Nevaeh Buchanan /// Part 2 /// 614 | Forensic Files

[Music] do [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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it really does help the show and colonel that's enough of the business all right
everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
when we left off yesterday captain unfortunately the body of five-year-old nevaeh buchanan had been located this
after less than two weeks of looking for the missing girl now even before her body was found
police already had persons of interest and these persons of interest were announced within the one
within the first 24 hours and the second within the first 48 hours of the little
girl missing so let's get into these two individuals shall we because these are both people that had some kind of
relationship with the mother with nevaeh's mother and were a little unclear what the current state of the
relationships were at the time that nevaeh went missing but we have to look at these people
these are persons of interest per the sheriff so the first guy that we will discuss is george kennedy again the
current status of their relationship between him and jennifer is a little unclear but per cnn jennifer said that
she had met george two years earlier while reporting to her probation officer so this is always a good place to find a
date convenient she said that her relationship with george was that they were just friends she said that they
haven't officially dated for over a year and a half before nevaeh went missing but they remained friends after they
were dating jennifer says i'm not a judgmental person so i looked over his sex offenses but at
the same time i still kept my guards up on that she said that george had a good relationship
upon my daughter as a father figure always there for her she says if he came around she'd see him and she'd run up to
him and hug him so to quote the church lady well is it that special a female child hugging a sex offender
and the mom treating him like some kind of special person in her child's life well when she says i always kept my
guards up here's how you keep your guards up people don't have that person be involved in your life or your child's
life yeah and it gets even worse i mean we have jennifer on record saying that all three of our
relationship together was like a family he george kennedy claimed nevaeh as his daughter
jennifer says she says that he was in my daughter's life for more than her own father
yeah and i don't know i i see the situation and i look at it and i go all right so
jennifer mom or who was supposed to be mom here sherry should get credit as mom because she's doing the motherly duties
and and actually caring for the child and providing a shelter and food for nevaeh but
jennifer who is supposed to be mom is she's essentially facilitating grooming of her own child to a known sex offender
that's the risk here well she has won a bad picker she's selfish she's looking at her needs above her
family's needs above her daughter's needs it's uh pretty pathetic she says in her own defense that she was
unaware of his sex offender status at the time that they started dating but of course she came became aware of that at
some point so you can very quickly push the guy away and say no thank you which she did not do
now she says they remain friends that they weren't in any kind of romantic relationship
at this point but the thing that that really pisses me off here is when i hear statements like this
jennifer's telling media outlets she told many media outlets this that she she's trying to paint herself as some
kind of good person she's saying i believe in giving people second chances well good for you lady how about giving your
daughter the first chance by i don't know not making her be in the company of sex offenders right
so when nevaeh was taken george kennedy was living in a monroe motel room where he had apparently been staying for
about a month he's keeping it classy and wtol 11 news they were able to get their
hands on a search warrant that was for kennedy's motel room remember he's named as a person of interest and picked
up within 24 hours of the little girl going missing now they are asking a judge if they can search this
motel room the search is granted and the news station gets their hand on the search warrant so we know what they were
looking for we know some of the things that they found so according to that search warrant
shorts and a towel were found with blood on them in addition there was blood staining on the
wall above the bathroom sink in the hotel room property was searched and some was
seized from the room the monroe county sheriff named kennedy as a person of interest
but the war also covered a search of a vehicle i want to be clear here i said a vehicle
this vehicle is believed to be been driven by george kennedy in that vehicle in the center console of
this is a van there was a jvc radio face case found to have contained a silver multi-tool we don't get an exact
name brand or an exact description but it's listed as a silver multi-tool which they state appear to have blood on
the exterior of this tool a preliminary examination confirmed that the blood was
human that the blood that they found was to human blood also found were photos of young girls
one of whom reportedly resembled nevaeh well if you're law enforcement you have to be hopeful with
the evidence that you are finding something else that was very disturbing that was reportedly found
in the motel room were three shiny metal matchbox style mini motorcycle toys were found in his
room these would be exactly the kind of toy that nevaeh would want to play with or did play with well
again law enforcement has to be excited but you have to do your due diligence and you have to make sure that this
