Park Bench Murders /// Part 1 /// 820 | Forensic Files

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[Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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tonight marks 5 years since Katherine Brown and Carnell Sledge were murdered in the metrop Park Rocky River
Reservation and police still don't know who did it the two friends were last seen sitting on a bench together tonight
a vigil was held in their honor as their families hold out hope they will get Justice our midi Hicks has more 2024
marks another year of frustration for Cardell sledge's family it's been 5 years since he was shot in killed and
there's still no answers that's too long 5 years is a long time for somebody to you know our family is still grieving
but even in their grief they come together for a visil each year on the same day he died to remember as they put
the glue for this family I remember him as being a fun loving person he he was an amazing person um he really um was
family orent um he actually kept us all together his loved ones say he would do anything for anyone which is why they're
not surprised he helped his friend Kate Brown when she called and asked him to meet her at the park but shortly after
parking kayakers found their bodies they were shot to death in broad daylight answer well I want to put the bread in
until he come he stay between 5 and 5:30 he died at the same time he was supposed
to meet his grandmother for dinner my baby never made it my son in-law told me I lost
it I loost I haven't been right since it's like a hole here I try to I try to I'm existing that hole in their hearts
will never be filled so they're hoping for some relief and that can only happen when the person responsible is found
they're asking anyone with information to come forward just trying to get some clues some answers some
closure and um just kind of give our families some some peace love and there's now a
$100,000 reward for any information that could lead to an arrest [Music] I am thankful beyond words Captain we
are creeping up on 10 years of podcasting together and that is a testament to all of the wonderful
listeners and garage friends that we have made over the years this case however is one of the scariest cases
that we have covered our first goar around on this case was from almost two years ago titled Cleveland Metro Parks
murder so that is from April of 2023 episode number 660 on your true crime garage radio dial on that episode I was
joined by Aaron our friend from the Generation Y podcast to discuss the unsolved murders of Carnell Sledge and
Katherine Brown Carnell was an AV Tech at Crescent digital in Strongsville Ohio and volunteered as a youth consultant
for Applewood centers and he was known for volunteering there but also for coaching Youth Sports and a lot of times
the were special needs kids and he coached these kids and did such a great job with it he did so much for the
people of his community he's described as a big teddy bear of a man who was always smiling and always looking for
ways to help others and known for going out of his way to help his friends and loved ones and many who called him Nell
Catherine worked for qcg goods in Brook Park Ohio Brook Park Ohio by the way one
of the most beautiful places in Ohio Katherine grew up in Olstead Falls Katherine was affectionately called Kate
by just about everyone that I could find now Nell and Kate were killed shot and murdered in the Greater Cleveland Ohio
area at the Rocky River Reservation the Rocky River Reservation is a 2500 acre preserve along the Rocky River in
Northeast Ohio it is expansive and it is beautiful very green so you have the Cleveland Metro Parks which is
absolutely fantastic if you take a look at Northeast Ohio you will see on the map and see the map peppered with these
green spaces that are all part of the Cleveland Metro Parks now we will hone in on Cleveland and what you will see on
the map is this green line you have This brilliant Lake eie to the north of Cleveland and then just below you have
this great green line it's not straight it's kind of like like picture the bowl of a red wine glass like a crescent moon
that is lip them that is what they call the Cleveland Metro Park Emerald necklace Trail which Emerald necklace is
a far better description than I just gave the emerald necklace connects Scenic park at the North End of the
Rocky River Reservation goes through mream Run Reservation and East to Brecksville
reservation and through the toe path Trail so a lot of bicyclists and pedestrians the trail is part of the
Metro Park's extensive Trail network of over 325 miles of trails across 18 Park reservation spanning nearly
25,000 Acres all of that to say that this is an absolutely beautiful area and what a great wonderful space for the
people living in the surrounding communities and the neighborhoods that we alongside these Parks yeah and one of
those people living close to this area is one of our victims Kate that's exactly right within that Rocky River
Reservation right inside that beautiful Park this is located in the city of Fair
viiew Park in kyoga County Ohio we have Nell who's 40 years old Kate was just 33
years old they met there one afternoon early evening and during the course of their Meetup someone snuck up on them
fired three shots boom boom boom hitting all three shots and left them there to die right there in the park now some
people out there say that to talk about this double homicide is to desecrate the
park this park the Rocky River Reservation and it is to desecrate the Metro Parks that so many people have
