Murder in Alliance /// Part 1 /// 520 | Forensic Files

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that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
today's date is July 14 1999 Wednesday it's 1309 hours my name is detective Bud Sampson we're in the Ravenna Police
Department interview room along with me is detective William mucklow and detective John Leach of the Alliance
Police Department also in the room is Joseph Eisenberg [Music] because [Music] listen
[Music] ing if I didn't care about life no more they just knew about it and he took
advantage of me and were you having some hard times I lost my family's friends I lost my little
brother and sister that's everything anymore April 1st 1999 Alliance Ohio alliances in the northeastern part of
the great state of Ohio north of Canton and east of Akron and back in 1999 there were about 23 000
people living in Alliance which is in Stark County one of those people was 26 year old Yvonne Lane
she was found murdered in her home now homicide is not a normal thing in Alliance
back then we typically see about one homicide a year sometimes none Yvonne Lane was a mother she was not
living alone she was found by her mother Yvonne's mother Tanya Lane went to the home of her daughter and found a
shocking scene on that April 1st Tanya found Yvonne Dead with her throat cut and she was lying in a pool of her own
blood her five young children were in the house but were unharmed there was a lack of forensic evidence
but there were two partial bloody footprints found at the scene David Thorne Yvonne's ex-boyfriend
and the father of one of her children was instantly a suspect David was eventually tried convicted and
sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Yvonne the police got their best lead when a
woman named Rose Marr contacted them to say that she and her boyfriend Chris Campbell spoke with a young man named
Joseph Wilkes an incredibly Joseph told them he was in town because he had been hired to kill a
woman eventually Joseph Wilkes admitted to having killed Yvonne and he claimed that
David Thorne Yvonne's ex-boyfriend hired him to do so he also gave the cops a detailed account
of how the pair had planned the murder this confession sent David Thorne to prison for the rest of his life
Joseph Wilkes is in prison as well he is serving 30 Years to Life David Thorne has continuously claimed he
is innocent and he had a strong Alibi for the time of the murder his family and a number of organizations
are currently conducting a campaign to have his conviction overturned because they believe the investigation
may have been botched or even worse covered up those who believe in David Thorne's
innocence suspect that the police botched the case but were determined to get a result
so they concocted a murder For Hire plot and forced a confession this is true crime garage and this is
the case of Yvonne Lane [Music] murder Ed joining us in the garage today we have
Maggie freeling some of you may know her from The Disappearance of Mara Murray documentary series that was on oxygen a
couple years ago and I believe right now the people if they want to watch it it is currently streaming on peacock Maggie
is also the host of the unjust and unsolved podcast and she is conducting an in-depth investigation into the
murder of 26 year old Yvonne Lane a case that some say is unsolved because they have convicted the wrong man in this
case hello Maggie before we get into the meat and potatoes of this case in your investigation all of these years later
how are you doing and how did you find this case awesome it is so great to be back with you guys I'm doing all right
recovering from covid actually so my voice is kind of gone you know I found this case very long time ago I guess at
this point I'm working on it for a year maybe almost like two years ago I found this case I was in touch with David I
don't remember exactly if I came to sue his wife or if she came to me but it was brought to my attention as
you know this case 22 years this guy who a lot of people say has been wrongfully
convicted for all that time and hasn't had anybody when I first talked to David he told me his case was dead in the
water and he was right it was he used up all of his appeals and it's an incredibly complicated case as we'll get
into so it was really difficult to find people who were willing to take it on pro bono and so I decided to look at it
I did an episode for unjust and unsolved and afterwards I was just like I couldn't stop thinking about it because
there's so much here um it kind of drove me a little crazy and I just said you know what I need to
do an entire series on this David Thorne is one of the men that have been convicted in this case and he was an
ex-boyfriend and the father to one of Yvonne's children and he's been locked up for over 20 years in this case now
this is an Ohio case so Alliance Ohio and it was a case that actually received I was a little surprised it received
more media attention than I had speculated on going into it but and there was a book written on the case as
well I couldn't find the the title of the book do you recall the author yeah so the book if we're thinking about the
same one it wasn't on the case it was Brent turvey he's a forensic expert he looked into the case and he actually has
two books one is on what not to do at a crime scene where he features this case and another one very similar so they're
actually in two forensic textbooks now if you could go ahead and tell us a little bit about our victim here Yvonne
Lane she's a mother of five children is that correct five kids 26 years old the oldest kid at the time was 10. she had
her first kid when she was 16. she was a Jehovah's Witness from you know what family has said and and Friends has said
at the time she was trying to get back on track trying to become a devout Jehovah again
but she also had five little kids and had to make ends meet and you know what we know she wasn't really working she
was on welfare and she was kind of struggling to take care of all the kids one of the children's fathers there's
different dads he his parents were taking care of one of the kids who was disabled the oldest kid lived with his
grandparents so she was taking care of three of the kids on her own so three of the children living with
her at the time of the murder yes and actually there was the fourth child with her at the time because she was trying
to get custody back of him uh Vinnie the disabled boy who actually becomes kind of a big part of the story as he was
there when the murder took place he was in the home as well Brandon Preston Vinnie and Trenton Merle home and David
Thorne one of the men that have been convicted in this case of her murder he knew her from high school and then
they reconnected Years After High School is that correct yeah so they met at a vocational school she wanted to go to
