Mont Vernon Murder /// Part 1 /// 433 | Forensic Files

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crispy colonel business. All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer, let's talk some
true crime. Sunday, October 4th, 2009. A 911 call came into the Milford, New Hampshire police dispatch
at 4:15 a.m. An almost inaudible caller whispered into the phone. Something that the dispatcher could not
quite make out. The call then became an open call with no one remaining on the line.
The dispatcher gathered that a robbery or assault was in progress and sent two responding officers.
Sergeant Kevin Furlong and Officer Eric Wales responded immediately to the scene
at 4 Trail Road in Mount Vernon. They arrived at the address a free-standing home
in a largely unsettled area with only a few other homes nearby. There was a light on inside
but no one responded at the door. Through a window, the officer could see the body of a child lying on the ground.
She was moving slightly. Furlong forced his way through the front door which was locked
and entered the home. The young girl was covered in stab wounds, but she was alive.
Unable to scream for help, all she was able to whisper was, "They killed my mommy."
The officer carried the little girl outside and left her with Officer Wales so he could return to the house
to see if anyone else was present. He followed the trail of blood where the little girl had dragged herself into the
kitchen to the phone and it led to the master bedroom. Sure enough in the master bedroom
of the ranch-style home he found the body of a woman. She was lying on the bed naked from the waist down.
The scene was gruesome. The woman had been hacked to death. No one else was in the home.
While Officer Furlong cleared the house, Officer Whalen stayed with the young girl and waited for EMTs.
She was able to tell him that two people had come into the home. She heard one of them say, "Grab the
jewelry." The victims were determined to be 42-year-old Kimberly Cates and her 11-year-old daughter, Jamie.
Jamie was taken to Boston Children's Hospital. Her wounds were extensive, requiring
multiple surgeries. She would remain in the hospital for several weeks. Officer Furlong would require surgery on
his shoulder, injured as he broke down the door of the Cates home to save Jamie.
Jamie was able to tell investigators that she and her mom fell asleep in her mom's bed around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday
night. Sometime later, her mom woke her and asked, "Did you hear that?" Her mom got out of bed
and went to the bedroom door, where a man attacked her with a sword. Kimberly ran back to the bed to try to
protect Jamie, but she was stabbed by the man with the sword. And Jamie was stabbed as well.
A man picked Jamie up and threw her against a glass door, where she lay still, pretending to be dead
while they killed her mother. She opened one eye in time to see one of the attackers plunge a knife into her
mom's throat. She told the police that she remembered two men. One was bald and one wore a blue hoodie.
This is True Crime Garage. And this is the case of Kimberly and Jamie Cates, the Mount Vernon murder.
It was a scene of brutal carnage in a quiet, affluent suburban town of just 2,000, about 60 miles from Boston.
There was only one other known murder in Mount Vernon, and this was way back in 1840.
Kimberly worked as a nurse and was an avid runner and gardener. And her daughter attended the local elementary
school. Neither of them weighed even 100 lbs. Investigators discovered that a third
person lived at the home. This is Kimberly's husband and Jamie's father, David. Now, statistically,
the killer was most likely David. This, the detectives knew. They wondered whether David, who was
MIA, could have murdered his wife and left his little girl for dead. Perhaps this was another case of a would-be
family annihilator, like the Chris Watts case that we covered in episodes 269 and
270. But investigators tracked down David Cates. He was on a business trip in Maryland.
In fact, he traveled for work as a contract engineer for the government and was gone most weeks. This was normal
routine stuff. He rushed to Boston to be by the side of his daughter, who was in bad shape in the hospital
trying to recover from this horrific attack. He, obviously, had nothing to do with
what happened inside that home. Well, and good for him, cuz we have eyewitnesses that saying there's at
least two people. Investigators were able to determine how the intruder entered the Kate's home. The screen on
one of the basement windows was removed and the window was broken. A chest was in the basement under the
window. This is how the intruder got out, they surmised. But they also noted that on the home's porch, the window AC
unit had been removed as if someone had entered through this window. So, two points of entry into this home.
Police also discovered that the electricity to the house had been shut off at the circuit breaker. There was
blood on the breaker switches. Fresh tire tracks were noted on a dirt area off of Trove Road. It had just
rained, so the tire tracks were fresh and neighbors confirmed that no one had parked there on that Saturday.
Whoever invaded the Kate's home early Sunday morning likely parked off of the road near some tractor equipment and
walked to the house to carry out their evil deed. On Sunday, this is in the afternoon at
about 5:15 to 5:20 p.m. As crime scene techs were still working the horrific scene, Jamie was in the hospital
and Kimberly was in the morgue awaiting an autopsy. Amherst police officer Nathan Berry
pursued a vehicle that sped off when it observed his cruiser. It had attracted his attention because
it was sitting in an industrial park where some burglaries recently occurred. When he pulled the vehicle over, he took
the names of two teens in the car. This was Christopher Gribble and Steven Spader.
