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

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truecrimegarage and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
talk some true [Music] crime a 14-year-old from the New Town neighborhood of Sarasota Still Remains
missing tonight Jaz 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 it's A parents worst nightmare
having her child vanish off the face of the Earth toana spans 14 y- old son jabz
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 let him if
something Happ don't just let him just be out there like that jabz was last seing 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 and his whereabouts in fact the Ping to jazza's
cell phone tracked 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 too 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 what to do was right jabz span is described
as a bright teen who is very athletic he is between 5' 7 in and 5'9 in tall weighing 120 to 130 lb 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 jaz's whereabouts you're being asked to contact authorities
immediately reporting a live from downtown Sarasota this evening I'm Rick Adams Scott back to you all right Rick
thanks so much for that [Music] update this week we are discussing the case of jabz Eugene span who in 2017 was a
14-year-old boy living in the new town area of Sarasota Florida Sarasota's population was about 56,000 people new
town 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 community in the city new town is near downtown Sarasota jabz
was a great kid according to everyone who knew him he was full of jokes and humor his mother toana span whom True
Crime garage spoke with at length had various troubles throughout her life jabz 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 jabz when he was just 2 months old she kept the
Biblical name jabz that toana gave him which means bearer of pain toana felt that this name would make him strong and
bring him God's protection throughout his life jabz adored his grandmother Lucille although they sometimes buted
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 jabz towed the lines drawn by Lucille jabz 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 jabz was thriving in his grandparents home so his mom made the decision to let him continue to live
with them ja's mother toana was very involved with jabz even though they did not live together or share a home jaz'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 jabz 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 toana span told dat line that jabz had seen these family members making serious mistakes throughout their
life and he was determin 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 jabz 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 jabz 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 Jaz was usually found
somewhere in the neighborhood often playing ball or hanging out at the park with his friends jabz was not tiny I
mean he was 14 years old he was 5' n inch tall 120 pounds and we talked about Jaz 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 goodlooking 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 jabz
vanished this is on the night of September 4th 2017 Labor Day it's a Monday jabz
attended a Labor Day party this was held by his family family members said jabz 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 6:00 p.m. near a memorial
recently erected for a shooting victim from the neighborhood this man that was killed his name was Travis Colmes there
was a vigil held for Travis and jabz attended this one of Travis's female cousins had a relationship with tuana
span's brother so he was sort of family to jabz this vigil was in the 1500 Block
of 23rd Street at Paul Medallia Avenue right near Lucille's house where jabz lived jabz returned to Lil's house with
his buddy whom we are just going to refer to here as T because he is a minor MH the two were there sometime in the 8:
to 10: p.m. range they left after that jabz 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 jabz 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 jabz and gets no answer on his phone Lucille says she knew something was wrong immediately she
was calling around looking for him to know Avail finally she called toana jaz'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
jabz 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 and 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 buddy 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
good kid yeah well 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 is this an action of him going down the wrong path correct and with any neighborhood
be it's 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 jabz 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 jabz 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 were kind of thinking jabz is 14 years old that's a possibility here we don't have any reports of that from
jaz's family on September 8th with jabz missing now for 4 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
jabz being missing and this blast said it's unclear what the circumstances were leading up to his disappearance
detectives are asking asking anyone who knows the whereabouts of jabz to call detective Megan buck and gave a phone
number but then six days later this is I'm sorry six days after jabz 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 jaz'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 bernardet 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 jabz was abducted and this
is something that we've talked about in other cases Captain th this one is is a little trickier this one's a little more
difficult and I just base 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 jabz 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 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 well like you said he's 5'9 120 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 he was fast and he was very athletic doesn't roll out the possibility of 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 jaz'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 in woods okay now for the general timeline
this takes us to about the two weeks Mark jaz'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
jaz's case they pushed for searches they handed out flyers and they spread the word about their missing boy jaz's aunt