school for cosmetology and he was going for decal making David's really big into
cars so they wound up at the same vocational school either junior senior year of high school
and saw each other in the hall they obviously didn't have classes together they were taking different classes but
he saw her in the hall and was really struck by her everything we've heard is that she's absolutely stunning like this
knockout babe I guess a couple years later he they were at a car part shop she needed to fix her car and bumped
into him and he was like oh I'll fix your car for you and that's kind of how it how it started and David is the
father of Brandon so where does Brandon fall in the order of children and from my understanding he finds out about
having a son with Yvonne after Brandon has already brought into this world yeah so it's really complicated as we get
into later in the season the children and and her pregnancies um but Brandon is the second youngest
her and David were together somewhere around about a year they broke up she because the father of
a couple of the other kids none of them are confirmed the only confirmation we have is Brandon from a DNA test with
David but so the alleged father of a couple of the other kids her and him were on and off for about 10 years so
they had a very complicated and from what we understand actually abusive relationship so her and David broke up
because of him you know he's the father of a bunch of the kids there was just he was always
going to be in her life things are tumultuous and her and David kind of went Separate Ways
she calls him you know a couple months later maybe you know nine months later saying I had a baby I think it's yours
that's kind of how that happened David was dating another girl at the time who was kind of like what the hell your
ex-girlfriend's calling you and you now have a kid and things got pretty complicated for the two of them from
what we know they were trying to maybe get back together David says that they were talking about that we have heard
from other family members that you know there were talks of engagement rings so David and Yvonne were carrying on a
behind the scenes relationship while they were both seeing other people after Brandon was born and they found
out you know they had a kid together so it all gets really complicated well and I love the way that you describe it in
your series murder and Alliance because I think it really sums it up very nicely
in a nice in the package where you say Eric the other guy who fathered multiple of the children as far as we know that's
always been the the belief or understanding He's the bad guy he's he's somebody that she just can't seem to
quit for whatever reason maybe it is because they've had such a long relationship or they had so many
children together he's always going to be around and David and her just didn't work out mainly because of this other
guy because of Eric always being there and you said that you know David seemed to be kind of the the more stable
individual that she would kind of turn to when things weren't going right with Eric or when she had had enough of this
Eric guy yeah I mean that's kind of what it seems like to me I mean her and Eric
from what we know I mean they would beat the crap out of each other like really physically abusive I talked to her son
Preston in the interview Eric's allegedly in the podcast Eric is allegedly his father he thinks Eric says
father and then he says yeah they were pretty pretty freaking violent to each other so you know when David every
account we know is this kind man who would take her back he loved her and take care of her during those off times
with Eric and you know we bring up the fact that we don't know who the Dad we don't you know for sure know who the
dads are if the other four children not in any way it's you know shame her or anything but it does get complicated
when you're talking about who could have done this there are many multiple men out there who could have fathered her
children who you know we've heard rumor that she had been pregnant with their children so there was a lot of people
that needed to be looked into not just David and Eric once David finds out that he is in fact the father what is his
behavior like it seems to me like he was willing to to step up to the plate and be as much
of a father or be involved in Brandon's life as much as possible from every account we have heard even at trial from
the social worker who was dealing with the custody and child support payments they had an amicable relationship
amicable there was no um fighting over Brandon there was no custody argument it was basically you
know you're going to pay child support okay you've got to go to court and figure out how much legally get into an
agreement for that and what we've heard from all of those people is fine great David was happy to pay child
support David wasn't trying to get custody of Brandon from what we know everything was fine and very sadly
Yvonne only 26 years old she's killed inside her home at her residence sometime before April 1st 1999 and so
all these years later we're talking over 21 years later what is the relationship
between David and Brandon today I mean this is a this kid very sadly his mother is killed when he's young I'm I'm
uncertain of his age at the time of the murder but then to double down on that tragedy his father is put away for life
in prison yeah Brandon was two at the time so he doesn't really remember much at all about the murder or his his
mother but you know their relationship is it's strange you know Brandon visited David all the time when he was a kid you
know people would bring him but as the years go on he becomes a teenager I mean he lives his own life I mean they talk
he believes in his dad's innocence he of course wants his dad out but other than
that I mean he's just a 20-something kid living his life and he's you know that's kind of it it's
it's definitely sad I mean prison these things really break up families investigators came up with a rough time
frame of when they believed the murder went down and when it took place in Yvonne Lane's residence that night
sometime on March 31st 1999 and we have David Thorne who has been in prison All These Years yet he
was Three Counties away with a solid iron-clad Alibi for his time that night take us through the timeline of the how
we get from this guy not being able to be a suspect because he has an iron-clad alibi to now he's in
prison yeah I mean and that's uh that's it's complicated I mean we've put together a timeline but we're still you
know it's it's confusing so the time of death for Yvonne is sometime this is the coroner's report sometime
after 7 PM March 31st so there is an actual 14-hour window that she could have died her body was discovered around
