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

foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
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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] foreign [Music] neighborhood of Sarasota Still Remains
missing tonight the best span was last seen back on Labor Day along 23rd Street in Sarasota ABC 7's Rick Adams joins us
live tonight from Sarasota Police Headquarters with more on the story Rick its apparents worst nightmare having her
child vanish off the face of the Earth to one a span's 14 year old son Jabez has been missing now since September 4th
span her boyfriend and other family members are pleading for information to find him and hopefully a safe return
home if there's anybody that know anything like don't just lay him it was something that don't just let him just
be out there like that chabez 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 done 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 in his
whereabouts in fact the Ping to jabez's cell phone attracted to an undisclosed 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 to 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 span is described as a bright teen who is very athletic he
is between five feet seven inches and five feet nine inches tall weighing 120 to 130 pounds with black hair and brown
eyes he was last seen wearing a turquoise shirt somebody gotta know [Music] something he has to contact authorities
immediately reporting live from downtown Sarasota this evening I'm Rick Adam Scott back to you all right Rick thanks
so much for that update foreign [Music] 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 chabez
was a great kid according to everyone who knew him he was full of jokes and humor
his mother Tawana span 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 Tillery 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 swanna 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 and her child rearing ways
and he would Rebel a little and give her a hard time but everyone loved each other and
generally Jabez towed the lines drawn by Lucille Jabez also had a good relationship with his mom who was
released after serving her four-year 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 chabez's mother Tawana was very involved with Jabez even though they did not live
together or share a home jabez's 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 that 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
one flip at a time Chavez 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 five foot nine 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 warm smile 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 knight in question the evening in question 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 PM 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 spann's brother
so he was sort of family to Jabez this vigil was in the 1500 Block of 23rd Street at Paul Medallia 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 pm 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 Tawana 's 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 going to 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 mother yeah while a good kid in 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 got to be concerned with that as a parent as 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 Jabez missing this is on the evening of September 5th after some persuading the Sarasota
Police Department did Issue a missing person's 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's 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 call
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's disappearance much more seriously they reissued the missing child alert and the request for
information this on September 18th well police were probably thinking well the whole city is 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 depino updated
reporters on the investigation and affirmed that it was officially a missing person's investigation while the
police had issued a Florida missing child alert 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 this one is a little
trickier this one's a little more difficult and I just based this off of one victimology and two kind of the
movements and behaviors of everything involved right we we've discussed plenty of cases where
somebody sees somebody go missing off of the streets or somebody sees somebody actually grabbed or snatched and grabbed
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 him 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 he was fast and he was
very athletic doesn't rule out the possibility of 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 depino also stated that police had pinged jabez's 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 and woods okay now for the general timeline
this takes us to about the two weeks mark jabez's 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's case they pushed for searches they handed out flyers and they spread the word about their missing boy
chabez's 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's 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 say 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 in your basketball shoes and
given that he was just coming from the party he was on you know wearing a nicer shirt wearing a pair of slacks wasn't
really dressed for any sports activities yeah I like to do my hooping and penny loafers and Jorts 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 pm
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's 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 believed 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 him 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 is 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 that are jabez's 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's 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 depino said that they were
following up on every lead but the rumors in the gossip surrounding jabez's 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 whereabouts 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 depino 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's case on September 30th this reward offered jointly by Sarasota
Police Department the Florida Department of Law Enforcement this was for six thousand dollars in addition a digital
billboard had been donated this was to be used to ask for information in jabez's 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's whereabouts grew all the way up to twenty five thousand dollars 19 was
contributed by the FBI five thousand by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and one thousand 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 14 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 in a
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's 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 themselves 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 want 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 I one 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 he's going to stay in our family I'm going to 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 uh 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 up front jabez's mother Tawana she's up front 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 four-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's 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 at
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 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 Sarasota Police Department was all in