evidence checks out and it's actually evidence in this case but that's not all the warrant also states that police
questioned two children who were outside playing with nevaeh on the day she disappeared this is really interesting
stuff here these were two kids ages six and ages eight who were biking and scootering and hanging out in the
parking lot of the complex with nevaeh as close to her disappearance as we can come up with because the warrant states
that this was around 6 30 p.m that sunday night that she went missing again as you pointed out a few times captain
and rightfully so we don't know exactly when she went missing but one of these kids one of these witnesses was a girl
who told the cops that nevaeh went into the woods to meet up with a man named daddy george
and the boy witness said that nevaeh was kidnapped by quote a bad man and that the bad man stabbed her in the stomach
now of course we don't have any evidence to suggest that the girl was was stabbed at all so
it's difficult when you're interviewing children it's it's difficult really to interview any type of witness
eyewitness as they often will make mistakes but especially here you wonder is is the boy
so the boy mentioned in the warrant was for those of you who are paying close attention to the case you guessed it
correctly this was nevaeh's friend austin the one that she was playing with earlier on the afternoon that she went
missing we know based off the autopsy that was determined that nevada died from aspirating dirt not stabbing so you
have to wonder is this kid just did he hear some kind of rumor or see something on tv that he was
afraid of and when police are probing him for information does he just recite something he saw on
tv or recite something that he heard was maybe a speculation of people because the people in the neighborhood the
people in the apartment complex are going to be talking while this girl is missing well i'm poor kid you know he
has to answer these questions from law enforcement he's probably scared half to death and he probably misses his
his buddy the other thing that is interesting though too here is that austin's mother
goes on record and she says look i know that he said that she was stabbed but what my son is saying is factually not
true it's factually incorrect so i don't know if if she's basing this statement off of
the autopsy findings or if she is saying you know he couldn't have seen this because i was with him
in that 6 30 time period he was not out of my sight he didn't he didn't see anything that i would not have seen but
the daddy george thing is weird because mom jennifer says that there was some kind of family type
relationship between the three of them so it wouldn't be completely out of the question if nevaeh
was calling this man daddy george his first name is george and then the other disturbing part of
this too is that that same news outlet that had the information about the search warrant
said that george had failed a polygraph examination or failed portions of a polygraph examination this george guy's
a real piece of [ __ ] crystal [ __ ] is austin's mom and she's on record saying that
nevaeh left their apartment at 3 30 or 3 45 p.m that day so maybe that's what she's basing that statement off of that
it's not factually true because my son did not see nevaeh close to the time that she went missing
it sounds like though and obviously so that the the rest of the family maybe not
jennifer but the rest of the family immediately suspected george and this is based off of a statement
given to abc news it says nevaeh's family members said that they are even more suspicious now of george kennedy he
was age 39 at the time he's a registered sex offender and friend of jennifer's of
nevaeh's mother and kennedy supposedly worked with cement in the area and didn't live terribly far from or wasn't
staying terribly far from where the body was found again this is according to family
statements to the news apparently george worked for a monroe-based company and dealt with
cement in the course of his his job i don't know exactly what that means captain it i don't know if he works for
a cement company i don't know if he just works as like a general laborer in some form of
construction yeah he's probably not that high on the totem pole i think that would be a little bit more of a
likelihood but the the thing with the with the cement or the concrete and i know i'm gonna get
an email from somebody that says i'm using the incorrect term i understand that there's a difference i don't know
the difference so don't worry about it he's not a concrete expert i don't work in congress
here's the problem with the concrete right you can say a guy works with concrete or
he's familiar with working with concrete and so that would make him a good suspect but at the same time
it doesn't sound like it was properly put together and so you could you could use that as
the reverse and say well it makes him less likely because this person just may not have known what they were doing when
they were trying to form this concrete slab right or like you said they're in a location that they feel that they have
to speed up whatever process they're going through they could have just been rattled uh you
know um go out there to to dump the body and try not to get caught and something happens and it
rattles you and you have to abort all plans now later jennifer and i'm going to kind
of fast track this because people have spent a lot of time analyzing this stuff and i don't think that it's necessary to
the case but you know jennifer defends george kennedy for a bit but then very quickly
backtracks on those statements well everybody deserves a second chance right it's a