12 12 30 April Fool's Day she died sometime around 7pm the night before they couldn't really say other
than that so you know from there David was looked at right away he is the father of one of
the kids they're recently in court for custody and he's smart his grandfather's smart and instantly got him a lawyer the
lawyer came and that was that was it David never talked to the police again so the police were always very
suspicious because David got a lawyer and didn't want to talk to the police which you know if you listen to my
podcast or any of the cases that you guys have covered about potential wrongful convictions I mean that's a
pretty smart thing to do to get a lawyer and not talk to the police because who knows what will happen so they took that
as he's guilty he won't cooperate with us so they were always on him since then trying to figure out you know how he did
this there were a couple friends in their friend group that the police had brought in you know asking them if if
they they were always on to this kind of murder For Hire because David had an alibi that's very certain so they
thought okay well he he obviously wanted to get rid of her so he must have paid somebody to do it instead of you know
looking at the severely abusive partner who yes was in prison at the time however was incredibly abusive and if
was going to hire somebody he could have too there's other you know baby daddies and
stuff so for whatever reason they're hell-bent on David and sometime around in July
they hear the name Joe Wilkes and they kind of hone in on Joe as being the person that David hired to murder Yvonne
and they bring in Joe who is a really sad character and he confesses and said yes David paid me to do this so it was
about three months later that they actually found the alleged accomplice he immediately confesses and David is
arrested that day July 14th or 15th but it's a little more complicated than that because oh yeah for for law
enforcement to get to David's motive there's some twists and turns that have to happen which are you talking about
well just the idea that law enforcement's motive is this is about money and so he doesn't want to pay
child support and he's this broke guy and he's so broke that he would rather hire somebody to get rid of her and then
he won't never have to pay child support but then at that point he would be so custody
which would cost him a lot of money and then totally and the fact that we now know that he had money David had money
yeah and I've seen the account the statements from the account David had a hundred and thirty thousand dollars in
an investment account he was working he uh he was going to swap meet so on top of that that was money that he just got
when his father died his dad was a a veteran and died by Suicide so David got a lot of money from his life insurance
you know military life insurance so he had all that and he didn't need to touch it because he was working and making
money working and he was doing really well he had cars he was going to swap meets selling parts for 300 a pop I mean
child support was only 350 a month which I guess in 1999 was a lot more than now
but he could make that money selling a car part it's definitely an interesting motive that they came up with especially
when nobody said there was any issue with the payments or custody or or anything like that yeah and if I'm law
enforcement I'm coming up with the motive of well we've been together on and off again and she's always on it on
again off again with Eric to me that makes makes more sense of a motive that yeah well I want to get rid
of her because you know she keeps leaving me for this this scumbag and I'm the the good guy that's always trying to
help her out and she just can't see that that that makes more sense to me of a motive I mean there is definitely as we
get you know further in there's many more motives and you realize that almost everyone around her had a motive
to kill her pretty much except for David because again what we know is that he loved her they were trying to get back
together and he was planning on buying her a ring so it's definitely interesting I think to you know if I
were someone sitting on the jury or looking at this case even all these years later I look at the
as the the child support is kind of a blanketed statement that encompasses a lot of
different possible motives for David Thorne where it could be not only does he not want to pay the child support but
if he is going to be paying for his son brand and he would prefer to have customers knowing have custody of his
son he may also blame look Brandon was not being raised in the most wonderful of of Worlds and he may have
blamed her for some of that and I mean there's a lot of stuff going on here as well and there seems to be some
some back and forth between David's current girlfriend and when he had to see Yvonne because of Brandon
um there's really just a lot they could have been bubbling up to the surface at the time that that could fall under that
sort of child support blanket of of motive here but as you pointed out there are other
people that would have motives of their own and in fact we see that there are a lot of other people now
before we get into them we should say that during the course of the arrest and then the conviction first police are led
to this Joe Wilkes by individual that contacts the police department saying that she spoke with Mr
Wilkes on the night of the murder so exactly so so the timeline the night of the murder
allegedly has according to Joe's confession is he was at the Carnation Mall which is about four miles from
Yvonne's house down State Street if you're familiar with Alliance and it's just a straight
shot down this main main road not really a highway but you know three lanes each
side big Road he is at the mall around closing time and he bumps into these two people Rose
Moore and Chris Campbell and he sees them then he leaves walks to her house and kills her according to
them he tells them that he flashes a knife and tells them I'm here to do a job and according to Rose that job is to
kill a girl some guy hired him to kill her and according to Chris some guy's girlfriend hired me to kill her you know
their stories are so interesting because in their original statements to the police Rose specifically says the knife
was not a pocket knife he flashed me you know an eight inch knife in a sheath by
trial it is now a pocket knife the exact weapon she said that it was not but this
is how Joe's name comes up three months later a woman calls the police saying a woman in the building's daughter knows
something about this and that's kind of how it all started spiraling at the beginning of July so they get in contact
with Joe Wilkes and as we know it's a it's a pretty quick it seems pretty quick from the time they pick up Joe
Wilkes to getting the confession we're not talking about days later or weeks later that they get the confession it's
