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

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for free and 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 14th 1999 Wednesday it's 1309 hours my name is detective Bud Samson we're in
the Rena Police Department interview room along with me is detective William mucklo and detective John leech of the
Alliance Police Department also in the room is Joseph Isaac murder inance me tell us
your murder [Music] in thing and I didn't care about life no more and David knew about it and he took
advantage of me and were you having some hard times that CU I lost my family I lost all my friends I lost my little
brother and sister I lost everything I had nothing anymore April 1st 1999 Alliance Ohio
Alliance is in the northeastern part of the great state of Ohio north of Canton and east of
akan 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 yavon 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 yavon LAN was a mother she was not
living alone she was found by her mother yvon's mother Tanya Lane went to the home of her daughter and found a
shocking scene on that April 1st Tanya found yavon 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 yvon'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 yavon the police got their best lead
when a woman named Rose Mah contacted them to say that she and her boyfriend Chris Campbell spoke with a young man
named Joseph wils and Incredibly Joseph told them he was in town because he had been hired
to kill a woman eventually Joseph wils admitted to having killed yavon and he claimed that
David Thorne yvon'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 Thorn to prison for the rest of his life
Joseph wils 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 yavon [Music]
Lane Mur tell us your murder in Alliance 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 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 depth investigation into the murder of 26-year-old yavon 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 and 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 Co 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
um 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 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 father to one of yvon's children and he has been locked up for over 20 years in
this case now this is an Ohio case 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 it the author yeah so the book if we're
thinking about the same one it wasn't on the case it was Brent Turvy he's a forensic expert he looked into the case
and he actually has two books one is on what not to do with 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 yavon 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 have 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 were all 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 wanted to put 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 parts 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 yavon after Brandon is 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 were
tumultuous and her and David kind of went separate ways she calls him you know a couple months later maybe you
know N9 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 Ivonne were carrying on a behindth 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 and neat 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 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's
his father then he says yeah they were pretty pretty freaking violent to each other so you know and David every
account we know was 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 short know
who the dads are of the other four children not in any way to 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 it seems to me like he was willing to to step up to the
plate and be as much of a father 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 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 yavon 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 too 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 and 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 20s 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
believe the murder went down and when it took place in yavon 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
Ironclad 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 ironclad Alibi to now he's in prison yeah I mean in that's 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 yavon
is sometime this is the coroner's report sometime after 7 p.m. March 31st so there is an actual 14-hour window that
she could have died her body was discovered around 12 1230 April Fool's Day she died sometime around 700 p.m.
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'll 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 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 hellbent on David and sometime around in July they hear the name Joe wils and
they kind of hone in on Joe as being the person that David hired to Ivon 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 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 will never have to pay child support
but then at that point he would be Soul custy which would cost a lot of money and then the fact 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
$130,000 in an investment account he was working uh he was going to swap meat so
on top of that that was money that he just got when his father died his dad was a a veteran 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 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 on again off again with Eric to me that makes makes more sense of a
motive that 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 too 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 as kind of a 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 uh his son Brandon he would prefer
to have cust KN 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 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 yavon because of
Brandon um if there there's really just a lot that 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 wils by individual that contacts the police Police Department saying that she
spoke with Mr wils 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
ivonne's house down State Street um 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 8
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 3 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
wils and as we know it's a it's a pretty quick it seems pretty quick from the time they pick up Joe wils 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 wils what is his tie into our
victim what is his his tie into our other suspect so Joe wils said at the time he was a teenager he was 18 I
believe 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 we're 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 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 paly 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 so 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 at 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 wils is he he was a scared kid he
was an emotionally disturbed kid and you put him in a interrogation room with three detectives who knows what could
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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
wils 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 talk 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 talk 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 well yeah and law
enforcement calls 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 uh an interrogation yeah and he he he made
some other claims as well yeah Joe says that you know they had him handcuff 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 files pretty pretty damning with um he's hit with lying forging documents so you know
he was one of 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 am 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 Moore according to the two witnesses that lead detectives to Joe
wils he he's saying a 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 wils but it doesn't necessarily lead them to
D David Thor 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 wils
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 wils 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 basically says look I know this
guy I've been friends with David Thorne for for years and he's complained about yavon 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 wils his life his childhood is incredibly tragic