said set up a Facebook page for missing jabz span which publicized the boy's disappearance and posted about volunteer
searches and flyer distribution toana had been able to determine jaz'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 activ ities 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 88 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 te after that the trail went cold jaz's mother
toana 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 toana told ABC Action News at the time that she believed someone knew 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 toana 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 jaz'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 jaz's disappearance toana told the ABC reporter that she had heard from various people that jabz was in danger
she said quote jabz 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 deino said that they were following up on
every lead but the rumors and the gossip surrounding jaz's disappearance had not
been verified as credible she made the following statement alluding to the word on the
street that jabz 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 uh but but now she is getting these rumors but she's not able to connect some of the dots on September
20 6 2017 toana span 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 jabz we love jabz 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 jabz 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 jaz's case on September 30th this reward offered jointly by Sarasota
Police Department the Florida Department of Law Enforcement this was for $6,000 yeah in addition a digital
billboard had been donated this was to be used to ask for information in jaz's case by October 3rd the FBI got involved
they had joined in the case helping in the search for jabz 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 jabz was last seen this near his
grandmother's house keeping the case in the public eye the reward for information leading to jaz's
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 1,000 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 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 investing tigating 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 jaz'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 jabz themsel they were fully all in on this case
nobody on the inside be it the family or otherwise wise 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 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 got of Love though is he was basically
being put into the system right Foster Family mhm 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 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 upfront jaz's mother toana
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 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 jaz'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
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[Music] freedom [Music] 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 we're separated by glass like a couple of wild
animals but uh today we are separated by several state line so cheers to everybody out there I am in beautiful
sunny FL 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 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 jabz Agents from the FBI the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Sarasota Police Department were
Rec ing certain areas of new town 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 jabz and this comes in the form of a probable cause affidavit as you recall we said earlier
that jaz's mother toana stated that she had heard rumors that jabz had witnessed
something he should not have a violent crime of some sort yeah while jabz had not told his family about witnessing
anything toana had learned through her inquiries that jabz had talk 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 affid David 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 jabz had been missing for nearly two months a man named Reginal 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 jabz he told her that he had witnessed the murder of Travis Colmes
you might recall that jabz and his friends had been seen near a memorial for Colmes and this is the guy that was
connected to his family yes and he was murdered on August 28th 2017 and that Colmes as you stated was connect well
known to jaz's family well known to jabz 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 jabz
was a witness to this murder okay so let's step aside from 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 Colmes in some detail
Travis Colmes 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 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
medical marijuana was legalized glaucoma has gone up 5,000% I well the thing here is I think
often two 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 another 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 null this lot is
located according to reporters and others who have written about this case 453 ft from jaz's grandmother's house
just 453 ft from jaz's 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 Colmes and his vehicle
in the empty lot he heard the three men yelling something like give it up and he
said he heard Colmes 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 Colmes car and then
drive off Colmes 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 text 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 Colmes was just 31 years old he was found dead at about 9:20 p.m. near 22nd Street in
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
going to 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 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
lter 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 Colmes 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 jabz span who was just 14 years old when he went missing but also to get Justice for Travis Colmes and
anyone with information regarding the senseless murder of Travis Colmes I beg you please call or email
the Sarasota Police Department or call the detective we just mentioned at 941 36473 327 yeah but also is a sign of the
community and also a sign of the the cards that are stacked up against jesmine 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 and
investigation of jabz span but the issue here and 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 and 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 coles's case they may not have intended to murder Travis Colmes it maybe 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 Colmes and his family and really