well and you know it's a very bad look for her to be standing up for a registered sex offender
so she goes on record later saying that she wouldn't put it past george and adds more fuel to the fire major
fuel at that by saying in at least two interviews that it was possible that george kennedy owed someone money
and they took nevaeh and hurt her because george was close to her yeah which i think is
silly because yeah if if anybody should be looked at it's george and that's what the police were
doing maybe not so much somebody associated with george yeah a loser like this he owes you money you go after him
you hurt him you don't nobody's gonna be missing old george kennedy no old papa george
old papa george all right captain would you like to hear a rundown of george kennedy's criminal record let's hear all
about papa george so according to abc news in 1998 george kennedy was charged with a felony
for having sex with a girl under the age of 16. i guess that charge was later dismissed
according to court records and we're not gonna we're not gonna get into this too much because it's a little
confusing but don't get aggravated just yet because i think this will come around full circle
here in addition to that 1998 charge court records show that in december of 2001 kennedy was charged with a home
invasion and a costing a 13 year old girl during the course of that home invasion
he took a plea deal for fourth degree criminal sexual conduct and a misdemeanor charge for costing children
for immoral purposes he was released on parole in 2007 and again this is one of those things i
jennifer says she believes in giving somebody a second chance uh the parole was this guy's second chance right
the the state gave him a second chance you owed him nothing because his second chance was parole and
and part of that parole was that he not be associated with children or not be associated or in
relationships with women that have children look and they they make that statement through the law
because these guys prey on single mothers because the single mother goes oh well
maybe they don't feel that they can do any better than papa george and he's around and he's helping and and well he
he loves my daughter but it's okay that he has these bad things in the past i'll keep an eye out
on him i'll make sure [Music] you're you're playing with fire and that's not a chance i would take
with my my children so it's a little confusing because we say that the the one charge was later
dismissed but we also say that he took a plea deal for fourth degree criminal sexual conduct
i don't know if they were able to plea that charge down to fourth degree criminal
sexual conduct and that's why i said hold on to your anger for a little bit because he
he likely did serve time for that that it was just the charge was reduced now jennifer on record and there is you can
find this on youtube where jennifer is interviewed by nancy grace and grace gives her the the business
during this interview because jennifer says that okay so that charge that was dismissed
or that he pled down to was because george kennedy raped a 15 year old girl behind a gas station
uh this in in that uh area of monroe michigan right in monroe county michigan so he's convicted for that in 2002
but jennifer says she's trying to defend herself and defend her relationship one-time relationship with george
kennedy by saying we discussed it he told me that so he's 26 at the time of this
charge of of committing this rape and she says to nancy grace the girl was 15 years old but it was
consensual the sex act was consensual and nancy grace is very quick to jump in and say hold on
jennifer in that jurisdiction there is no such thing as consent from somebody that is under the age of 16. it's rape
get or nancy so good for good for nancy to try to straighten out jennifer george kennedy
he is not hiding or ducking from the cameras he openly gives jailhouse interviews to local news
stations and during which he's professing that he's innocent uh he's saying i didn't take her i
didn't kill her i have no clue what happened to nevaeh um and in fact he was even
interviewed before they even found her body and he kept saying that hey i'm hoping that they find her alive i'm
still hoping that they find her alive now after additional forensic testing on some of the items that were removed from
his motel room investigators came out to the public and admitted that the blood found on the
items there did not match nevaeh so it was human blood but it did not belong to our victim
could have just been part of the decor there's another person of interest that is named and again this is very quickly
in our case here and this other man his name is roy lee smith this guy he too has sex offender status
he was also an ex of jennifer's he too was named as a person of interest now per
the detroit free press jennifer said she met smith through george kennedy so this
is this is where this gets really difficult to see past one or both of these guys right right
that not only did they both have an association with the victim they both had an association with each other and
they're both persons of interest separately or together in this case jennifer says that she wasn't
specifically aware of roy's sex offender status she admitted that she guessed it
because of her because of the association between him and george kennedy so she's not
aware that he's a sex offender but says that she susp said that she suspected him of being a sex offender
i'm not for sure but i'm just assuming since he's hanging out with papa george papa george likes to hang out with a
bunch of creeps roy lee smith was convicted of third degree criminal sexual conduct for a 1991 rape
and he was also listed as a habitual offender so he got they tried to give him the maximum here