He questioned the two and then let them go. That same evening, police got a phone
call. The caller was Carol Fenton, who was a mother of teenager Kyle Fenton. Carol said her son had some interesting
things to say. A trooper went to the Fenton's home to interview him in person. Kyle Fenton said that earlier that day,
two friends stopped by his house while he was hanging out with his buddy Jamie Hollins.
The two told him and Hollins that they had broken into a house the night before in Mount Vernon and killed
two people and stolen some stuff. Fenton told police that his friends even showed him and
Hollins two knives that they said they used on the victims. They also said they used a machete.
After the two bragging teens left, Fenton and Hollins saw a story on the news about a murder in Mount Vernon.
Fenton was bothered by this information and told his mother immediately. Fenton's mother then contacted the
Amherst police chief. Yeah, cuz I'm assuming at first when your buddy starts telling you, "Hey, we broke into a
house." you're thinking, "Yeah, right." And then your buddy goes, "Oh yeah, but but we also killed people." and then
you're going, "Yeah, that's that sounds crazy. Mhm. You're probably just making this up." And then they leave and then
you see this news report and now you're going, "Well, maybe maybe they weren't lying. Maybe they weren't just
making up a story to freak me out or pull a prank on me. Like maybe this really happened." Right. You start
going, "Okay, either these guys did what they said they did or they have some kind of knowledge of something horrible
that happened the next town over." So, the two that bragged about the break-in and attack were 17-year-old
Steven Spader and 19-year-old Christopher Gribble. The same two who had been pulled over by
Officer Barry on the day after the murder. Two others were named by Fenton. This is
Billy Marks and Quinn Glover. Police started looking for the vehicle registered to Christopher Gribble that
they had pulled over earlier that day. They tracked the address to Gribble's home. Now, Gribble wasn't there, so
troopers proceeded to Steven Spader's house where he lived with his parents. Trooper
John Encarnacao arrived at the home of Steven Spader in Brookline on October 5th.
Chris Gribble and Steven Spader were just emerging from the house. Another teen boy named Autumn Savoy was
with them. Police brought the whole crew in. Gribble was dressed entirely in camo
gear when they picked him up. They took four pocket knives off of his person. Meanwhile, this is now Monday, October
5th. So, Quinn Glover and Billy Marks, who were named by Kyle Fenton as co-conspirators
in this murder, well, they're at school. Apparently, Glover was seen crying at school that day.
A school resource officer from the high school in Amherst called police that Monday afternoon.
The resource officer told police that he had been speaking with a student who had
been cutting himself and seemed scared and upset. This student reported to him that Quinn
Glover and Billy Marks and two others had threatened him. Cops met with this student. His name was
Elden Spikes. And he said that he, Spikes, had taken a bunch of drugs the day before and then
hung out with Gribble, Spader, Marks, and Glover who were reveling in the murder they had
just committed. They openly addressed the murder. In fact, Spikes reported Gribble said,
quote, it was awesome when he slit the girl's throat. Spader said he wanted to do it again.
They all went to the Pheasant Lane Mall to pawn some stuff that the teens had taken from the Kate's house. So, let me
get this right. This guy gets all high out of his mind, doped up on some drugs, starts hanging
out with his buddies or acquaintances or whatever, and they start acting like laughing
hyenas talking about this murder. Mhm. And so, he's probably getting a little freaked out.
And so, now they go to this mall, but the next day he's cutting himself? Yeah, he's at school freaking out. He's
crying. He's cutting himself. He's I mean, obviously visibly upset to anyone in his area that that can witness this
boy, this student at school. He's a mess. And then when the resource officer starts speaking with him, I'm guessing
this is like a a counselor type position, where the boy says, you know, I'm hanging out with these guys,
and this is what I like about about this kid here. I mean, that's very forthcoming to say, look, I was I did a
bunch of drugs, and then these these friends of mine or people that I know start telling me all this crazy stuff.
Right. They're they're they're saying they killed somebody and they enjoyed it, and
they would do it again. Right. Depending on what drugs he he would do, some could
make you more paranoid. Well, it's also not like an illusion or anything like that. I mean, you you have to question
that when you're talking to a young person and or anybody that said, hey, I took a whole bunch of drugs, and
then this happened." But, there's details inside of this story that would cause anyone to believe, regardless if
you believe or don't believe, you're reporting this to somebody. And the details are, "Hey,
they all went to a a mall with the purpose of pawning things that they stole from the house where they say
that they murdered some people." Right, which would be direct evidence that these kids were in
that house. Correct. So, the items that were I don't have a a full list of what was pawned or what they were attempting
to pawn because it sounds like they were not able to sell everything that they took with them.
But, some of the items included things like rings, bracelets, and so on, which we already have the survivor
her statement was that she heard someone say, "Get the jewelry." So, this also goes along with our investigation.
They also showed Spikes a machete that was in the trunk of one of the vehicles that they had. Well, just to
back up a second, a lot of pawn shops or jewelry shops will be told about a crime
if they believe that something was taken of value to be on the lookout. Mhm. You can take
it in, but once you take it in, please contact us so we can then take a look at the item. I was in a pawn shop not too
long ago, and an officer came in looking for some items in particular, which I piqued my interest. I thought was pretty
cool. empty your pockets and go, "Here it is, officer." They weren't questioning me.