relatively pretty quick once he becomes on their Radar Now who is Joe Wilkes what is his tie-in to our victim what is
he his tie into our other suspect so Joe Wilkes at the time he was a teenager who was 18 I knew he was 18 or
19. Joe was a Drifter he was kind of known around town as this kid that you know would just sleep on people's
couches he had a really really sad traumatic life growing up he was abused by his parents him and his
siblings got put in a foster home where he was also abused were talking mental physical sexual abuse so he had a really
tough life growing up he is actually a pretty smart kid he does not have a low IQ but he definitely you know had so
much trauma that learning was not easy for him he grew up with a shake like a palsy so when people talk to him they
always think he's nervous but it's just this physical disability that he has from all
the abuse so you know people like David were just really nice to him I mean he looked up to David David was much older
than him again Joe was around 18 David was 26 at the time of the arrest so there was an age Gap David kind of saw
this kid and you know if he saw him walking on the street he'd give him a ride home or
you know he helped him buy his first car and a lot of the the friend group that I've talked to they all say that about
Joe yeah he was a really sweet kid he was just kind of always around and he didn't have a home he was homeless or
people like David took care of him he was you know at the time of the murder he was staying at a girl girlfriend's
house or the time of the arrest at the time of the murder he was also staying at a girlfriend's house
so that's kind of who Joe Wilkes is he he was a scared kid he was an emotionally disturbed kid and you put
him in an interrogation room with three detectives who knows what could happen [Music]
foreign [Music] well and he's it's a very emotional confession from what we hear anyway
because you play some of the confession tape on your show murder and Alliance and
I've got to tell you Maggie it's it sounds awfully convincing to me uh when we hear that confession from Joe
Wilks yeah well you know it's it's one of those things where um 1999 they were not
required to videotape the whole thing so we don't have that so we just have what
what is on tape and these are short tapes I mean this is a half hour each of them there's two tapes they talked to
him the first day half hour they go back the next day and pick up saying hey there's some things we we left out and
they talked to him again for a half hour I mean the entire taped confession is an
hour long and if you've ever seen an interrogation or you know anything like that it's it's pretty common knowledge
that the when the tape turned on is not when they first started talking so the question has always been what happened
before the tape was turned on uh yeah and law enforcement caused it a tape confession but it seems like Joe has a
different story about that he he says it's not even questioning from the beginning it's it's simply an
interrogation yeah and he he made some other claims as well yeah Joe says that you know they
had him handcuffed to a wall and they spit on him and and they were being aggressive to him and you know that is
Joe's word um but you know in in one of the episodes I go into all these officers
backgrounds and um if that did happen it would not surprise me I have come across
you know some false confessions coerced by them I mean their their personnel files one of the lead detectives Samson
his personnel file is pretty pretty damning with um he's hit with lying forging documents so
you know he was on the officers who who took Joe's quote confession you know something we we always forget and I even
forget is that they went to him according to Joe saying um David is in the next room and he's
he's you know putting this on you if you tell us what happened you will get a deal so they did dangle a deal in front
of him and as We Know Joe got 30 to life for taking the deal and saying you know
quote allegedly what happened and as we know David was not in the Next Room David never talked to police David had
not talked to the police since that one time he went in with them with a lawyer and said I'm not talking to you and that
was it so they did lie to him saying David's in the Next Room giving you up that's something to keep in mind you
know that's part of the what happened before the tape was turned on that's really interesting to me too because you
have a scenario where according to our Witnesses Chris Campbell and forgive me I more I can't
think of her Rose more according to the two witnesses the lead detectives to Joe
Wilkes he he's saying some guy hired me to kill a woman he doesn't say that David Thorne hired me to kill his
ex-girlfriend some guy hired me to kill a woman so that leads them to Joe Wilkes
but it doesn't necessarily lead them to David Thorne yet they're very quick to be saying David Thorne's sitting in the
next room and he's turning on you kid and it's going to be your ass that we put in the electric chair and Fry
exactly and it could have been it could have been this Eric guy it could have been several other individuals that
would have hired someone like a Joe Wilkes to commit this murder now the general statements inside of that taped
portion of the confession or interview or interrogation or however we want to label it
is basically that Joe Wilkes is saying I'm I'm remorseful for what I did I kind of knew the victim I had met her on
several occasions I think that it's general knowledge that he had even been to her residence at least one time
before the murder and he he says you know I was remorseful for this the night that I did it and and
you can hear I mean he's he's sobbing throughout a lot of the the confession and he's basically says look I know this
guy I've been friends with David Thorne for for years and he's complained about Yvonne and he's complained about you
know not wanting to pay child support that he wanted custody of his son and I had nothing to lose I had hit rock
bottom I had no friends I had lost all my family you know the only friend I had was David Thorne and I had no money no
prospects um he Joe Wilkes his life his childhood is incredibly tragic and sad it's just I mean it's heartbreaking
to hear what he says took place during the course of his childhood but then even after he gets away from that it
seems to me like his life is always this roller coaster ride of he needs help he
gets some help and whether he follows through or not is is up for the debate but in this case he says I had lost
pretty much everything I had hit rock bottom my friend who I thought was my friend David Thorne took advantage of
that took advantage of me and he offered to pay me and help me out and he convinced me to go and kill this woman
