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

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you are what ever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who's
strapped in the chair of the city's gas chamber here is the captain let me tell you it's pretty comfortable it's good to
be seen good to see you thanks for listening thanks for to a [Music] friend today we are featuring a great
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show and Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
talk some true Crow [Music] when we left off yesterday Captain unfortunately the body of 5-year-old NAA
Buchanan had been located this after less than 2 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 nave's
mother and we're a little unclear what the current state of the relationships were at the time that NAA 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 perc andn 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 was George was that they
were just friends she said that they haven't officially dated for over a year and a half before NAA 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 isn't 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 well 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 on record saying that all three
of our relationship together was like a family he George Kennedy claimed NAA 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 or who was supposed to be mom here Sherry should get credit as Mom because
she's doing the mother duties and in actually caring for the child and providing a shelter and food for NAA 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 um 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 Novea 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 and wt1 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
warrant 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 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 NAA 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 M were found
in his room these would be exactly the kind of toy that NAA 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 NAA 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 Navea 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 NAA went into the woods to meet up with a man
named d George and the boy witness said that NAA 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 were
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 uh 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 nave's Friend Austin the one that she was playing with earlier on the afternoon that she went
missing we know based off of the autopsy that was determined that Navea 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 is 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 Navea 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 gu is
a real piece of [ __ ] Crystal [ __ ] is Austin's mom and she's on record saying
that Navea 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
it's not factually true because my son did not see NAA 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
nave's family members said that they are even more suspicious now of George Kennedy he was aged 39 at the time he's
a registered sex offender and friend of Jennifer of nave'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 base 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 going to 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 expert I don't work in concrete this George guy does never
claim to be a concrete expert 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 FastTrack 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 NAA 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 the a loser like this he owes you money you go out after him
you hurt him you don't nobody's going to 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
going to we're not going to 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 ACC costing a 13-year-old girl during the course of
that home invasion he took a plea deal for fourth degree criminal sexual conduct conduct and a misdemeanor charge
for accosting 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 pray 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 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 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 deegree 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 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 15year 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 was 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 her 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 NAA 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 Navea 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 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 Jennifers 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 say that she suspected him of being a sex
offender 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 LE 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 try to give him the maximum here he was looking at 15 years
to 50 to five Z years prison sentence 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 warant 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 are 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 that it 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 in and investigated for Na'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
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cheers to you Colonel cheers to everybody in the back and cheers to everybody in the front stop looking at
me y gross gross gross gross uh this brings us to a third guy that was pulled in by police for questioning in Na'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 n'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
NAA home from Kmart remember we said that that day late that afternoon Jennifer and NAA walked home from
Kmart now this James Easter guy would not have been a person that was known to Jennifer or known to NAA 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 pornog graic videos and also his bed spread oh that's disgusting that is he
was held for questioning for well that that's actually one of the most common things that will be taken from some
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
NAA 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 5:00
a.m. on Sunday May 31st he's in his yard burning items and these items in 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 midf 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's 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 NE 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 9 o'clock I think they're gonna look at 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
um 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 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 it's just makes no
sense at all 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 did they ask you and he rattles off a few you know like right did you 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 NAA 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 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 relased 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 Na'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
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 Austin told the news that she might be the last person to have seen
NAA 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
as Jane Austin but Janie Austin from my understanding lives in the apartment complex or close to the Charlotte Arms
apartment complex where Navea went missing from because she's saying from my balcony I believe I was one of the
last people to see Navea before she was abducted so when we say this guy was hanging around the apartment complex he
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 NAA had a connection to her family right so that
would give them reason to be on that property but this [ __ ] stain you got to go well did 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 abandoned where it was later found by the
mother yeah and like you said roughly about 180 units it's really surprising that nobody saw anything we have a lot
of stuff that I want to get 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 wrongdoing 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 it 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 NAA 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 walk back home they were doing their own thing
Jennifer's hanging out in the apartment NAA 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 it 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
going to 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 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 cahoot somehow but we have to Pivot off of that Captain
because pivot after a few months he that a few months after n's nave's murder believe it or not
police announced that Roy Smith and George Kennedy were no longer longer Persons of Interest in this case and
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 n's murder now on the first anniversary of nave'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 Na's case increased to $20,000 and by the end of 2010 this amount increased to
$50,000 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 could actually connect to the victim connect to the
case well that's a 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 oh every turn you make she's connected to these guys with uh that are
sexual offenders that have criminal histories and so if you're law en M 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 Navea 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 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 were able to arrest
them and like you said provoke some of the Privileges and they and having them to serve the 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 Na'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 NAA was kidnapped nave's grandmother Sher 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 quote I want answers Miss 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 a costing children and because they had befriended Jennifer but
they didn't do it investigators said retired Sheriff Tilman 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 this kid
a monster continuing with the article they say the killer police said acted in 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 have we figured anything out about
this unn unnamed perpetrator well what we do know from that article and other articles this individual is in prison 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 may 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 going to 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 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 was part of the initial investigation somebody that was on their radar early which often times
in these cases and even sometimes in stranger 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 Na'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 ABC13 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
goodno is leading this organization solving this heinous crime will always be among the highest of
[Music] priorities so many thoughts and so many ideas about this case if you have
thoughts and opinions go to True Crime garage.com and leave those on the blog Colonel do we have any recommended
reading for the beautiful listeners this week we are recommending love bombs and
molesters in FBI agents journey by the great Kenneth Lanning 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 20year career make sure you check out love bombs and
molesters in FBI agents journey by the great Kenneth Lanning you can find that title and many more on our website's
recommended page at true Crim garage.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 [Music]
litter is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size organ models help to map out complex
surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you know where to go

Nevaeh Buchanan /// Part 2 /// 614

Part 2 of 2

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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.

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

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Brief Summary

The episode covers the investigation into 5-year-old Navea Buchanan's murder, focusing on suspects and her mother's questionable choices.

Key points

The Unpredictable Search. Can 3D printed organ models revolutionize surgery?
A Disturbing Discovery. Blood-stained items found in George Kennedy's motel room raise suspicions.
Conflicting Witness Accounts. Witnesses provide conflicting information about Navea's disappearance.
Sex Offenders Paroled. Both Kennedy and Smith violated their parole and were sent back to prison.
James Easter's Questionable Actions. Easter was seen burning items after being released, raising suspicion.
Investigation Shifts Focus. Police announced that Kennedy and Smith are no longer persons of interest.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Well isn't that special?

Commenting on a child hugging a sex offender.

5:08WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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