the police are asking for the community help in that case so what does all of this have to do with The Disappearance
of jabz well it is because of what Reginal Parker the man who came forward the man named in the
affidavit it is what he told jaz's grandmother Lucille Tillery that changed everything for the family and for their
search not only did Regal Parker say that he witnessed the shooting of Travis Colmes but he also saw jabz span and two
of jaz'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 Colmes they may have seen the three kids
or at least they saw jabz now they may have only seen jabz because jabz did yell something out when he saw this and
witnessed this he yelled out oh my God you all shot him Travis Colmes 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 other guy is soaking up the Sun but if there was a third wheel I mean come on
crispy Colonel the captain and Reginal you like that that's a trio what a great name Reginal well we don't want
this Reginal in the garage and we we'll get into that a little bit later but I thought we were trying to hire Carlos he
is he not returning and Reginal yeah well it's important to our understanding of the story to note that
the gunmen did not know that Reginal Parker witnessed this murder this shooting this robbery of Travis Colmes
furthermore it is unlikely that they knew that there was another witness in addition to jabz and his
friends on October 13th detectives interviewed a witness who stated that on August 28th between the hours of 8:30
and 900 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 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 jabz span 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 Colmes although this witness saw the men running away not the actual murder itself as for Reginal Parker who
did witness the shooting he did not go to police as we said he spoke to Lil Tillery jaz's grandmother and reg 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 Reginal also met with LaToya Jake
this is jaz's Aunt he told her the same story about Travis col's shooting and jabz witnessing the whole thing he also
told the story to a third person and this was a private investigator who was working with jaz's family pro bono on
jaz's case and Reginal told this private investigator Jr the names of two of the
men he saw shoot Travis Colmes one was Curtis and the other was a guy named 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 a 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 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 Colmes because the story he was telling seemed
to pretty clearly implicate the men who killed Travis probably they were involved in
The Disappearance of jabz as well so Reginal is Reginal 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 Reginal had told them
about jabz witnessing Travis colm's shooting and the shooters seeing jabz why did they need these sworn
statements to the story told by Reginal Parker because Reggie clammed up once the police had him in custody he denied
having witnessed col's murder he telling the story of the event to Jr or either of jaz's 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 continue to deny deny deny
that he had told them any such thing maybe Reginal is this protect 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 jabed 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 a afraid afraid to tell the authorities now some people in New
Town 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 these snitches well if in fact these suspicions that
what happened to Travis Colmes then led to what could have happened to jabed say
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 Reginal Parker he wanted to give the jaz's
family some information about jabz to help them figure out what had happened to him but he would not go so far as to
tell 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 Reginal Parker with
accessory after the fact to the murder of Travis Colmes this is because he impeded the investigation of armed
robbery and murder knowing the ident 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 Reginal Parker with
accessory after the fact and he continued to refuse to talk while sitting in jail meanwhile jabz still had
not been found the family members stated publicly that they believe that jabz witnessed a murder and someone
associated with the murder did something to [Music] him 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 get in all well you know crispy kernel until tomorrow be good be kind don't
[Music] [Applause] [Music] L Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why I
thought it was an Eco move few your words less paper no it was so you could say it faster no it's to be more iconic
must be a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare upfront prices book a service
instantly and even get your project handled from start to finish sounds easy it is and it makes us so much more than
just a list get started at angie.com that's ngi or download the app today

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

The episode discusses the disappearance of Jabz Span, possibly linked to witnessing a murder in Sarasota, Florida.

Key points

Community Efforts to Find Jabz. The community rallies together to search for Jabz, distributing flyers and sharing information.
The Disappearance of Jabz Span. 14-year-old Jabz Span goes missing after a family party, sparking community concern.
Lucille's Plea for Jabz. Lucille Tillery makes a heartfelt public plea for her missing grandson, jabz, expressing her deep love and desperation.
Community Frustration. Chief Depino addresses the frustration of law enforcement in the search for jabz, urging community cooperation.
Growing Reward for Information. The reward for information leading to jabz's whereabouts increases to $25,000, reflecting the urgency of the case.
Investigation Intensifies. Law enforcement ramps up efforts to find jabz, with the FBI and local police actively searching neighborhoods.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

A parent's worst nightmare: having her child vanish off the face of the Earth.

Reporting on the disappearance of a 14-year-old boy.

4:25WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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