They were looking for these items in the pawn shop. You never know. All right, Captain. So,
not only do these guys show Spikes this machete, and they show it to him, it's in the trunk of one of the vehicles,
they also tell him that the machete was very recently covered in blood, but they
soaked it in ammonia and bleach. Then, when this whole group they're back at Spikes' house on Sunday
night, his girlfriend called and said that she had heard some rumors. And she asked if Billy Marks was
involved in a crime. Spikes told her yes, and this group of guys were all boasting about this
murder. Then Glover's girlfriend called Spader and yelled at him for killing someone.
Spader then threatened Spikes with a knife and accused him of being a snitch. Gribble also got out two knives, and the
two advanced on Spikes in a you know, in a threatening manner. He ran around the car, and Glover
intervened to protect him. Marks then took him home. Spikes was of course shaken up by this and ratted to
the resource officer the next day at school. This will bring us back to the police
interview. Police interviewed both Billy Marks and Quinn Glover separately after school.
Quinn said he had been asleep on the night of October 3rd and 4th, but then admitted that he was with Marks, Spader,
and Gribble driving around Mount Vernon. But then he lawyered up and refused to say anything else to the police.
Cops did some digging into this kid, Quinn, and found that he was a Mormon. He was a singer and a guitar player who
performed at church functions, and he worked as a handyman at the church. So, they instantly arrested him
and gave him a life sentence for playing those good Mormon songs. Billy Marks gave police a little more
information than Quinn. He admitted that he was at the Trow Road house with Gribble, Spader, and Glover.
Okay, so now we have something alarming, something that the police were looking for directly. We got this kid and he's
talking. Well, we have a bunch of kids and they're talking to a lot of people, but at least now one is talking to the
cops. Yeah. Billy Marks says, "Hey, I was with this Gribble kid, Spader, and Glover. We were all at this Trow Road
house and we were armed with knives." He said that on the way there, Steven Spader said, quote, "We are about to do
the most evil thing this town has ever seen." End quote. Marks, at 5 ft 3 in tall, was the
smallest of the quartet. When they broke into the home, they broke into the basement of the house.
And because he's the smallest, they're going to have him squeeze through this tiny window.
He's now inside of the house in the basement, but he cannot get upstairs. The others
broke into the house through the porch. And one of them let him in. Someone cut the power.
While checking out an empty bedroom in the dark house, he heard a woman's voice saying, "Jamie, is that you? And you
don't have to do this." Spader called to him, told him to come into the master bedroom, but he says he could not see
anything until Glover turned the circuit breaker in the hallway back on. Then he
says that he saw a woman and a young girl, both of whom already looked to be dead. He left the room,
then took some stuff, and they all changed out of their clothes and they went home.
Now, I want to tell everybody here right now that what you're getting from this kid, what he is
telling to police, Billy Marks, he's admitting to being at the home where a murder took place. He's
admitting to being involved, but you're also getting kind of a vague story, right? I had to squeeze into the
basement. I heard some things upstairs, but I was not in the room when anything went down.
When I get into the room, these people appear to be dead to me. Yeah, I mean, this kid's a real ass fruit, but he is
talking to cops. And then it makes you wonder as an investigator, is he telling you the
truth? Is he Is he just trying to get this off of his chest or is he telling us part
truths and omitting himself from the actual crime? Right. And we have investigators here that know that this
kid is being conveniently vague about some of the details of what he knows. And so they're going to press him some
more. And after being pressured by these investigators, Marks admitted that in fact the four of them had entered the
master bedroom together before the attack went down. He says it was dark and they were using
an iPod that they found inside the home as a light. This, he says, is when the woman in the
bed said, "Jamie, is that you?" So, the first story is he hears this while he's in another part of the house. Second
story, "I'm now in the room with these other three yahoos and we entered at the same time and yes, I saw the woman when
she was alive. I heard the woman say, 'Jamie, is that you?'" Yeah, if you could imagine you have one or two
individuals right by the door and the other two right behind them. Kind of like what's happening.
So, I don't think at any point was this um was any of these individuals separated
from the group. And this is the middle of the night. So, our victims here, unfortunately, they're sleeping in the
same room in the same bed, mother and daughter, and husband and father is out of town.