loved and so many much money and resources are expended to maintain these beautiful spaces right I think if you
think that or say that I I say shame on you the only thing that desecrates or desecrated this park is the man that
walked in there and shot two lovely innocent people sitting on a park bench on a warm sunny day in broad daylight
now if I'm correct I think law enforcement believes that Carnell was hit first Katie took off running she was
shot the breakdown of what some in law enforcement beli to have happened is that Carnell was shot first possibly
both shots fired first and then Kate got up and was then shot both of them at close range right now before we get into
the details here I want to want to go through some stuff the captain and I are revisiting this today for a multitude of
reasons Aaron and hold on you're revisiting I'm visiting for the first time Aaron and I took a look at this
double homicide in April of 2023 but then Unsolved Mysteries covered the case on their most recent release on Netflix
with the October 2nd 2024 release of Unsolved Mysteries Volume 5 this was the first episode of
Volume 5 titled the park bench murderers it's a 43 minute look at the metrop parks murders case now I wanted to cover
this again because frankly I was excited I was thrilled when Unsolved Mysteries covered the case why because as I said
in ail April of 2023 this is a very solvable case I thought that because of the streaming shows big audience and the
major players covering the story not just some Ohio boys here that the story would get churning on the internet and
the interest level would get cranked up to 11 but that didn't exactly happen so maybe we can rally the troops and get
this thing going but also there's more and new information there's some information that we've uncovered that's
that's correct now I went back to my notes from 21 months ago and I found a note in there that that I love you what
do we title this episode episode 660 the Rocky River Murders the metrop parks murders we covered we called the episode
the Cleveland Metro Parks murders Unsolved Mysteries called it the park bench murders but now let's just call it
what it is it's unsolved it's still unsolved to this day and so to me that's the biggest reason to revisit this C
it's unsolved now of course nothing is more sad than these two lovely people having their lives so
senselessly cut short but what is growing sadder and more desperate each and every single day is that these two
families Nell and Kate's loved ones the people who love them the most cannot get
Justice for their son their daughter their sister their brother their grandson they can't do it they have
tried their damnedest only the men and women of law enforcement can do that and from what my eyes have seen and from
what my ears have heard having kept a watchful eye on this case since June of 2019 I don't think that all of those
persons have done their best effort some have but maybe not all and it takes a village right we say that about our
children it takes a village well it took a lot of villages to build these beautiful Parks let's unite and band
together and solve this double homicide finally solve this double homicide because year after year we are so
saddened and sickened to be seeing the same old news articles of video clips on the internet that keep coming out about
this unsolved case headlines like one year later two families still seeking answers or family pleads for justice on
three-year anniversary of Rocky River Reservation double murders or four years in Rocky River Reservation killer still
has not been found and then after years a new push in the investigation to solve
the Cleveland Metro Parks murders well let's not make it six years let's not have to have similar titles for articles
and internet stories on the six- year anniversary let's say that we've got the killer we we've we've made an arrest and
we're working toward getting a conviction yeah it's sad that these murderous douche canoes are ruining our
Parks now I didn't drive all the way here to the garage today just to scream into a microphone I promise promise you
and we won't get into some of the discussions had on episode 660 if you want to go back and listen to
that it's sitting there available for free for you to listen to but some of those things that we talked about in
episode 660 will steer away from like the letter from the psychic which was interesting to review in part because it
was a fresh theory that went outside of the hate crime theory that had swirled early on in this case we won't get into
the digital detectives or how disappointed I was in the press conferences conducted by the metro parks
police or me screaming about how Geo fencing would solve the case in the matter of one afternoon that is all
there for your earballs in episode 660 like the captain said new information we have done some digging
made some contacts uncovered some information all that was not available to us in April of
2023 and it's time to present this from a different angle and under a different Spotlight so let's proceed much as been
made about Carell Nell in Kate's relationship was it romantic and the answer without knowing either of them
directly it seems to be a resounding no I believe the best description we get is
from the family seen on Unsolved Mysteries and in more recent local news coverage the family state that the two
shared about a decade long on again off again very close friendship typically when either were to be in a romantic
relationship they were were not as close Kate's family says that Nell was someone