he was looking at 15 years to 50 to five zero years prison but he was released from prison in
february 2008 this after serving 15 years for that conviction remember what we discussed in the one
search war you may recall that a van was being driven by george kennedy that was
being searched by police and a bloody tool was removed from that van well this is where things get a little weird
too roy smith was the actual owner of that van that's why i stated earlier that the
search warrant didn't say that george kennedy was the owner of this van the search warrant said that it
is believed that george kennedy had been driving that van roy smith the other sex
offender actually owned the van so these guys are friends unfortunately two terrible guys with sex
offender status or chummy well they had a lot in common that's true yeah and supposedly they had swapped vehicles
they had traded vehicles now this is really weird to a lot of people but it's not so weird to me this is
something that when i was young i remember hearing quite a bit that it wasn't uncommon for people especially
when we're talking about vehicles that aren't worth very much or or don't have much of a value to them right
then it's not uncommon for guys to straight up trade vehicles and just sign off the
the slips to the other individual so one good piece of news though here that comes of this is
they had sex offenders parole status both of these individuals and what happens here is because they
violate that parole these two aren't just locked up in jail and then interrogated and
investigated for nevaeh's homicide in both instances judges revoked retracted their paroles
and so both kennedy and smith were sent back to prison this to finish out their full sentences
for those parole violations [Music] [Music] all right we are back papa george hotel motel holiday inn
cheers to you colonel cheers to everybody in the back and cheers everybody in the front
stop looking at me gross gross gross gross uh this brings us to a third guy that
was pulled in by police for questioning in nevada's disappearance and even named
as a person of interest this is james easter who was age 64 at the time reportedly he was the subject
of a tip that came into police because he was seen often at the apartment complex and there's
some question whether he had registered as a sex offender or he was required to do so but there's
question if he actually did register uh the detroit free press who did gangbusters work obviously on nevaeh's
case and we've cited them multiple times throughout part one and through out this episode as well
but they reported that fbi agents knocked on his door and accused him of following jennifer and nevaeh home from
kmart remember we said that that day late that afternoon jennifer and nevaeh walked home from kmart
now this james easter guy would not have been a person that was known to jennifer
or known to nevaeh but he was known to hang out in the area of this apartment complex and i don't know if there was a
witness or somebody that stated that they had seen him following them or watching them or if this was just a
scare tactic to try to present that they may have more information than they actually did
and see if he would confess to something whatever they have or don't have on this
guy at the very least they they search his home and i'm a little confused because
there's no mention of a search warrant so maybe he just openly says come on in guys
go ahead and search my my home if so that shows a level of cooperation that i may not expect from a child
killer but inside his home they confiscated over 100 porno tapes uh pornographic videos and
also his bed spread oh that's disgusting he was held for questioning for well that's actually one of the most
common things that will be taken from something so disgusting in any kind of case especially these kinds
of cases he's held for questioning for approximately 12 hours by the fbi he produces receipts
showing his whereabouts on the day that nevaeh went missing and so they're forced to let him go
because he has receipts that show them where he was what he was up to now i don't know
the details of these receipts this is unknown but what we do know is like an idiot
so he's released on saturday night on the 30th he's back at his home around 5 a.m on
sunday may 31st he's in his yard burning items and these items include receipts tv dinners and a sex toy well sex toys
make good firewood i don't know if somebody called the police or if they were surveilling him i
i suspect they were surveilling him yeah because he's like mid-fire burning this stuff
early in the morning it would have still been dark there so a neighbor could have
spotted it and maybe called it into the fire department or what have you but he's confronted by police guns drawn
they're like get on the ground dude and they surround him get on the ground they
want to know why he's burning stuff the the fbi is called in to sift through the
debris of the fire they charge him with with a very light arson charge some form of obstruction of justice or
or possibly the destruction of possible evidence it's it's very weird i don't understand why
somebody would take these receipts was nes it was essentially his get out of jail card
and then later he's being charged with burning them yeah but here's what i wonder knowing
what i know now the crime takes place on a saturday between six o'clock nine o'clock
i think they're going to look at it it was a sunday no i'm just saying hypothetically
okay at any time there's a crime that took place i think they're going to look at me
i don't think it would be that hard to go to some local businesses and get some [ __ ] receipts
hey i was here saturday i got a cappuccino and blah blah blah it was around uh 6 30.