and not only kill her but kill her at a time when he when David Thorne could it couldn't lead back to him it would be
impossible because he would have that Ironclad Alibi and let's go through the the timeline of events as it as it were
according to Joe and his confession and let's let's keep in mind as we go through this everybody out there in
listener land that we're talking about a confession that was it's also it's it's a confession from Joe Wilkes
but it's also a story that is backed by by the state or at least by the prosecution in this
case and you have to wonder a lot of things fit nice neat and perfectly I gotta say that right up front here
Maggie there there's there's a lot of things like when we go into these cases and you're talking about an unsolved
murder and you're looking at different suspects we're always looking for a Smoking Gun right here it's kind of the
reverse of that when you're looking at a possible wrongful conviction you're looking for The Smoking Gun of why this
guy is innocent and it's really tough to find that here because you have a very unique situation where Joe Wilkes could
be guilty of this murder and David Thorne had nothing to do with it now on the flip side of that coin is
that if Joe Wilkes did not kill Yvonne Lane then David Thorne didn't have anything
to do with it I mean it just it wouldn't work out that way so the timeline as it
were according to Joe Wilkes and the prosecution is what when when does this because we start seeing things
actions being made according to Joe the day of the murder that he says involved David Thorne so the day before
so we're talking the 31st which is the day of the murder yes he they allegedly go to the mall and they after in the
afternoon rent the room and they get I forget if it's the glow I think it's the gloves
they get the gloves that afternoon and then David brings Joe back to the Enochs where he was staying he was staying with
a friend and then David Goes about his day he goes to his his martial arts class he brings his lion cub you know
that's how they knew for sure he was there that night he had a lion cub with him which isn't unusual for David I mean
he had lion cubs and he brought them around with him um so the police you know did try to say
he made this obvious Alibi blah blah blah I mean I I don't know that's up for debate I guess but so that was The Alibi
Joe allegedly gets a ride to the mall that evening Brent Enoch the father of of Joe's friend said yes I brought him
to the mall he wanted to stay there he said he was staying there and then they say that Joe walked to her
house sometime after seven we know he was seen at the mall allegedly by Rose and Chris around eight so he wouldn't
have gotten to Yvonne's house until at least 9 9 30 and then you know she's found at 12 30 the next day that that's
really what we know Joe says the next morning David picks him up this is where things get a little dicey he says David
picks him up the next morning sometime around 8 30 9 looks like he made a phone call from a pay phone to David I mean
I'll get to the phone calls in a minute around 8 30. David was at work and he had to take a lunch break and he
according to David went to McDonald's came back within the half hour it was only a half hour break
well his boss spoke to police and said no it was like an hour an hour and a half actually which would give David
time to go to the mall pick up Joe drop off Joe and get back to work so that's you know the story from the
prosecution is that David dropped it they got the room the night before the day before David picked him up in the
morning got back to work no no questions asked it was a normal day everyone seemed normal so that's that I mean I
could get into the phone calls and stuff how do you want to go from there just to
kind of back up some of that statement as far as the prosecution's concerned first we have
David Thorne leaving work on the day of the murder on the 31st what about 12 12 30 that day and then we have Joe Wilkes
checking into this hotel that's attached to or near the mall and he's checking in
at like 147 I think 148 that day so that I mean that kind of lines up with what Joe's statement is that David picked me
up and we kind of talked about how this was going to go down he gave me some money for give me a hundred dollar bill
to check into the hotel room because that's the other thing you have to lay out for the the court proceedings is how
did this broke guy get money to stay in a hotel and buy some items to commit the
crime and so he says David gave me the money to check into this hotel room that kind of fits the timeline is working in
the favor of Joe and against David here where it's lining up that David could have possibly have left work that day
picked up Joe Wilkes taken him to the hotel they get the gloves takes them back to the the Enochs is that their
last name the the family that he was staying with a friend apparently he he needed to go back for a
couple of reasons it sounded like he had scheduled something with Brent Enoch's that for that afternoon or evening
and then Brent is the one that takes him back to the hotel now he can't if somehow he does murder this woman and
the trail leads back to Joe Wilkes David Thorne if and Joe Wilkes can't have that happen right we can't have a
night where all of a sudden this kid's staying in a hotel room and the trail leads back to him no so he tells Brent
that I'm going to I'm just dropping off at the mall because David Thorne's going
to pick me up there and we're going to go back to his place I'm actually going to be staying at his place that night
and then the troubling thing as you said we we have according to Joe Wells he goes and walks to the victim's home she
knows him so she lets him in they have a very brief conversation and then he says
he takes the knife that he purchased that night and he uses it to slash her throat and this was I mean this is just
horrific the the wound itself I think you described it as what eight inches for it's eight inches deep and four
inches wide I mean she was decapitated there was the smallest bit holding her head-on and according to the medical
expert that they present at court that Yvonne would have been alive and able to react for a very brief period of time
we're talking seconds probably before she would have collapsed according to Joe's confession
that does take place that she jumps up off of the couch goes toward the sliding glass door I believe it's a
sliding glass door says something ask him like why you know why did you do this to me he says that
he told her that David Thorne asked him to or paid him to do that he trips over something and he according
to Joe he left there very quickly this is one of those things where I could go on either side of the fence very easily
you could sway me either way the difficult thing here is one would expect there to be a lot of blood on the