that Kate could lean on and did when she needed to and N ever the big brother was
always there to help her out let's go back to the day in question this was Tuesday June 4th
2019 it was a warm and bright sunshiny day both Kate and Nell worked on this Tuesday Kate arrives home from work and
signs into her apartment's gym to work out this is at 3:38 p.m. Nell texts Kate at 4:02 p.m. asking if she would like to
get together law enforcement and the families agree that they do not know why the two were going to meet up right at
4:10 p.m. Kate calls now and they talk for about 10 minutes Nell leaves his place of work at
4:24 p.m. and Kate leaves the gymm at 4:31 p.m. so at this time we know that they are both
independently in their own Vehicles driving to the park we would learn on Unsolved Mysteries that an officer's
dash cam picked up both what is believed to be both of the victim's Vehicles so this would be Kate's car at 5:1 p.m. in
Nell's vehicle following shortly behind her at 5:03 p.m. he to provide a better description he's not following her uh
he's about 2 minutes behind her but they're traveling in the same direction and on this dash cam at least coming
from the same direction and this dash cam was just simply part of this officer's routine it's set up in his
patrol car and he was parked in the area so this gives us some really good information though on about what time
that they will arrive at the location in the park where they're later found dead because it is
approximately only a two-minute drive to the small gravel lot for this Lorraine Road location of
Rocky River from where they're spotted by the dash Camp so we can based off of this information we can
surmise that the arrival of both would be 503 and 505 p.m. for Kate and Nell respectively that's why of the
fascinating things about this case is our timeline is really backed up and is solidified by our Digital Data timeline
Nell's mother says that she believes that this was a last minute Meetup so she says something must have
been going on somebody has something on the brain or somebody has something that
is important and it's something that they need to address or felt that they needed to meet in person and she also
believes that the meeting was going to be very brief because she states that her son Nell had
plans to meet her and her husband n's father and some other family at Grandma's house so they're all meeting
up for a family dinner the plan was for a 5:00 pm arrival so he he's already late by this point right and this is an
event that he said he was going to and uh and he would regularly go to now one thing that we do need point out too is
that this would have been out of the way where where he's meeting he would then have to backtrack and travel in the
opposite direction to get to his grandmother's house so he goes from work to the park and then the guess is he
after the park a short visit he would then proceed on to Grandmother's house now I've seen some people online
speculate that this is very strange because like you said he's already running late to me this is not that that
strange you're meeting up with your family it's not like you're heading to work if you're a little behind nobody's
going to fire you yeah I I think a lot of people will agree with this especially if you're
going to something where there's several other people attending as well like if it's if it were only to be Nell right
going to Grandma's house he probably would have wanted to make sure he was either out time or at least phoned her
in advance and said hey something's come up I might be 30 minutes late but when you know other people are arriving it's
okay hey you know I'll be 15 minutes 20 minutes late they probably won't even notice because they'll be engaged in
conversation and chitchat and stuff until I get there well I'm glad you see it the way I see it there you go so at
this point in our timeline Captain we have both Kate and Nell sitting together on a park bench now one thing that I
believe is crucial to this case and possibly to the answers to this case is this park bench is visible from the
road the major road that's there and the gravel lot that comes off of this road so they're sitting on this park bench we
can say shortly after 5:05 p.m. because we we can gather that Nell would have arrived after Kate and he would have
pulled into this slot at 5:05 p.m. and so they make their way to this this park bench the park bench is right there just
in front of the Rocky River Police say that at :8 Kate unlocks her phone they note this
for good reason this will mean that they haven't become under attack at this point they're both alive and well at
50:08 p.m. now what we do know too is at 5:22 p.m. there's a 911 call that is placed to dispatch by two kayakers
this is a time stamp that is crucial here so two kayakers this is a a couple a married couple show up and they're
looking for a place to launch their kayaks they unfortunately find the body of Nell first and then when they get
closer they see Kate lying in the shallow part of the river So based on the movements of Kate and Nell we can
surmise that the kayaking couple arrive no later than 5:19 p.m. they find the bodies when trying to find the spot to
launch The Kayaks so garage maath here Captain tells me we are looking at 11 minutes a tiny little window of only one
one 11 minutes when someone walked up likely from behind shoots them from behind and flees the kayakers say they
heard no shots and so saw no one walking or leaving the area yeah we have no eyewitnesses that see a vehicle leaving
like you said it's it is a parking lot but it's gravel which also if the killer was in a car Not only would you possibly