So, this is again probably pretty routine stuff for them. One was probably the reason why
the mom didn't mind her daughter, that's 11 years old, sleeping in the bed with her. Well, and that's why she's going to
say, "Jamie, is that you?" She's She wakes up. She doesn't know what's going on. She hears a noise or perhaps hears a
noise and sees someone in the doorway. And of course, she's going to assume it's her daughter returning to the
bedroom or leaving the bedroom. But we know sadly that it is not. This is when we have
Billy Marks says as soon as he heard the woman say, "Jamie, is that you?" that Steven Spader attacked the woman with
the machete that Spader brought with him to the crime scene. He says that Gribble then attacked the
girl and threw her up against the glass door. Marks also told police that the day
after the murder, which at the time they believed was two murders, and we know this because they bragged
about having killed two people to several of their friends. Right. They didn't know that the little girl
was alive, that she survived. He says that the day after the murder, the group they met up and Spader and
Gribble joked about what they had done the night before. At Glover's house on the evening of the 4th, Spader said, "We
broke up a family. Isn't this great?" Marks later admitted that he helped scout the Trow Road as a location for a
break-in. On the Thursday before the crime, he and Spader drove out to Trow Road and
selected the house next door to the Kates' house. So, this would have been six Trow Road, which was a large and
expensive-looking house. This was their intended target. But, on the night of the crime,
they changed to the Kates' house because it had no security system. They selected it,
if you're going to go by that, at random. All right. Cheers, mates. Thanks for listening, and cheers to you, Colonel.
Oh, well, thank you, Mr. Captain. All right. Billy Marks, he's talking a little bit to the police. He's telling
Farts. There we go. He's telling them some of the things that they want to hear because they've been to the crime
scene. They know the facts of the things that they've seen at the crime scene. He's starting to fill in some of the
blanks, again, a little conveniently vague, but now starting to open up with a little more details.
One very interesting detail that he told investigators was he said that about a week before the Kates' murder, he, along
with Spader and Gribble, while they're sitting around discussing conducting some home break-ins in the middle of the
night. And it was during these discussions, again, a week before, that they all agreed that if they
encountered someone or anyone inside the home during one of the break-ins, they would
kill everyone in the house. Police pulled the records for this gang of clowns. Billy Marks, together with Steven
Spader, had been arrested just a month before. This was for the possession of marijuana.
The two were arrested together again back in June of 2009. Mhm. This is after chasing a group of teens in another car
and then ramming the vehicle. Okay, I get the marijuana charge. And I also get you do.
teenagers horse around. Right. But vehicles, car chases, ramming other cars, that's some dangerous, reckless
stuff. Yeah, but there could have been an accident. You're horsing around and next
thing you know, oh, my car hit your car. It could have been, but it sounds to me
with what they were charged with and and convicted of in that now what we Right. And now what we do know about
these individuals that it seems to me that they probably threatened to ram their car and then followed through with
that threat. Mhm. Steven Spader had a pretty lengthy record for a 17-year-old. This included some domestic incidents,
stealing a car stereo, criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, and resisting detention. And supposedly, he
was really good kid. Wasn't he adopted? Yes, he was a good kid and then I don't know what happened. Like it was
like a light switch, like it flipped the script and he he turned into this different person.
Yeah, that's what his adopted family always said was he was real good and pretty quiet and then all of a sudden it
was just like a light switch went off and instead of going in the right direction, he started going in the
wrong direction. I think by acting up, he was getting attention, but just not obviously
positive attention. Yeah, and also he had a charge, Steven Spader had a charge for interfering with the custody of a
minor. This related to Spader's 17-year-old girlfriend whose father had obtained a
restraining order against Spader back in February of 2009. Three months after obtaining the
restraining order, this girl, Chelsea Cummings is her name, and Steven Spader ran away together. How romantic.
The father, Peter Cummings, pressed charges and Spader pled guilty to criminal trespass charges and the more
serious charges were dropped. Peter told the bostonchannel.com that Steven Spader was a nightmare who
would not go away. Spader continued to see Chelsea who eventually got pregnant. The two posted on Facebook about their
impending wedding planned for December 2009. 40 guests had already been invited, but
after the murder, Chelsea posted, "Just so the world is aware, this will never happen." Oh, good for her. The
baby was born in January 2010 while Steven Spader was in jail for murder. Very similar to West Memphis 3. Chelsea
has cut ties with Steven Spader according to Spader's mother. Now, we could not find records for Quinn
Glover or Chris Gribble. Looks like neither were arrested for anything significant before this break-in and
murder. All right, so we've been talking about these four kids that they're questioning, but wasn't there five?
Yeah, they actually picked up five. Okay, so they picked up another kid named Autumn Savoy. And this is simply
because at the time when they went to pick up Gribble and Spader, this kid is with them.
This Autumn Savoy, they're going to interview him just as they would the other four.
Savoy told the cops that no, Steven Spader and Chris Gribble could not have murdered anyone on Saturday night
because they went to his house. They showed up around 2:00 a.m. that night. They smoked some pot, and they all went
to sleep. Mhm. But he didn't stick to this story for very long because under pressure from the police, who keep in
mind already had different information from Kyle Fenton and Eldon Spikes that Gribble and Spader bragged about the
murder. They pushed this kid a little more, and Savoy admitted the following to investigators.