i i don't have my receipt and they then they look in their computer and and maybe they find
something that's close close to what i told them and they print out a receipt that has nothing to do
with me does that make sense and so it's almost like did he get all these fake receipts and then when he
used them and and and pass that portion of the test well i better burn them now because if they actually go through with
a fine-tooth comb and try to go through all the details i'm going to be busted right and that's what i'm saying that
the the burning of these receipts is incredibly suspicious behavior like it's just makes no sense at all
especially since they were essentially your get out of jail card they sent him home
they brought him in for questioning for 12 hours and because of the receipts sent him home and then he's like i'm
going to burn these now so incredibly suspicious i think they were surveilling him this easter guy he's a
real dumbass to put it as politely as i can he talked way too much sounds like somebody i know he
did four interviews that i could find with the newspapers and spoke openly about the case
he openly told the newspapers i failed portions of a polygraph test he goes i i wasn't given the details i don't know
which questions that i failed but i failed portions of the polygraph test according to the fbi that's what they
told me anyway and then they're like well what questions that they ask you and he
rattles off a few you know like right did you do it did you abduct her you know the typical questions you would
expect to hear but also things like they asked him at one point in the polygraph test
if you had done it how would you have carried out this crime or how do you think the
killer carried out this crime and he goes into like great detail saying well if it were me i would have
i would have pulled onto the street turned on my hazard lights pretending that i have some kind of problem with my
vehicle then i would have snuck up on the blind side of the pine trees that are in that
area walked up to where the victim was and i would have snatched her there and he even goes into like that would be a
long way to walk you have to go up past the dumpsters so clearly he has a a very good
understanding of the area in which we believe that nevaeh was abducted from he even goes out of his
way to say that you know the one problem with that area if you were looking to do
something like this is there were always maintenance people hanging around there
so he's already he knows where the people would be or where possible witnesses could be yeah i mean very strange and
like like you said so far we have three suspects that i think you could easily put either one of them at the top
of the list and then this easter guy just continues to get more strange and more strange so he's
released remember they picked him up on these for the burning for the arson charges
how can we forget him burning his sex toys he's released from jail on june 1st and at that time
a district judge said that easter was no longer a person of interest in nevaeh's case which is
really interesting to me because i don't know why this judge is declaring this is this based off of insufficient
evidence to charge you with anything or because on record we have local law enforcement saying that we
still consider easter to be a person of interest a judge kind of publicly declares him
as not a poi but police have never officially or publicly anyway cleared him in this case and we're sitting here
these all these years later with an unsolved homicide on our hands and then his girlfriend
jane austen told the news that she might be the last person to have seen nevaeh when she said she spotted the little
girl from her balcony so i got to kind of break this down a little bit because this part's a little
confusing so i'm confused yeah one this this dirt bag has a girlfriend yeah all three of these dirt bags apparently
didn't have trouble getting girlfriends as for for at some period of time anyway
but so this easter guy lives in a trailer by himself now the girlfriend janie austin i think i
mispronounced her name earlier is jane austen but janie austin from my understanding lives in the apartment
complex or close to the charlotte arms apartment complex where nevaeh went missing from because she's saying from
my balcony i believe i was one of the last people to see nevaeh before she was abducted so
when we say this guy was hanging around the apartment complex he very likely could have been hanging around the
apartment complex because his girlfriend lived yeah because like you said the first two suspects that we
we brought up had a connection to nevaeh i had a connection to her family right so that would give them a reason
to be on that property but this [ __ ] stain you got to go well did he actually follow them home from
kmart or was he just going to his girlfriend's house yeah it's it's very weird stuff so what
her statement is to the news is that she says that she was out on her balcony in the evening time she sees the little
girl on her scooter you know riding around like she like most of the neighbors would expect
to see and then this woman says that at some point she went inside to prepare dinner and she believes that
it was during that time period that she was inside preparing dinner that the abduction took place because when she
goes back out to her balcony she sees the scooter abandon where it was later found by the mother
yeah and like you said uh roughly about 180 units it's really surprising that nobody saw anything
we have a lot of stuff that i want to get to captain so i think that we can i included a lot of things in my notes