see the vehicle but You' hear it mhm driving through the gravel we have no eyewitness seeing that but because this
is a big Park it's like did he escape through a pathway or did he escaped through the Waterway yeah
that's the crime scene the location does complicate the investigation now to to talk further about this gravel lot this
is a small pulloff lot it's it's not room for 20 cars or 30 cars like the captain had said
earlier we find out that the male victim was shot twice the female victim shot once the male was found lying fac down
next to the park bench Kate the female victim is found faced down in the water this is a
approximately 6 feet in front of the park bench there are cars in the this gravel lot police are very quick to
arrive on the scene and this is quite interesting too one of the first people from law enforcement to arrive on the
scene is someone who will go on to be the lead detective for a portion of the investigation and you can see they have
his dashboard camera of him responding to the call and arriving to that gravel lot this is minutes after the 911 call
is received at 5:22 p.m. right you can see on his dashboard Cam that gravel lot and whose par there you can see a a
pickup truck you can see Carell's vehicle you can see Kate's vehicle you see the kayakers vehicle and you also
see an additional vehicle which we now know who belongs who that vehicle belongs to this is a male that arrived
with a dog after the kayakers so that vehicle wasn't there at the time of the murders
the kayakers arrived after the shots were fired after the two were killed but like you said the pickup truck was there
at the time of the murders the pickup truck was there and the two victims Vehicles were in this lot as well and as
we can see on the detectives dashboard cam the pickup truck and victim's vehicles and kayakers were all still
there when he arrived on the scene and keep in mind I want to really hit this home for people that didn't watch the
Unsolved Mysteries or don't live in this area and don't know this area you can see the road and the parking lot from
the park bench where the shots were fired and also keep in mind that it's just after 5:00 pm on a Tuesday there
would have been a good amount of traffic there on that road and there's a bridge
somewhat nearby that would have a an angular but an overhead view of this park bench that
runs Bridge runs over the river so there would have been traffic on that bridge at that time as well the lack of
eyewitnesses or ear Witnesses is astounding in this case yeah you'd think somebody driving by would have heard
something or saw something but we have these two kayakers I I wonder what they call their kayak so
there are eyewitnesses we don't think they're ear Witnesses though right exactly no they
say they didn't see anybody on foot they didn't see any bicycle they didn't hear any shots so now we
just got to look for the individual that owns this pickup truck correct and he's
still on the scene when the police arrive this is a individual that is referred to on Unsolved Mysteries as the
roofer he is going to become an intricate part of this story in my mind because the detectives say he's the
first person of interest in the case because of a simple fact we know he was there before during and after the
murders keep in mind he's the only person that they can say at this time based off of evidence that he was there
before during and after the murders right like you said before we turned on the microphones as far as we know until we
find somebody else we only have three people that we know that were all there before during and after murders and two
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hp.com [Music] [Music] garage all right we are back talk hands in the air party to the people in the
back thanks for telling your mother and thanks for telling your brother cheers to you Colonel cheers to you
captain now I had said in episode 660 that there are cases that I think are more
frightening and of course all these cases and stories affect each and every one of us in a different manner but due
to the daylight public place yeah nature of this case I think this has a greater
effect on the on the overall masses when you think about it the parks are some are are areas that we all may frequent
they're all available to us if you live in such a great area that that has these
beautiful parks that you can go to and and even scarier bring your families to and you don't know who the others are
that may be showing up as well because they're they're open to the public and so I had said on episode 660 that there
are cases that I think are more frightening than others and when we talk about a double homicide this double
homicide that takes place place in broad daylight in a public place it certainly
makes one pause and really acknowledge that unfortunately this terrifying situation could happen to any of us at
any time right and I said it again at the start of this show they're shot and killed in daylight at a public place at
a time of day when we had a good amount of traffic on nearby roads right but people arriving at the park to
kayak right but what do we know about these killers they they're they get into these
modes of seeking out opportunities it's a a form of hunting humans in one of the cases I remember
them talking about this individual driving around and he's he's spotted at night on a college campus driving around
and they're like what are you doing and he's honest with them I'm looking for opportunity
this is part this is part of what happens and if you think I'm the only one out there doing
