the names of two of
the men he saw shoot Travis combs one was Curtis and the other was a guy named a Wheelock Sarasota Police
Department almost certainly heard about reginal statements to the family because
they arrested him on November 7th he was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in a court as it turns out old
Reggie he's 55 years of age he was a sex offender and he had earlier failed to give a notice of change of address per
the requirements and he had been arrested and given a court date and then released he then failed to appear so
police had a reason to arrest him this took place on the 7th and to hold him as well what they want to do captain is
they are going to put pressure on him they want him to name the guys that he saw shoot Travis combs because the story
he was telling seemed to pretty clearly implicate the men who killed Travis probably they were involved in the
disappearance of Jabez as well so Reginald's Reginald touchy-touchy flicky flicky so what the cops end up doing
captain is they obtained sworn statements this from Lucile Latoya and Junior regarding what reginal had told
them about Jabez witnessing Travis Combs shooting and the shooters seeing Jabez why did they need the sworn statements
to the story told by Reginald Parker because Reggie clammed up once the police had him in custody he denied
having witness combs murder he denied telling the story of the event to JR or either of Jabez
relatives police even marched the three people he talked to Lucille Latoya and jr. down to the jail and had them
confront him in person and say hey you told us his story confront him in person about the story they he had told them
Parker continued to deny deny deny that he had told them any such thing maybe reginal is this protecting himself
and he's afraid that the murder that he took the murder that he saw to take place those guys could then be after him
but on some level you go they're responsible for the disappearance of Jabez if you're not telling the cops
then maybe your piece of [ __ ] this is one of those difficult things because I think he was I do think he was truly
trying to help in some way I think the problem is what we have is a man that's afraid afraid to tell the authorities
now some people in Newtown not just reginal they may be afraid to come forward to tell what they know because
they are afraid of retribution and who would retaliate against the snitches well
fact these suspicions that what happened to travis combs then led to what could have happened to Jabez if that's true
those suspicions are true then it turns out that we probably have some pretty aggressive well known thugs in this area
the witness who told police the identity of one of the men that she recognized running away from the crime scene
probably felt comfortable doing so only because she was not named in the affidavit and she was not seen by the
killers it seems pretty clear that reginald parker he wanted to give the Jabez his family some information about
Jabez to help them figure out what had happened to him but he would not go so far as I sell this information to police
yeah and but the problem is if you don't take a stand that these people are going
to keep attacking the community and that more people are in danger and then you might also be in danger and you don't
even know it yet so why not have law enforcement go after these guys to get them off the streets the probable cause
affidavit that we mentioned to you is a statement the probable cause actually exists to charge Reginald Parker with
accessory after the fact to the murder of Travis Combs this is because he impeded the investigation of armed
robbery and murder knowing the identity of the men who committed the crimes and then refusing to reveal their names
thereby helping them avoid detection arrest trial and of course punishment so prosecutors charged Reginald Parker with
accessory after the fact and he continued to refuse to talk while sitting in jail meanwhile Jabez still
had not been found the family members stated publicly that they believed that Jabez witness a murder and someone
associated with the murder did something to him [Music] this show is sponsored by simply safe
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Colonel until tomorrow be good be kind adulthood [Music]

Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-vnsrz-d08ef4

Jabez Spann /// Part 1 /// 366 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com This week we discuss the terribly sad case of Jabez Spann. We are spotlighting this case as the Sarasota Police Department desperately needs the help of the public. Please help find justice for Jabez.Beer of the Week - Guayabera by Cigar City Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 and 3 Quarter Bottle Caps out of 5Thank you to our great sponsors!www.SimpliSafe.com/Garage - get FREE shipping and a 60-day risk free trial! www.Hallmark.com/Garage - use code GARAGE for 20% off!The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app for FREE! Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

Jabez Spann, a 14-year-old, went missing in Sarasota, possibly after witnessing a murder, prompting community and police efforts to find him.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jabez Spann. 14-year-old Jabez Spann went missing on September 4, 2017, after attending a family party.
Community Efforts to Find Jabez. The community rallies together to search for Jabez, distributing flyers and seeking information.
Public Plea for Jabez. Tawana Spann and Lucille Tillery make an emotional appeal for their missing loved one.
Community Involvement. The Sarasota Police Department announces a reward and encourages community members to come forward.
FBI Joins the Search. The FBI gets involved in the search for Jabez, increasing the reward to $25,000.
Rumors of Witnessing a Crime. Tawana Spann hears rumors that Jabez witnessed a violent crime, raising concerns about his disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's a parent's worst nightmare having a child vanish off the face of the earth.

Rick Adams reporting on Jabez's disappearance.

3:23WatchJan 22, 2020

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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