about how the public did not care for jennifer how the public really was very suspicious of her
i don't know how much detail we need to go into that aspect of the case i think there's
so many obvious reasons why people would not like jennifer in this case would not
trust the mother may even suspect the mother of some wrong doing the the problem though with jennifer being
your prime suspect in this case in my opinion is jennifer did not have her own transportation
jennifer also is reportedly actively looking for her daughter at the time that she goes missing or at
least roughly at the time that she goes missing right her story would be even more believable if sherry her mother
would have been home i can trust sherry i think i can't trust jennifer but at the at the very least we have
another witness saying that look nivea was alive and well at 3 30 or 3 45 when her mother came to
my house and the two of them walked to kmart jennifer saying they walked back home
they were doing their own thing jennifer's hanging out in the apartment nevaeh eventually goes out to play we
also have this witness of saying i saw the girl zipping around on her scooter went in to prepare
dinner and came back and the scooter was abandoned right so the problem with jennifer being your
prime suspect i'm not saying she has no involvement at all or may not know more than she's letting
on what i'm saying is she could not have done something to her daughter and disposed of her daughter
she just didn't have the means she didn't have transportation one she would have had to have have some kind of help
is what i'm getting at here as much as i dislike jennifer yeah but give jennifer a second chance everybody
deserves a second chance and i know there was a lot of local rumor especially back in 2009 and 2010
that she knows more i just i see better suspects here yeah i don't think she's a good person
i don't think she did at least not smart she's not smart not smart at all and also she's not
she was selfish she wanted a relationship she wanted companionship and she took that
over the safety of her child and and that is horrible and she's gonna have to live with that the rest of her
life we have to remember if she's not responsible that she also is a victim here and i
know a lot of people don't like polygraphs they don't care for them they don't put any weight in them we're not
putting any weight in them either but when it's part of the story we report it it's part of the story i'm putting a lot
of weight well here we have now on jennifer who openly tells the news that she was told
that she failed a polygraph exam as well so those things are always a little weird to me right you you might be more
some people may be more inclined to be suspicious of an individual who failed a polygraph but i also find it odd
that a person that let's say we have a guilty party and the world doesn't know 100 that this person's guilty
if i were guilty of something i don't think i would openly be telling the news like you know i was told i failed a
polygraph test right um failed parts yes and but yet we have several people who reported that they
they either failed the polygraph test or were at least told by law enforcement that they failed which can be a tactic
uh on its own so what is unclear is if jennifer has ever officially been cleared by police there are some
news articles out there that say that she is not and has never been a suspect but again it's unclear
if she was ever officially cleared by the police and then this is totally weird because
you're totally weird examining this case yeah my first thoughts are george kennedy
borrowing the van or swapping out vehicles with roy smith george kennedy's my my favorite suspect
at this point in our timeline roy is a close second maybe the two of them did it together maybe they're in
cahoots somehow but we have to pivot off of that captain because after a few months
a few months after nevae's nevaeh's murder believe it or not police announced that roy smith and george
kennedy were no longer persons of interest in this case that's a shocker it's a it's a complete shocker but it's
true we have a detective on record saying quote we are looking in a different direction in recent months
based on our investigation we are following up on leads and investigating new information every day so
what happened here is a little unclear but it sounds like they must have moved on to
a different suspect now again we still have that that easter fella who is not mentioned as no longer being a
person of interest but shockingly enough police come out and say this guy these two guys kennedy
and smith are no longer persons of interest in nevaeh's murder now on the first anniversary of nevaeh's murder the task
force that was put together had disbanded but police said that they were still very actively investigating the
case authorities said that they had called on experts from around the country to weigh
in and give their insights and that they were leaving no stone unturned in august of 2009 the reward
for information in nevada's case increased to 20 000 and by the end of 2010 this amount
increased to thousand dollars so there's a lot of people out there hoping for some
information to come forward in this case the special agent in charge of the fbi's
detroit bureau who oversaw the federal agency's role in this investigation is on record saying that there was no
shortage of suspects in this case but sometimes there are too many and that what they needed was one good
one that they can actually connect to the victim connect to the case well that's the problem is when you start
interviewing the family and you realize well look the mom is a little bit of a scumbag herself