this you're insane and so I think there's um because we've seen in the last 10 years how many cases have been
connected to Parks I think it's a type of well let's go see if there's opportunity because
there's people and they're also in in the these Parks there's people in isolated areas and so I think
it's a form of looking for opportunities or just I think some of these killers they almost get off on the idea of just
seeing that there's a possibility well that that person could be a victim that could be a situation they might not
always act upon it but the essentially what they're doing is hunting humans you know we've
known throughout history that there have been a lot of cases where a perpetrator goes and and looks for a
lone female jogger in parks and I I also think that there's a little bit of I think there's
a bit of a hyperbolic nature to the alarm raised on these murders that happen in parks and I think a large
part of that is because it gets the the per the people's attention right and it it alarms everyone and so while it's
much more common to be killed on the streets or killed in a in a home by somebody that you
know these ones these Park cases tend to spread a little further and a little wider with the coverage because of the
public interest nature of the cases now back to this roofer as said by the detective he was the first person of
interest in the case because they knew that he was there before during and after the murders well what was he doing
well he was there working in the area earlier that day drove to find a place to park and to fill out work he he was
going to be busy doing paperwork right is the best way to describe it he was busy filling out work orders and
estimates and the Metro Police say that they took a really good look at him specifically they say that they took a
look at his electronics that he was carrying with him that day this would be his cell this would be his tablet and
he's working on a laptop or tablet and a cell phone in his pickup truck after 5:00 P p.m. parked in the parking lot
the gravel lot for this park that afternoon after 5:00 p.m and they say that based off of the electronics and
the information on all of those electronics that they can confirm that he was busy working on those activities
during the time of the murders so I guess they're saying his electronic devices are his Alibi now of course
they're going to ask him did you see anything did you hear anything right and he tells police he didn't hear anything
well we know three shots were fired he didn't hear anything and on Unsolved Mysteries Carnell's mother says quote I
question that and I think that's I think she's right I think she's spot on I would
question that too well do we have any way of knowing if a silencer was used in the killings
that is something that has been brought forward and not ruled out by law enforcement but I don't think that they
have anything telling them if or if not a silencer suppressor was used in the commission of these murders
what what they do tell us though is they are lacking a motive here in the case because there's
a couple things that really add to the complexity of this case one they don't know why the two were
meeting there that day the two victims right they do say that they've ruled out robbery as the motive because Nell's
wallet and two cell phones were found in his vehicle in plain sight like just sitting on the passenger seat to me too
his two cell phones he had a work cell phone and a personal cell phone so he has no cell phone on him when he's
sitting on the park bench and he doesn't even have his wallet all these items are
in plain view on the passenger seat of his car that to me backs up what the mother was saying that she's like I
think this was just a quick ve very brief hey we need to talk about something in person and I'll be on my
way to Gra Grandma's house cuz he didn't even bother to take his personal belongings out of the vehicle and they
also point out that that they did retrieve Kate's cell phone at the murder scene and I know we went into this a
little bit earlier but Nell was shot while sitting on the bench you brought up an interesting angle that the killer
may have come back and shot Nell once again but we we can figure out based off of the murder scene that was shot while
sitting on the bench Kate had just enough time to stand up and probably attempt to flee but if you look at the
crime scene yeah she's almost like a caged animal at this point right like she there's nowhere for her to go you
have the you have the river in front of her and the killer behind her and so I don't even know that she
had much of a chance to run because she she gets up from the bench and then the killer strikes and she's found in the
water just a few inches deep I've seen at least one report saying it was about 10 in deep where she was found in the
river so she may have just fallen in there or decided the best the only place I can go is away from the
Killer is toward the river but question to you does the actions that we see at the crime scene tell you anything on who
you believe the true victim was or or was there a Target yeah that that's been a question over and over
again and and some have suggested because Carnell was shot first that he was the target my my go-to on this is
typically look unfortunately females are targeted at a much higher percentage than males and we do know in certain
situations actually in many situations if there is a female victim and male victim the male victim poses the biggest
threat to the attacker and so often times the attacker will try to eliminate the threat first