suspect on the murderer and there was a lot of blood at the crime scene itself we do have the prosecution and their
what they're saying is that that he managed to not get hardly any blood on him at all because the difficult thing
now for our murderer if it was Joe Wilkes he has to walk what about four miles back to where he came from and not
have anybody which no one did you know yeah there's no you don't it's not every day that you're driving and you see a
blood-covered man on the side of the road walking uh in the opposite direction One a couple things in the
favor of that story is we're now talking it's probably 10 o'clock at night at this point yeah
if we are to believe his story it's definitely dark by this time so it doesn't line up completely with that
seven o'clock uh time of death which that's probably more of a window rather than right they gave a window they the
window was up until she was found I mean they really had no idea it's like a 12-hour window yeah I had no idea but
also Joe is a very tall individual right he's like six four I mean so you're going to notice him if he's
walking on the side of the road that doesn't mean he's not going behind houses going behind buildings to get
wherever that's the thing we've mapped it out you can't really go behind houses and buildings so
you know yes you're right it could it's a it could be a ghost town and I wasn't there in 99 but Sue was Sue Thorne is
now David's wife but has been his Advocate since the beginning um and she did this with her son same
time of night back then I think she did it in like 05 or something to put her son in what Joe was allegedly wearing
and had him walk down the street um and it's you know this is a street that is strip malls I mean like I said it's a
very busy highway um there's lights everywhere so he he definitely would have been seen
um there's no you know straight shot behind houses he would have to be zigzagging and that would take three
hours as opposed to the hour and a half so if he did it he probably walked on the street
and again there you know I find it really incredible to believe he wouldn't have blood on him
um you know the clothes that were found did not have any evidence on them so it's it is interesting I mean he
could have walked without blood on him the clothes don't have blood on them but like if you see the crime scene that
makes no sense to me but job LED them to a knife and bloody jeans a allegedly um Joe so so I guess a big part that
we're missing here is Joe recanted almost immediately after at trial in his testimony he says the police told me
what to say so pretty much immediately after he recance and said you know the police forced me to say this and they
told me where they were going to find this knife that's not my knife I didn't have that knife they told me we're gonna
find your knife here and then dig out this knife from a storm drain so that's been Joe's new story Jose changed the
story a few times over the years from my understanding well he has indeed the the
thing is ever since he recanted the story has changed but the fundamentals of it really haven't but David had
nothing to do with this he has stuck to that for 22 years that David had nothing
to do with it you know one story he went over there killed her one story he went
over the air she was already dead do you know I think there's another one floating around but they all do put Joe
there um he has not said otherwise but he says he didn't do this you know he went and
saw her already dead which is really interesting because nobody else puts Joe right there right in fact we have talked
to people who put Joe at the mall and say no he was doing X Y and Z at the mall he wasn't he wasn't killing
somebody at that time but we always talk about this in here in the garage when you have someone confess especially when
you need to find something you know Murder weapon murder victim or anything else that was involved in the commission
of the crime you as an investigator you're looking to have that individual lead you to that item and you do that so
that when they do recant that you can say well tough cookies you obviously let us do the murder victim or the murder
weapon or something that was used in the commission of the crime it's kind of hard to deny now and say that you
weren't there when when you you gave us this item now here in this case he leads
them to some pants that he threw behind a friend's home in like the woods or Tall Grass area and one that's just
Bizarro to me like if if you didn't commit this crime who's just throwing pants Into the Woods at a you know at
somebody's house whether they knew them or not now I understand there's no it doesn't sound like anything of
evidentiary value were found on these pants they were found months after as you said July and she was killed March
31st maybe April 1st at the latest but they're found months later and they have nothing of evidentiary value on them
again what are those pants even doing there and why does he know that they're there is is Bizarro if he didn't commit
this crime yet whether or not the police told him where they were going to find this murder weapon or the folding knife
is let's set that aside because what we are being told per the case File is it they actually
located two different knives is that correct so yes there was actually at least four knives found oh now we're at
the four yes so so that's like a complicated part but when they went into the storm drain there were two other
knives in there with the alleged murder weapon and they actually found the day that they were searching the murder not
three months later um about a block away they found a knife matching the knives in her kitchen set
on the street so to me that seems like a more likely murder weapon this knife that was from her home that actually
looks very similar to a blood stain on the couch where the killer seems to have wiped off the blade it is almost an
exact fitting for this kitchen knife yeah so yeah there was many knives found there's also the incident at the mall
where this witness says oh I saw Joe buying actually a pocket knife but that was a month later in May and I have the
receipt from when I was there so this witness actually presented a receipt saying this is the day I was at the mall
and actually saw Joe there buying a pocket knife so if Joe did buy a knife allegedly it wasn't even until a month
after the murder and correct me if I'm wrong here Maggie there's a lot of moving parts and pieces I'm trying my
best to follow along here but if we are to believe Joe's story he's telling us that he purchased a pocket knife or
folding knife and the blade was what three and a half inches 3.1 yeah 3.1 inches on that blade and you said again
that the the the throat the wound was how many inches deep four four okay so we're awfully close there