and so she's going to have scumbag associates and and you're going to have to start
there and i think that could hinder the case because well every turn you make she's connected
to these guys with that are sexual offenders that have criminal histories and so if you're law enforcement you're
like oh this is going to be easy because we're just going to do this pervert roundup of of all the guys she knows and
we'll get the killer but to me these cases tend to lean towards stranger on stranger in 2012
this case is back in the headlines and this is because the police are giving us a little insight into their
investigation in 2012 they say that they are closer to an arrest in the kidnapping and murder of nevaeh buchanan
this is directly from the county sheriff crutchfield who we've talked about several times during our
discussion of this case he says quote investigators have an eye on a person or persons
and have significantly narrowed their focus but he goes on to say that the public is
not in danger this is a very interesting statement to me and i know that we try to read a lot into these statements but
you have to you have to read between the lines when they're holding back so much
information so if we've cleared two guys that look good kennedy and smith easter is still out
there walking around on the streets and the sheriff says that there's no danger to the public and they got somebody in
their crosshairs somebody that they like right you start to wonder well does that
mean that they're the suspect that they're looking at is dead or locked up yeah because as
they're going through these suspects like we've seen with the first couple probation violations and with those
probation violations we're able to arrest them and like you said provokes some of the privileges and they and
having them to serve the remain the remainder of their sentence when they say hey we don't think that the
public's in danger again probably leans towards incarceration all right now this next part i'm going to
have to go through every piece of this statement because it's it's very interesting and it helps to clear some
things up in this case and gives valuable insights into their investigation this is in 2014 and it sounds like again
they are reminding the public hey we got a suspect that we kind of like here and
it's from a monroe news article and it reads as follows despite widespread public opinion that stated otherwise
police have long ago said jennifer nevaeh's mother had nothing to do with the crime the family still lives
in monroe but has moved from charlotte arms where they lived where nevaeh was kidnapped nevaeh's grandmother sherry
buchanan remains frustrated that no arrest has been made she said she is considering seeking
legal advice because she's not sure what else can be done at this point i want answers
ms buchanan said it's been too long police investigating the case still don't have much to say on the record the
current monroe county sheriff this is dale malone said nothing more than stating it remains an ongoing case but
several of those who have been close to the investigation have said over the years that they are
certain they know who did it the suspect is not any of the men who were identified at the time as persons of
interest those men were strong candidates because of their backgrounds which included
sexual assault and accosting children and because they had befriended jennifer but they didn't do it investigators said
retired sheriff tillman crutchfield who oversaw the investigation that included about 100 individuals agreed that police
were close to making an arrest but just couldn't develop enough solid evidence to seek a warrant and pursue a trial
quote we are very close to making an arrest we know who the person is i believe we
have the right person targeted we had nothing that pointed to the mother end quote
the man many police believe is responsible remains in prison on unrelated convictions and is not going anywhere
anytime soon in fact he is facing additional felony charges for reportedly trying to kill a fellow inmate this
dude's locked up going to be locked up for a very long time it's kind of a monster continuing with the article they
say the killer police said acted impulsively without any planning he reportedly saw an opportunity and
took it apparently if what some police officers believe is true it was a classic yet rare case of
stranger abduction end quote so that's a very interesting article that shows that they
moved on to a completely different suspect well it's pretty crazy because there are so many creepos
in this area and it's sad and uh we need to protect the children a lot better than we are yeah it's it's
difficult because in these investigations you want a suspect as an investigator you probably want a couple suspects but
you don't want dozens of suspects it it complicates the case so uh have we figured anything out about
this unnamed perpetrator well what we do know from that article and other articles this individual is
imprisoned on totally unrelated charges for the next decade if not longer the monroe news reports that the suspect
was born and raised in monroe he is now in his 30s and is con a convicted wife beater
he is in prison on felony charges for repeated domestic assaults some of these on a pregnant person according to court
reports he was a problem teen who was suspended from school had bad grades and fought with his family
and this part is really interesting to me here captain it says he was interviewed at length
during the original investigation but did not confess and was not named not named publicly most of the investigators
are sure it was him so he was somebody that was on their radar made not at the top of