and then go after the target so that makes it all of that thinking makes it very difficult to come up with who is
the the likely Target here and keep in mind if this is completely random then right they're just both the targets
you're not really going to be able to make any sense out of this but to me I I feel like that most most of these
homicides are isolated incidents and if it were to be that I I think that the prop the percentages are going to tell
you that Kate would have been the target Carell was the threat the killer eliminated the threat Carell was 6'4
like 225 230 pounds big dude and athletic like yeah he he's described as a big teddy bear because that was his
personality but to somebody that doesn't know him 6'4 I mean that that's that's somebody that if if if anybody was going
to defend in that situation it would be him yeah I almost believe that if it was
personable or if this was personal then this would give time for Kate to know who the killer was you see
what I'm saying so if if you truly hated her and wanted her dead and was following her from for some
reason and this this was a park that she went to often and would go on walks and
do other stuff so somebody could have just been following her and said hey she's going to the park this is
opportunity but by taking out Carell and she has at least time to go oh I know who my killer is if this is a
personal issue but that's it becomes so complex and so convoluted that you I don't know if you can even determine if
it was a personal attack or not if she had enough time to even turn around I mean this to me looks like very much
like a blitz right attack now we do know that the one of the detectives who is reported to be
either the first on the scene or one of the first officers on the scene said that he believes that the most likely
place that the killer came from were to be the either the parking lot or the road which I would like to point out
means almost coming from almost the exact same positioning and he says that he believes
that the evidence supports that the two victims were approached from behind and then shots were fired three in
total and like we said earlier the detectives seemed seem less confident regarding the suspect's route of
ESS all three bullet casings were found at the scene in the water they had dive teams out there that night and on at
least two other occasions no gun was ever found well wouldn't that possibly be evidenced that points that the the
shots came from the water or do you think it's a situation where the killer collected the casings and then dumped
them in the water no the bench was so close to the water that I think there's there would have been stippling on the
at least on Cardell likely on likely on Kate as well to suggest that this was fired at very close range the park bench
was very close I mean it's she's found in the water six feet from the park bench that's how close the water is to
this park bench I just I think that the bullet casings just were expended and shot out the side of the firearm and and
fell into the water well and obviously if we have these kayakers that are looking for a place to start their
kaying Journey there's along a a a river bed you're going to find areas that go into the
water and then ones that are more like little Cliffs if that makes any sense so this area like you said it seems to be
more like a entrance point to the water so maybe it's even possible that some of
these casins rolled down yeah or I mean who knows I mean the killer could have picked them up and tossed them into the
water for all we know but um the report is that the the casings were found in the water now that's important because
what it will tell us it doesn't tell us who the Killer is but it tells us what kind of gun they used what kind of
caliber they used and they would have uh ballistics right from from the bullets which without getting
into too much are at the scene obviously and now you have the casings as well well if I'm law enforcement and tell me
if I'm wrong I get to the scene I have two dead individuals we don't know why they were there they're not a couple
they don't really have a a history as far as like recent exes that were abusive I mean I mean I think they
have some e x's in their past that you might want to look into but I don't know if they're recent if that makes any
sense you have these kayakers and then we have this other individual the roofer and we know how the victims were killed
Yeah by gun so hey guys come down to the station with me I'd love to give you a polygraph test and as we do that test uh
I would also like to do some ballistics I want to see if there's evidence of you
firing a gun that day yeah well ballistics would be conducted on a firearm but no you could test a person
for gunpowder residue that's what I meant on on on their hands or their person you'd likely just their hands but
I was trying to sound sophisticated by using the wrong term in the aftermath of this here Captain what we end up with is
a double homicide that remains unsolved and the statements are all agreed upon by law enforcement that the two kayakers
found the bodies very short time after they were killed and immediately called 911 prior to that the killer escaped
unnoticed and there were no Witnesses right we have the roofer says he didn't see anything didn't hear anything okay
but but based on what the kayakers say where was the roofer when they showed up he's sitting in his pickup truck so
because I'm just okay if I'm just trying to be on his side it's not out of the realm of possibilities I've had plumbers