[Music] foreign 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 we're separated by glass like a couple of wild animals but
uh today we are separated by several state lines so cheers to everybody out there I am in beautiful sunny
Florida 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 week all right well cheers to 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
re-camvassing 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 person's 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's 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 it 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 8
2017. bear with us here because this gets a little complicated here's what the probable cause affidavit says
on October 29 2017 when Jabez had been missing for nearly two months a man named Reginald
Parker came to the home of Lucille 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 is the guy that was connected to his family yes and he was murdered on August 28
2017 and that Combs as you stated was connected well known to jabez's family well known to Jabez and and kind of
considered a member of the extended extended family yeah 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 eyewitness 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 in 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 and to me anyway it's different to me than than somebody that would be labeled a drug
dealer or a pusher 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
too people hear 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 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
453 feet from jabez's grandmother's house just 453 feet from jabez's Grandmother's
house we should point out on this night August 28th this Reginald 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 palmadelia 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 techs 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 and palmadelia 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
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 that Travis was a man that was able to
move a decent amount of marijuana well that means one of two things or both that 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 uh like Travis or holding somebody up
just really taking advantage of the situation and bullying other people and 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 941-364-7327 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 yeah 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 941-364-7327 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 going to get into some suspects as we go along
in our case an investigation of Jabez span 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 too that in Travis
combs's case they may not have intended to murder Travis Combs it may be something went sideways during the
commission of that robbery and it led to murder regardless of whatever their MO was or 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's grandmother Lucille Tillery that changed everything for the family
and for their search not only did Reginald Parker say that he witnessed the shooting of Travis Combs
but he also saw Jabez span and two of jabez's buddies emerged 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 sometime later about 15 or 16 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 Colonel the captain and Reginald
you like that name what a great name Reggie well we don't want this Regional 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 returning and
Reginald 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 witness 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 pm 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 palmadelia 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 14 year old Jabez spam what's even more
important is that both these adult Witnesses Reginald 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 Lucille Tillery jabez's
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 Jakes this is jabez's 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 chabez's family pro bono on jabez's case and Reginald told
this private investigator J.R 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 Reginald statements to the family
because they arrested him on November 7th he was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in 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 seventh 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 is Reginald touchy touchy flicky flicky so what the cops end up doing Captain is they obtained sworn
statements this from Lucille Latoya and Jr regarding what Reginald had told them
about Jabez witnessing Travis Combs shooting and the shooters seeing Jabez why did they need these sworn statements
to the story told by Reginald Parker because Reggie clammed up once the police had him in custody he denied
having witnessed Combs murder he denied telling the story of the event to Jr or either of jabez's relatives
police even marched the three people he talked to Lucille Latoya and J.R down to
the jail and had them confront him in person and say Hey you told us a 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
Reginald is just protecting himself and he's afraid that the murder that he took
the murder that he saw 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 you're a 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 Reginald they may be afraid to come forward to tell what they know because they are afraid of Retribution
and who would retaliate against these snitches well if in fact these suspicions that what
happened to Travis Combs then led to what could have happened to Jabez if that's true if 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's family
some information about Jabez to help them figure out what had happened to him but he would not go so far as to 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 that 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
foreign [Music] make sure you check out our old episodes on the Stitcher app and our bonus show
off the Record join me tomorrow in the garage Nick will be in Florida getting all well you know crispy Colonel until
tomorrow be good be kind and don't live [Music] there [Applause] thank you [Music]

Jabez Spann /// Part 1 /// 366

Part 1 of 2

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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

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Brief Summary

Jabez Spann, a 14-year-old, went missing in Sarasota, possibly after witnessing a murder connected to a local drug dealer.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jabez Spann. 14-year-old Jabez Spann goes missing after a Labor Day party, sparking community concern.
Community Efforts to Find Jabez. The community rallies together, distributing flyers and searching for Jabez.
Rumors of Violence. Tawana hears rumors that Jabez witnessed a murder, raising fears for his safety.
Lucille's Plea for Help. Lucille Tillery makes a heartfelt public plea for information about her missing grandson, Jabez.
FBI Joins the Search. The FBI gets involved in the case, intensifying efforts to find Jabez.
Community's Response to Jabez's Disappearance. The community rallies together, organizing prayer vigils and marches to keep Jabez's case in the public eye.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Jabez was supposed to have witnessed something of a violent crime.

Tawana's statement about her son's disappearance.

22:16WatchNov 18, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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