He said that very late on the night of Saturday, October 3rd, Gribble and Spader left Savoy's home
saying they were going to murder someone. He thought they were joking. Savoy texted Spader asking him if he was
doing a job. Okay, so keep in mind, they're vocal about this after the fact. They're vocal about this before
they go out. Yeah, they're picking out a house a week before. They were vocal that they were going to break into
someone's home. They tell this other kid, "We're going out to murder someone." Savoy, after these kids leave
his house, he texts Spader asking him if he was, quote, "doing a job." Mhm. Which
he says means a burglary or robbery at that time. Right. Spader responds to this text at
1:30 a.m. It says, "Busy. Will hit you when I can." Gribble and Spader arrived at Savoy's
house shortly after 5:30 in the morning. They had called beforehand and woke Savoy up.
They told him they selected a house in a remote area with no security to burglarize,
and then they killed two people while robbing the house. Right. While detailing the events of their
evening, Spader and Gribble showed Savoy the machete. He could see blood on the sheath, and he
saw blood on a fillet knife the two showed him. The two were wearing different clothes
at this time. Remember, they left his house, then they come back, now they're wearing different clothing.
They had the clothes that they were wearing during the attack and the weapons used, as well as gloves, but all
of these items were in a black trash bag. Gribble and Spader asked Savoy if they
could burn the items at his house. Savoy says, "No, you cannot." It was decided by the group that they
would throw all of the items in the Nashua River. They all drove to the river, and Savoy
was the actual one who took the bag and tossed it in. He says this was around 7:00 a.m.
Then, they went to the convenience store nearby to get a snack. Savoy agreed to show the police where he
had thrown the bag in the river, and of course, they get out there, and the bag is still there. It's caught up against a
tree just a little ways down river. Nearby were floating two jewelry boxes and some sneakers and a wallet
containing the name David Cates. In the trash bag were discovered clothes with Spader's and Gribble's names on the
tags that their mothers or someone had probably sewn into the tags. Right. So, just between
the four kids, they got a lot of information, getting people to turn on each other. Now, this fifth kid is
giving them a lot more information, great eyewitness, great person that you can take to trial. But not only top it
on top of that, what he's telling you, you know is true because you're finding evidence to back that up. Yeah, and he's
involving himself in the crime, but not putting himself at the crime scene. He's
saying, "Yes, they they were at my house beforehand, at my house afterward, and I
helped them dispose of evidence." Yeah, but that's great. That's great if you're law enforcement because then
you're going, "Hey, listen listen up, jackwagon. If you don't tell us all this stuff and testify in court,
we'll put you away for something." Well, we still have the two ringleaders, so to speak, to talk about. We haven't
got to their interviews yet. So, around 1:00 p.m. on the 5th, Chris Gribble was Mirandized and informed that
he was not under arrest. He agreed to the interview, and he agreed that it would be recorded.
He initially denied any involvement in the break-in and the murder. He gave Trooper Encarnacio a song and dance
story about how they just went to Walmart, drove around, bought some jewelry at a yard sale, and then decided
to pawn it at the mall. So, he's not only coming up with some kind of alibi as to
they were doing something different, but he's explaining away other evidence. Right. Officer Encarnacio told Gribble
they needed him to stay while they obtained a search warrant for his DNA. While they're waiting to obtain said
warrant, Gribble starts asking questions, and he wants to know whether the crimes
they were investigating were eligible for the death penalty. He was told by the trooper that he did
not believe so. And then Gribble agreed to talk. He said he now wanted to tell the story
of what happened but would only talk to Encarnacio. Officer Encarnacio recorded this
statement. He told the police that the crimes were a conspiracy. He and his friend Steven Spader were
both psychopaths. The two had robbed a house near Spader's home just a week before.
Once they spent the money they got from a pawn shop for the items stolen in that
robbery, they decided they wanted to do it again. So, Spader and Billy Marks scouted out a
house on Trow Road in Mount Vernon because it was in a remote location, less likely to be seen.
In his interview, remember Billy Marks admitted that he had been on this outing, scouting out which house to hit.
Spader and Gribble agreed that if anyone was home during the break-in, they would
kill them, quote, "for fun." All four of them, Gribble, Marks, Spader, and Glover, were in on the plan.
It would become clear that this was a planned event, thought out in advance. Preparations were made and precautions
were taken. And the plan included murder. As stated in the affidavit, they all knew that the plan was to break
into a house and kill anyone if there were residents home. The plan was that Autumn Savoy would be their alibi.
Gribble went on to detail what exactly had happened on the night Kimberly Cates was killed.
All right. Well, let's get into what he told investigators. Chris Gribble told the investigators that he and Spader met
the other co-conspirators, Marks and Glover, at Walmart after midnight on October 4th. Right. Spader had forbidden
any of them from drinking or doing drugs. He said that he wanted everyone to be totally lucid and sharp for what
they were about to do. They all got into Chris Gribble's car after changing into different clothing
and donning gloves. Gribble drove them all to Shrow Road, dropped them at the house that they had
selected, and then parked his car in a turnout down a hill near a tractor. They all left their cell phones in the
vehicle. Mhm. At some point, it was decided to change the target house. The teens intended to
break into the larger home near the Cates home, but changed their minds and selected the home where Kimberly and
Jamie were sleeping because it did not have a security system. They broke into the basement window.