seems maybe possible but then think about the all right without getting too descriptive well there's no way of
getting around it if you're eating lunch stop turn it off uh if if someone because according to Joe Wilkes
statement as far as I understand it it sounds to me like this wound was a one and done right he's not there's not he's
not cutting multiple times Well Nate you you're hitting it exactly so that's every expert who's looked at this case
since then has pretty much said if not have said that that pocket knife would not have made this cut and for let's get
incredibly gross here and say if he or anybody were able to successfully make that cut using that weapon as it's been
described by it all parties involved we all agree on the dimensions and what type of weapon it is that's not in
dispute here but if he were to do that then the hilt or the part that the knife folds into would have to be forgive me
for saying so buried in the neck of our victim yeah and how I get that you didn't find it for months later but how
do you not find blood on that weapon I don't care who wiped it clean yeah that's exactly it's really difficult
there and then this Bizarro thing of these all these knives being found around the neighborhood Who
who lives in this neighborhood it's like Dwight Schrute that's concealing weapons
all over the place I mean it's it would be weird to find John Rambo yeah I I mean it's it's just difficult now the
next morning though what gets difficult for David as far as Joe Wilkes statement
goes we do have phone records that say that a pay phone is calling David Thorne that morning and we have
the boss his boss saying David Thorne left and we have Joe Wilkes saying David Thorne picked me up so the um
a lot of interesting things happened at trial so the the trial was was uh in terms of the defense
horrible and or non-existent um you know David's lawyer died of alcohol poisoning very shortly after he
froze to death outside of his home um because he was so intoxicated and he passed out in the winter so he was drunk
the whole trial so you know the the prosecution brings you know this expert who testifies about the knife and says
she could still you know live for a few seconds to ask why after he cut her neck
and David didn't have any rebuttal any rebuttal witnesses there was three Witnesses called two of them were
character Witnesses and one was this guy who said no I saw him buy the knife in May so David's team was never called an
expert to say no a knife wouldn't do this or never called an expert to wonder to say you know why the hell is there no
evidence on this never called an expert or somebody to um talk about the phone records
fortunately the phone person was not lying on the stand and actually actually said during the prosecution's cross
these calls don't seem to have been answered actually yes he's calling him but it's they were likely not answered
um so sure Joe called David but it would appear that he never answered the calls
um which is really interesting and then of course the other thing that happened at trial was the prosecution called the
social worker for the child support and the social worker actually recalled herself for the defense because
she didn't like the way the prosecution portrayed her testimony she was like I want to be recalled and came on and said
actually they had a really good relationship I don't want to be you know have the prosecution twist my words on
record um so you know those were two things at trial that that were good despite the
horrible defense well also didn't prosecution keep some evidence out of the trial yeah do you want to go
there please yes we had a incredible amount of Brady violations one of which is a
witness uh there was two witnesses but one of them is really key a witness who says he saw a man leaving the home
around 10 30 in the morning of April 1st Yvonne was likely dead around 10 30 in the morning
um considering she was found at 12 30 in the time frame of death was sometime after 7 PM the night before so this
witness tells police that morning at the scene oh my God I was walking by here a
few hours ago and actually saw a guy you know leaving this house and he gives the
description of this man and they bring him in to do a lineup he doesn't pick anybody out they have him for bring him
back for another lineup he doesn't pick anybody out David we know was in one of these lineups he doesn't pick David out
you know why would he again David had an alibi it would likely not be David seen
leaving the house or anything like that according to him this man's name is George Hale he's been interviewed many
many many times according to him um he did pick somebody out in the lineup and this is really interesting
because this lineup one of the many Brady violations it should have been given as
Discovery and it never was this lineup is gone so we have no way of telling if George Hale is telling the truth but
he says he pointed to a man and said that's the man that looks like the man I saw leaving the house this man that he
picked out he says they told him no that can't be the guy that's a cop they put like a cop's picture in as part
of the lineup just as like a blank photo um but he says he picked out a guy who was one of the lead cops in the case as
a guy who was leaving the house so you know they kept George Hale from the defense this witness that could have
been key saying look I saw somebody leaving the house it was not Joe or David um and actually pointed to a completely
different person who whole other can of worms we have found out that Yvonne was having
relationships with people in the police department so the fact that George didn't know this and picked out a photo
of an officer allegedly is very interesting now I want to stay on this here for a minute because I don't I
don't want anybody to get confused and go oh he picked out a guy that happens to be a cop
oh that must be the guy that right that murdered right and his words were it looked like the guy I saw so you know
whatever that means he didn't say this is the guy and sometimes when you know it you can't
just give a photo lineup of five different pictures of the guy that you think did it right you have to throw
several pictures of people you know that did not do it in there and so often they
will use a photo of an officer as a kind of stand-in for someone one thing that I
would be curious there's there's a lot of things here that I think needs sorted out with this portion of of the case
File and one I would want to know is because immediately what the police say is well this witness is unreliable you
know because he picked out the wrong guy one I want to know was there a picture of Joe Wilkes in this lineup because we
know that David according to the prosecution's case and according to everybody he agrees David was not there so even to