and sad it 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
wils 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 are 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 wils could be guilty
of this murder and David Thor had nothing to do with it now on the flip side of that
coin is that if Joe wils did not kill yavon 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 wils 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 in the after in the afternoon rent the room and they get I forget if it's
the glove 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 7 we know he was seen at the mall allegedly by Rose and Chris around 8 so he wouldn't have
gotten to ivonne'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 and 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 um 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 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 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 wils 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 gave me a $100 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 wils 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 f a friend apparently he he needed to go back for a
couple of reasons it sounded like he had scheduled something with Brent enox that
for that afternoon or evening and then Brent is the one that takes him back to the hotel now he can't if if somehow he
does murder this woman and the trail leads back to Joe wils David Thorne if and Joe wils can't
have that happen right we can't have a night where all of a sudden this kid 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 dropped me 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 wils 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 what8 Ines four it's eight inches deep and 4 in 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 yavon 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 they're 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 wils he has to walk what
about four miles back to where he came from and not have anybody which no one did see him yeah there's no you don't
it's not every day that you're driving and you see a 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 if we are yeah if we are to believe his story it's definitely dark
by this time so it doesn't line up completely with that 7 o'l uh time of death which that's probably more of a
window rather than they gave a window they they the window was up until she was found I mean they really had no idea
like a 12h hour window yeah they had no idea but also Joe is a a very tall individual right he's like 6'4 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 she
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 that 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 recants 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 going to find your knife
here and then dig out this knife from a storm drain so that's been Joe's new story Joe's 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 that 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 there she was already dead you know
I think there's another one floating around but they all do put Joe there 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 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 we can't that you can say well tough
cookies you obviously L us to 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
gave us this item now here in this case he leads him to some pants that he threw
behind a friend's home in like the woods or 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 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 bizar 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 that they actually located two different knives is
that correct so yes there was actually at at least four knives found oh now we're at the four yeah 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 um 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 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 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 A2 in 3.1 yeah 3.1 in on that blade and you said again that the the
the throat the wound was how many inches deep four it's 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 wilk's statement as far as I understand
it it sounds to me like this wound was a oneand done right he's not there's not M
he's not cutting multiple times well that 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 that cut using
that weapon as it's been described by 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
four months later but how do you not find blood on that weapon I don't care who wiped it
clean yeah really difficult there and then this Bizarro thing of these all these
knives being found around the neighborhood who who lives in this neighborhood is it's like Dwight shuit
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 Wilk statement go 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 wils 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 by the knife in May so David's team was never called an
expert to say know 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 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 yeah so we had a incredible
amount of Brady violations one of which is a witness 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
yvon was likely dead around 10:30 in the morning um considering she was found at
12:30 and the time frame of death was sometime after 700 p.m. 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 hail 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 hail 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 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 the guy who was leaving the house so you know they kept George hail 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 yvon 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
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 standin for someone one thing that I would be Cur there's there's a lot of things here that I think need 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 wils in this lineup because we know that David according to the prosecution's case and according to uh
everybody agrees David was not there so even to have his photo in the lineup seems bizar 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 mllo 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 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
yvon 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 ballark 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 the way to understand
this house it's you know I didn't really understand it until I saw it but there's
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 Brandon 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 Vinnie is four and he's the
disabled child he has fragile ex it's like a form of kind of severe um um gosh I don't even know how to explain
it kind kind of like down syndrome a little bit um you know kind of on that Spectrum um so
he the oldest no he was four so he's so Preston's six Brandon's two 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 yvon's Mom is
coming to pick up one of the children and it's not till noon 12:30 that her lifeless body's 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 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 murder can you tell us your
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Murder in Alliance /// Part 1 /// 520

Part 1 of 2

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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

Maggie Freeling discusses the Yavon Lane murder case and claims of wrongful conviction against David Thorne, exploring evidence and emotional impacts.

Key points

Murder in Alliance. Yavon Lane, a mother of five, was found murdered in her home.
Confession of a Killer. Joseph Wils confessed to killing Yavon Lane, claiming he was hired.
David Thorne's Alibi. David Thorne, Yavon's ex-boyfriend, had an ironclad alibi for the time of the murder.
David's Complicated Motives. David Thorne's relationship with Ivonne raises questions about his motives in the case.
Joe Wils' Confession. Joe Wils confesses to the murder, revealing his troubled past and connection to David.
The Timeline of Events. The timeline surrounding the murder reveals key actions taken by David and Joe.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I lost everything. I had nothing anymore.

Joseph Wils discussing his past

4:45WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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