They lowered Billy Marks, the little guy, in, but he couldn't figure out how to get upstairs into the main part of
the house. This, apparently, is because the door to the basement was locked. So, what they had to do was they had to
pull him back out of the basement window. And they decided to take the air conditioner unit that was located in a
window on the porch out of the window and go through that window. Spader went in first and let the others inside the
home. Spader had with him a machete, and Gribble carried a knife. Did the other two know that they had these weapons
before they even got to the house? Not only did they know that these other two had the weapons, but remember at least
one of them has had the discussion and agreed that they're going to kill anybody inside the home, plus the two
themselves have knives in their hands. Because it's not that uncommon. I know these guys are a little bit older, but
it's not that uncommon for 14, 15-year-old, 16-year-old to to dress up in all black or camo gear and go around
the neighborhood, maybe egging a house or toilet papering somebody. Yeah, or just or just being out after
curfew, goofing around. Mhm. But when you go, "Hey, we're going to break into a house."
That's that's another level. And then but I could see some of these kids going, "Okay, yeah, we're going to break
into a house, no big deal." But even when your buddies are going, "Well, but if there's somebody there, we're going
to kill them." And not really taking that that serious. Like, "Ow." You know, that'd that'd be
like going around and like, "Hey, we're going to TP this house, but hey, if the owner comes out, we'll kill him." You
wouldn't believe your friend would actually kill the guy that came out. You'd believe your friend's just going
to run away. Maybe not. And and I agree 100% with everything that you're saying. The thing that's
really terrifying here is that we're only getting short, little, cleaned-up versions of this story from the actual
perpetrators. Right. And you know what they do. They're willing to admit to certain things and tell you
most of the story, but they don't want to look like the monster themselves. Right. And what we do have is we have at
least two stories of people that are saying they were in the vehicle when Spader said the words "Tonight
we're going to do the most evil thing this town has ever seen." Or something to that level. Right. What's left out of
that? That's what they're saying he says in the vehicle. What's left out of that
is it's clear it should be clear to any of these idiots that have had these discussions of yes,
we're breaking into a home and yes, we're going to kill whoever we find inside the home or whoever tries to stop
us that while we're on our way there if I wasn't believing it before and now I hear this guy say, "Tonight we're going
to do one of the most evil things that this town has ever seen." Yeah, if That statement to me means that
this guy he's probably legit about what he says. His intentions seem real and what's even
more scary is that it sounds like this group is expecting to find people in the home.
Right, but but You know what I mean? It's not like it's not like if we find someone in the home, we're picking a
home that we think there is someone there and we've already agreed we're doing this thing. Yeah, cuz but my dumb
ass, if I'm in that vehicle and he yells, "We're going to do the most evil thing this town has ever seen." I'd be
thinking we're going to take a massive [ __ ] in a brown paper bag and light that
son of a [ __ ] on fire and run for our lives. But that's but I also would be interested, like you were saying, they
talked about the break-in way before this. Mhm. And how much did that um conversation entail if we found
somebody would kill somebody? And at some point, those are people that you would want to separate yourself from.
Separate yourself from and I think that it would take an awfully big person to do this because, you know, we've all
been to high school and um we understand peer pressure and things like that and wanting to be accepted by our friends.
But not only separate yourself from these individuals, but probably warn somebody, be it a parent, teacher, or
law enforcement head that hey, this is what these kids are saying they're going to do.
Someone needs to intervene and and speak with them and figure out is this is this something
that's real? Right. I mean, you can't uh let let's continue on because that's that's a whole different road there that
we could easily go down, but as you pointed out, as we were discussing, Captain,
these four guys are now entering this home and all of them are armed. They all have bladed weapons with them. Spay-
Spader has the machete. Once they're inside, they turn off the circuit breaker that was located in the
hallway of the home. This to obviously cut the power, no electricity. They searched some empty bedrooms using
the light from an iPod that they found on a docking station inside the home. Then Spader opened the door to the
master bedroom. And the woman in the room said, "Jamie, is that you?" She tried to turn on a lamp, but they
had already cut the power. Then, as Gribble put it, Spader started hacking the woman.
Gribble said in his interview, quote, "Steve was just hacking away. He just lost it. I was controlled, but I didn't
really feel much of anything. I thought I would, but I didn't." He said, "I was actually kind of scared
of him. He just kept hacking at the bed. I was backing off because Steve was losing it."
The child in the bed jumped up and Gribble stabbed her in the face and chest. Per the affidavit, quote,
"Gribble tried to stab the girl in the heart to kill her. He then threw her against the glass door. Gribble assumed
the girl was dead. The mother was still gargling. Gribble stabbed the mother in the neck and chest to try to kill her.
Spader then went over to the girl and kicked her with his boot and gave her a whack with a machete.