have his photo in the lineup seems Bizarro to me but then take it a step further do they know for a fact that
this guy is an unreliable witness because the officer that that's picture was present was somebody that just like
David could not have been there that night we don't know we don't have an answer and that's the frustrating part
is you know all of this was disappeared you know I have two depositions from two
of the main detectives mucklo and Samson and the attorney who's deposing them says what happened to this lineup where
should it have been and they admit yeah it should have been in Discovery and I don't know I don't know why it's gone I
mean there's so many highly suspicious things like that in this case where it's like
why are you not doing things by the book why are lineups disappearing why are witnesses being suppressed you know
there's just so much that that muddies it and if they did get it right if they did get it right and Joe and David did
this the way they said it I mean they got really lucky because there's a lot of errors and there's a
reason why people don't trust these convictions Yvonne Lane she's found around 12 12 30 April 1st she's her dead
body is found by her mother Tanya who is there to pick up one of the children I believe to take them to school or take
them somewhere for the day and that was pretty a pretty routine thing it sounds like let's go back to the murder scene
because we have four children as you say that were there no matter how you shake this thing
they were there during the murder before during and after the murder what is the
and you can ballpark the ages for me if if you need to but what is the oldest child's age and what is the youngest
child's age yep so the kids that were there the youngest was Trenton he was just born he was a baby I mean I don't
think he was even a year yet so Trenton was in the crib and the way to understand this house it's you know I
didn't really understand it until I saw it but there is to three floors and you kind of enter in what looks like the
basement floor because the rest of the house you go upstairs and that's where the kitchen is and the dining room in
the living room and where she was murdered and then one more floor up is her bedroom so the baby was sleeping in
the bedroom up on the third floor and then there was Brandon and Preston Preston was six Brendan was two they
were locked in their bedroom there was a lock on the outside they were locked in
their bedroom and then there was Vinnie Vinny's four and he's the disabled child
he has fragile ex it's like a form of kind of severe um um yeah gosh I don't even know how to
explain it kind of kind of like down syndrome a little bit um you know kind of on that Spectrum
um he's the oldest no he was four so he's so Preston six Brandon okay yeah Trenton's
the baby and Vinnie is four and he was in his crib on the first floor the basement room that you walk into so he
was actually not locked in a room or a baby that couldn't move so he was actually free to roam the house and when
he was found the next day he allegedly said that he saw Jimmy Jeremy Jimmy or Jeremy push mommy down
so the thinking has always been that Vinnie saw this person he saw what happened the way that this breaks down
is other than the statement from from that child it doesn't sound like any of the other
kids heard or saw anything that was of use to the investigation no I mean depending on
what time she was killed we know that April 1st is supposed to be a normal day they're going to go about
the normal routine of their day so much so that Yvonne's mom is coming to pick up one of the children and it's not till
noon 12 30 that her lifeless bodies discovered and again we none of the kids saw anything
during the fact during the course of the murder or even after afterwards as far as we know as far as we know and that's
that's what makes it even more sad is that you know it's very likely Vinnie saw this and it's also really sad
because Vinnie can't communicate we don't know what Vinnie saw he can't communicate it and in any interview he
has done since which was really back then only with police and I think you know like a child psychiatrist
there it's nothing nothing of value has come from it um and you know he's not really able to be
interviewed you know by me or anybody he you know I asked his brother Preston the
six-year-old he was six at the time I spoke to Preston he's in the podcast and you know he says there's no there's no
point in asking Vinnie because he doesn't his brain doesn't really function like
that he's not he's not able to communicate um so that's the tragedy too is that not
only did this child probably see his mother murdered but the one child who did can't communicate what he saw
[Music] murder again [Music] [Music] thank you so much for listening to the show we want to hear from you go to our
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join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter
foreign [Music]

Murder in Alliance /// Part 1 /// 520

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

April 1st, 1999 - 26 year old Yvonne Layne was found dead in her home. Her children were in the house with her and were found unharmed. Police quickly suspected one of Yvonne ex-boyfriends David Thorne. Some say this case is unsolved and the real killer is still out there and others say it was solved a long time ago. Join us in the Garage with Murder in Alliance host Maggie Freleng for a cold one or two as we unravel this week’s True Crime mystery.

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Brief Summary

Yvonne Lane's murder raises questions about David Thorne's wrongful conviction and police misconduct in the investigation.

Key points

The Murder of Yvonne Lane. Yvonne Lane, a mother of five, was found murdered in her home in 1999. Her ex-boyfriend, David Thorne, became a prime suspect despite claiming innocence.
Confession of Joseph Wilkes. Joseph Wilkes confessed to killing Yvonne Lane, claiming he was hired by her ex-boyfriend, David Thorne. This confession led to Thorne's conviction.
David Thorne's Innocence Claims. David Thorne has maintained his innocence for over two decades, with his family advocating for his release. They believe the investigation was flawed.
The Motives Behind the Murder. Almost everyone around Yvonne had a motive to kill her, except for David.
Confession Controversy. Joe Wilkes' confession raises questions about coercion and the truth behind the murder.
Joe Wilkes' Troubled Past. Joe Wilkes, a troubled youth, was manipulated into committing murder by his friend David.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He claimed that David Thorne hired him to do so.

Confession implicating the ex-boyfriend.

5:43WatchNov 4, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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