their list but at least on their radar at the very initial stages of this investigation
well this case is difficult because you want resolve and it sounds like law enforcement is
saying we have resolve it's just going to take a little more time the guy's in jail so don't have to worry
about that and we're gonna get more information on him and eventually we'll have charges
against him that's what it seems like to me but it doesn't seem as satisfying as
as you know hanging the guy up in the middle of town square right you want this guy to be named
publicly i think that they probably won't do so because they are working still working to try to build a case
against this individual but based off of their statements off of law enforcement statements to the public and
to the news it sounds like they really believe that this is the guy that they have narrowed
it down through or narrowed it down to this guy and what's so interesting to me about
that and what i think presents a strong argument that they have the guy in their crosshairs have the right guy
targeted here in their investigation is it look at how good these other persons of interest looked
look at how good they what we were calling suspects looked in this case and they've been able to move on from those
people to land on him somebody that was part of the initial investigation somebody that was on their radar early
which often times in these cases and even sometimes in strange abduction cases the person responsible is on the
radar early on in the case yeah and so this is a very powerful and a very interesting suspect to me now
may of this last year sadly was the 13th anniversary of nevaeh's death of her murder
and there was an article that came out at that time that said that throughout the years the sheriff's
office and the early stages of the investigation which involved the task force followed up on over 2 000 leads
by the 13th anniversary and then the following month in june of 2022 you know a considerable amount of time
has passed so of course they have a new sheriff by now but the current sheriff in charge provided a statement to
abc 13 news and said the investigation is sometimes referred to as a cold case this investigation has never been closed
nor has it ever been reduced to a cold case rather this investigation is very much
active and as long as sheriff goodnote is leading this organization solving this heinous crime
will always be among the highest of priorities [Music] so many thoughts and so many ideas about
this case if you have thoughts and opinions go to truecrimegarage.com and leave those on
the blog colonel do we have a recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week we are recommending
love bombs and molesters an fbi agent's journey by the great kenneth laning here's a quote from friend of the show
the great john douglas says ken lanning was one of the best instructors the fbi behavioral science unit ever had and he
went on to become one of the leading experts in the country on the behavioral analysis of crimes against children this
is the story this book is the story of his life leading up to his assignment at the bsu and how he developed his
expertise and inspired others during his 20-year career make sure you check out love bombs and molesters and fbi agents
journey by the great kenneth lanning you can find that title and many more on our
website's recommended page at truecrimegarage.com if you're not following us on facebook
or twitter instagram or youtube check us out at true crime garage and until next week be good be kind and
don't litter [Music] you

Nevaeh Buchanan /// Part 2 /// 614

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

On a Sunday night in May, 2009 in Monroe County Michigan an Amber Alert was issued for a little girl. Nevaeh Buchanan was last seen in the 6PM hour riding her scooter near her home. This very quickly was believed to be a child abduction. Local authorities were seeking the public's help looking for several witnesses and the driver of a green minivan. Oddly enough, within forty eight hours of the girl going missing the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office publicly announced two persons of interest. This is a case with no shortage of viable suspects and as you will see this may have helped or it may have hurt the investigation.

Beer of the Week - Space Camper Cosmic IPA from Boulevard Brewing Company

Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5

Recommended Reading - Love, Bombs, and Molesters; An F.B.I. Agent’s Journey by Kenneth Lanning

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the investigation into Nevaeh Buchanan's murder, focusing on key suspects and evidence found.

Key points

The Disappearance of Nevaeh Buchanan. Five-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan's body was found after a short search, leading to two persons of interest.
Blood Evidence Found. Items found in George Kennedy's motel room included blood-stained clothing and a multi-tool.
Conflicting Witness Accounts. Witnesses reported seeing Nevaeh with a man named 'Daddy George' before her disappearance.
The Search for Truth. Investigators found human blood in Kennedy's motel room, but it did not belong to Nevaeh.
Release from Prison. He was released from prison in February 2008 after serving 15 years for his conviction.
Suspicious Behavior. James Easter was seen burning items after being released, raising suspicions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I always kept my guards up.

Jennifer's defense regarding her relationship with George.

4:31WatchSep 16, 2022

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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