They checked the woman to make sure she was dead, but no one checked the girl. The murderous teens seemed to relish the
killing of a woman and a child. They didn't give it a second thought. After they were done with the killing, they
searched the home for items to steal. They went to the car. They changed out of their clothes and they put them in a
trash bag in the trunk. On the car ride home, as if they're celebrating some fantastic
achievement, they're all smoking cigars. Is that a euphemism? No, they're they're actually
smoking cigars. Now, they dropped Marks off at his car that was located at the Walmart. So, again, it's you're getting
these stories, little bits, and there are some little nuggets of truth in there, but
it's just insane what these what these four kids just did. Right. Smoking cigars, celebrating the murder of They
believe they've killed two people. Oh, and a woman and a child at this point, mind you. Right. Smoking cigars, and
then let's drop this this guy off at his car at Walmart, and then the three of them they continue on. Now, we have
Spader, Gribble, and Glover still in the vehicle. They go to Savoy's house. Remember, he's the fifth kid that they
picked up who is not at the crime scene, Right. but has been questioned by police.
They say when they get back to Savoy's house, they told him the whole story of what they did. They show him the items
that they stole and they said, "Look, you're expected to be our alibi. We were here the whole time. We weren't out
doing any of this stuff that we just told you about." Spader told Savoy that he carved the
word die in a piece of wood on the porch. I'm I'm guessing this would be a post or pillar
type thing on the porch. On his porch. On the porch of the house that they hit. Then Savoy threw the garbage bag
containing the bloody clothes and gloves and some of the items stolen from the house into the river as said earlier.
After disposing of this evidence and eating the snack, they went back to Savoy's house and checked the Nashua
Telegraph online to read about their handywork. They're checking the news to see if anybody's
Yeah, like they're getting off on this. Yeah. It was then that they learned that the
girl was still alive. Remember, they thought they killed everybody in the house. This caused some obvious tension
within the group. Yeah, because they're now aware that she's alive. What did she see? Did she know any of them?
Well, and two of them, they start berating Gribble. So, Spader and then Savoy, the guy who wasn't even there,
they're harassing Gribble for failing to kill the girl. Well, so that shows you how big of a pile of [ __ ] he he is even
though he didn't go. Oh, man, you should have killed that girl. Well, and mind you, it it's
it's clear and obvious now that this guy, even though he wasn't there, he was fully aware of what he was told
their intentions were and said, "I will cover for you." And whether he believed it or not,
he said he would cover for them. And when then they come back from doing what they told him they would do, right, he
continues to cover for them. And now, as you're pointing out, big giant piece of
[ __ ] Savoy and Spader, they are harassing Gribble for failing to kill the kid and and Yeah, I'd like to take
the all five of these kids and put them in a brown paper bag and light them on fire and put them on somebody's porch.
Well, and and forgive me everyone out there, I'm simply repeating the words of an obvious monster, but we
have a a story to tell and it's sad and it's true, but what Spader said to Gribble was, quote, "At
least I killed my bitch." All right. Gribble then told investigators that the plan all along
had in fact been to kill whomever they found in the house. From the arrest affidavit, quote, Yeah,
wait, but hold on a second. You're so [ __ ] tough that you show up to a house that they're not
uh suspecting that you're going to come break into their house, and you're going
to show up, and you brought a knife fight to a fist fight, and or machete or whatever, and then you you wake them up.
You or start attacking fight. These people were unaware that any of this is going to Right, right.
And then you start attacking them in their sleep. Oh, you're so [ __ ] tough, you idiot, you know.
Jesus Christ. All right. From the arrest affidavit, quote, "Steve and I are pretty messed up people. I'll be
perfectly honest, I've wanted to kill someone for a long time. It's a it's like an urge.
And it was kind of a time that I thought I could get it out," he said. Continuing on, quote, "But I thought at
least I would feel bad about it. I'm almost sorry to say I don't. I'm not sure why, but I'll be honest with you, I
can't say I was sorry about it. I just felt nothing. It was kind of cool because it was
different, but I'm not really sure if I have a conscience anymore." Gribble stated his only regret was that
he did not kill the child. He said if he had realized that she was alive, he would have killed her.
Quote, "I'm kind of surprised that she's alive. I kind of wish she died for her sake, just because she's going to have
to live with all of that now. If I'm going to kill someone," he says, "I'm going to actually do it so they
don't have to sit and live with a bunch of trauma. I've been through so much trauma, I don't want someone to go
through that. So, if I can just end it for them, I would. If I had realized she was still alive, I
would have ended it for her because there was no way she could recognize us as far as we knew. So, we didn't really
care about that part." Again, just pointing out the depravity in the the sickness of these
individuals, they're not even killing for the sake of getting away with the other crimes. Right.
His own words are, "We never There was no reason for us to believe that this kid would be able to
identify any of us." It's killing the people in the house for the sake of killing them.
Right. Not not to Well, if they wake up, we will have to we'll have to kill them to protect our
identities. The criminal motivation at one point in the discussions that were had well in advance before these crimes
were committed was to break in, steal, and rob from a a That motivation changed at some point
into murder and they all agreed to do it and that's what they did. So, what else did
Gribble say in his interview? Well, this is weird. He expressed surprise to the investigators when the
investigators informed him that Jamie, the 11-year-old, was a black belt. And he says, "Really? The girl,
honestly, was a black belt? This is just surprising to me because she didn't really put up any struggle."