I've had construction people come to my house house handymen they do some work they have paperwork that they have to
send back to their company they might sit in your driveway for a while and do that they might sit in your neighborhood
I've actually seen a couple that drive down the street a little bit and then just sit there and fill out their
paperwork before they go to the next location it's very possible that he knew of this park he pulled in there and he
turned on the radio and was blasting some tunes mhm right and then he just didn't hear
anything and wasn't paying attention his his head was down the whole time but yes
but why wouldn't you again why wouldn't you just test to see if any of these three individuals fired a gun that day
well and the the thing here too is to back up what you're saying is I have had one of those jobs that required at the
end of the day yeah you're in a vehicle for for all of the day and then at the end of the day you're required to fill
out about a whole bunch of paperwork and enter information via your phone or a tablet and it can take 45
minutes to roughly an hour so often times I would either go to like a Wendy's and get like a coffee and just
kind of sit there and and fill it out if if it weren't such a nice day but if it
was a nice day out we know this to be a nice day I would find some place nice some place beautiful to park and just
fill everything out in the vehicle in the work vehicle and so that appears to be what he was doing or at least what he
claims to have been doing now the the FBI and the families they started off a reward for
information in this case it started at $20,000 it was increased over time to eventually get up to
$100,000 that there's some some puzzling things that we're going to get into about the
the investigation and the case but one thing that angered me that I expressed in episode 660 was the Brown family put
up signs at the park asking for tips and and these were brilliant signs it was like were you here or did you drive by
on this date between 58 and 522 and the these signs did lead to people calling in and providing tips now
the metrop parks got angry about these signs because they don't want to advertise that two people were murdered
in their park and so they the Brown family was forced to remove these signs which I I thought was absolutely
ridiculous if it look if you want to you can part of policing is is proactive right but some cases this one being a
great example of that is reactive there is I can't see there being any way of preventing this crime from a police
or the parks standpoint so rather than trying to for the Metro Park to want to hide and
conceal this from the people that might visit the park because they want the people to feel safe and they want people
to believe that the parks are safe I think what would give off a better sense of security to the people
in your community is that you solve the damn homicides you find the person that did
this and you therefore you are it's instructive to others that there's a consequence for this type of action and
it's going to be severe that's the best way to be proactive for a case such as this now in
defense of the FBI they did put up some Billboards along busy highways with information about the cas
is requesting tips from the general [Music] public so much more to get to in part
two join us back here in the garage until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music]
[Music] hey friends Ted Danson here and I want to let you know about my new podcast
it's called where everybody knows your name with me Ted Danson and Woody harelson sometimes doing this podcast is
a chance for me and my good bud Woody to reconnect after cheers wrapped 30 years
ago plus we're introducing each other to the friends we've met since like Jane Fonda Conan O'Brien Eric Andre Mary
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Park Bench Murders /// Part 1 /// 820

Part 1 of 2

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On June 4th, 2019 shortly after 5pm, longtime friends Carnell (Nell) Sledge and Katherine (Kate) Brown arrived at the Rocky River Reservation in Fairview Park, Ohio. The two met at the pull-off lot north of the Lorain Road bridge. They both were shot and killed while sitting at a park bench next to the river. Anyone with information regarding these murders is asked to call the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office at 216-622-6842. Tips can also be submitted at tips.fbi.gov (http://tips.fbi.gov/)

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Brief Summary

Katherine Brown and Carnell Sledge were murdered in 2019; their case remains unsolved despite ongoing investigations and a $100,000 reward for information.

Key points

5 Years of Unsolved Murders. Tonight marks 5 years since Katherine Brown and Carnell Sledge were murdered, and police still have no leads.
A $100,000 Reward. Families are offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
The Park Bench Murders. Unsolved Mysteries recently covered the case, reigniting interest in the unsolved murders of Carnell and Katherine.
Mysterious Eyewitnesses. Despite nearby traffic, no eyewitnesses reported hearing or seeing the crime.
Public Fear. The daylight double homicide raises concerns about safety in public parks.
The Roofer's Alibi. The roofer, present before, during, and after the murders, claims he was working.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

5 years is a long time for somebody to grieve.

Reflecting on the ongoing search for justice.

4:04WatchFeb 12, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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