Right, you attacked her in her sleep, you idiot. He says, "I mean, she was brave to
actually jump up and run. I mean, I think most kids would probably just kind of blubber for their mom, but she did
try to run for the door. If I hadn't been there, she would have gotten away, probably. It's kind of cool. 11 years
old and a black belt. I'm impressed." Gribble then asked about the girl's condition. Officer Encarnacio said that
he did not know her condition. "Thank you, officer." Uh one, of course, her condition was
in flux, right? They're trying to save this this young girl's life. Right. But thank you to the officer for not giving
this dude any satisfaction, be it if the girl's condition were bad, good, or improving, or otherwise. You don't
deserve to know. You don't get to know anything, bub. Right. Well, on top of that, this would be a very
tough day in the office. Mhm. Because there would be so much like you're you're in a room alone with this scum
and he's he has the nerve to say things like, "Oh, I'm surprised she was a black
belt. She didn't really put up much of a fight." At some point, I'd have to leave and
say, "Look, I can't do this anymore because I would love to put my hands around his neck for just a little bit
and just talk [ __ ] to him." Well, Gribble goes on to tell the officer, "Okay, I'm just curious to see
how she's doing. I kind of feel like now that I hope that she gets better." So, I
mean, how how thoughtful of of Chris Gribble to all of a sudden care about people.
Now, per the Nashua Telegraph, quote, "Gribble also said that Spader had started his own brotherhood, the
Disciples of Destruction, and the Mount Vernon murder was something of a test for Gribble and the
other potential members, this being Quinn Glover and William Marks." He said that he had gone along with
lying to the police because he was worried that Spader might have killed him. Spader, he said, was, quote, "the real
deal." Right. And just to dive a little further into Chris Gribble and his personality,
we want to play you a clip from the trial, and this is Chris Gribble's father talking about his son. And did
your wife go to meet with Chris at the jail? She we were able to meet He was able to
meet with her twice, on Christmas and New Year's. Um he had expressed a very clear desire, repeated multiple
times through your office, that he had no desire to meet with her. And I had sent him letters saying, you know, it's
Christmas, would you like to meet with your Could your mom and brother come up and meet?
Okay. We saw him on Christmas Eve, and we saw him uh the following week on New Year's Eve.
And that Those were the only times that she saw him. And you said you saw Chris up until July
of last uh And when when we talk about you your wife going to see him, that was the
previous Christmas. It's the previous year. Not this most recent Christmas, but Christmas before that. That's correct.
And you said you had met with him up until July of this past summer. Yes. And then he said he didn't want to meet with
you anymore? Yes. Did he ever give you any sort of um reasonable explanation as to why he
didn't want to meet with you anymore? A reasonable explanation? Yes. I don't think it was reasonable, no.
What was the explanation that he gave you? Um I had offended him. He had asked me what I thought of him.
Uh and I said I think that you're so involved in your own problems and how and how how difficult they are that you
fail to see that there are a lot of other people out there who are hurting. And your belief is that
because you're you're going through much worse things than they are by being in jail, that
they should ignore what they're going through and and come and see you. I said I recall I told him that he suffered
from center of the universe syndrome. And at that point he said, "Well, then maybe I don't want to see you anymore."
Hung up the phone and walked away from the visiting area. And so today in court, is this the first
time you've seen him since last July? Other than pictures, yes. Other than pictures on TV? No, we don't
we haven't watched the news since he was arrested, but occasionally the front page of the paper has a picture.
Sometimes that's hard to avoid. Yes. For all of our old episodes, download the Stitcher app. They are free and we
also have a bonus show called Off the Record. Check that out. Yes, Captain. I got an email from somebody earlier this
week that said, "Hey, I'm a new listener. Can you guys cover this case?" My email back was, "We already did. You
got to check out the old episodes. There's hundreds of them on the Stitcher app.
Please join us back here in the garage tomorrow. Until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.

Mont Vernon Murder /// Part 1 /// 433

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In October of 2009 a home invasion murder rocked and shocked the small affluent town of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. These horrific and senseless acts forever changed Mont Vernon. New laws were established in hope of deterring future offenders.

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Brief Summary

Teenagers brutally murdered Kimberly and Jamie Cates in 2009, revealing a disturbing lack of remorse during the investigation.

Key points

The 911 Call. A chilling 911 call reveals a robbery or assault in progress, leading to a gruesome discovery.
The Attack. A young girl survives a brutal attack and reveals her mother's murder to the police.
Teenagers Brag About Murder. Two teens boast about committing murder, leading to their eventual capture.
The Chilling Wake-Up Call. A mother wakes to a voice she thinks is her daughter, only to face horror.
Bragging About the Crime. The perpetrators boast about their actions, revealing their chilling mindset.
Planning for Murder. The group discusses their intentions to kill anyone at home during a break-in.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

They killed my mommy.

A young girl whispers to the officer after being rescued.

4:57WatchNov 11, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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