Screams for Help /// Part 1 /// 655 | Forensic Files

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[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] it was a normal balmy Florida night in September of 2010.
three St Johns County deputies we're getting coffee at a Hess station in St Augustine
When A call came over the radio signal 18 shots fired the 9-1-1 call came in just after 11 20
p.m on September 2nd the caller was screaming and panting his girlfriend Michelle
was unconscious on the floor he sounded hysterical to the point that the operator assumed
he was a woman please get someone to my house my girlfriend I think she just shot herself
there's blood everywhere when the operator addressed him as ma'am the caller calmed down and his voice
changed modulated and lowered he said let me tell you the truth I work with you all
he identified himself as Jeremy Banks a Saint John's Sheriff Deputy but he quickly lost it again and started
screaming at the operator to get someone there now the deputies at the Hess station
sped to 4 700 Sherlock place arriving at 11 25 pm Deputy Maynard said when they pulled up
to the house the door was open walking into the kitchen she glanced through an open door on the left and saw
feet lying on the floor Deputy Jonathan Hawley was already at the scene he was in the room with the feet a
bedroom crying oh my God for he knew the woman lying on the floor they all did she was Michelle O'Connell Jeremy
Banks's living girlfriend of over a year she Lay Dying on the bedroom floor a gunshot wound into the roof of her
mouth having penetrated her brain [Music] this is screams for help a close look at
the suspicious death of Michelle O'Connell and this is true crime garage [Music]
[Music] thank you as we heard in today's trailer Captain the sheriff's department is already on
the scene Deputy Maynard stated that when she walked in she witnessed fellow Deputy Jeremy Banks huddled crouching
down and about three feet from Michelle's body cell phone in hand he appeared almost catatonic
then the sergeant at the scene said quote we have a pulse Jeremy's affect changed immediately
according to Deputy Maynard he snapped to it and became almost angry she took him outside and tried to calm
him down this is from The New York Times which did two long exposes about this case it reads quote Ms Maynard quickly
escorted Mr Banks who had been drinking out of the house all of a sudden he started growling like an animal she said
with his fist Mr Banks pounded dents in a police car Maynard called another deputy over to help her Corral Jeremy
quote I grabbed him and tuned him up another deputy Wesley Grizzard recalled I told him I don't care if you're
intoxicated or not you better sober up very strange actions for somebody that girlfriend just shot herself very
strange indeed captain now we need to give a little background here Jeremy Banks is a
member of the sheriff's department he's only 23 years old and from what I can see he appears to be a bit of a hot head
and his actions not always making sense in other situations let alone this one obviously Deputy
Maynard later said that the change in Jeremy's affect when a pulse was found she found that to be very alarming she
said that she noticed he smelled like booze but also smelled like soap and appeared to be clean paramedics tried to
save Michelle for 23 minutes but it was a lost cause and unfortunately she was pronounced dead at 11 48 PM that night
well just to be clear Jeremy is a deputy as well so he has all the training that
these deputies had but when they came into the house and saw Jeremy there he wasn't trying in any manner to use his
training to save his girlfriend Now spoiler alert eventually Jeremy banks will lawyer up and that same scenario
that same line of questioning was asked of his lawyer and his lawyer says look in that moment I do not believe that my
client Jeremy was behaving or in Deputy mode at that moment he was in boyfriend citizen mode in probably unsure of what
to do those are not his lawyers exact words but on many levels I can agree with what his
lawyer is stating but if your girlfriend is dying and you have training to help her
you would help her as her boyfriend doesn't matter if you're in Deputy mode or boyfriend mode
both people have the same training this will bring us to what we are going to refer to as Jeremy's first interview
this takes place an hour and a half later this is now September 3rd at 1 23 a.m and we have detective Jessica Hines who
is interviewing Jeremy in a squad car outside of the house and this is all being recorded on tape
Jeremy is telling the detective that he and Michelle were at the amphitheater for a concert earlier that night
and saying that they did argue a little bit while they were there he says we you
know argued a little bit earlier today but nothing terrible just we were both fed up with each other's bullcrap that
we've been going we've been dealing with we've been together a year in some odd months I enjoyed the show she enjoyed
the show and in the car we were talking about it we had decided that we were going to break up she was going to move
out then on this tape we have about 25 seconds that are missing and it's noted that those 25 seconds have been deleted
now in all fairness it could be just silence radio silence during that 25 seconds we don't know
he goes on to say that we came home and we weren't arguing when we got home we got home and we talked about it we just
said you know enough's enough we've been fighting we're done and we're tired of each other's [ __ ]
and I told her that I do love her and I love Alexis her little girl but I just don't feel like we're best
friends anymore we're just it's not working out and she agreed and then he says this is when he goes and he sat on
his motorcycle which is located in the garage and that's when he says I heard the gun pop
the detective asked him to clarify you were outside in the yard question mark the driveway question mark
Jeremy's response my motorcycle was in the garage I was sitting on it with my head down just upset about you know the
breakup I heard it pop I knew exactly what it was just Instinct I said quote Oh [ __ ]
and I ran inside I started screaming her name and the bedroom door was locked and
I screamed her name again and I heard it go off again for the second time he's referring to the gun I ran into the
living room I grabbed the phone and I kicked the bedroom door in and I found her meaning Michelle lying where she is
in this moment they've not removed her from the scene they tried to save her life for approximately 23 minutes or so
were unsuccessful and now they are I'm using air quotes here processing the scene obviously Jeremy is upset but to
kind of break down this evening from what Michelle's friends and family have said that she told people hey I think
we're going to break up but I have these concert tickets I already asked Jeremy to go I think we're going to have a good
time so I'm just going to take him to the show and I might actually break up with
him that night so like Jeremy's story they start heading back from the concert they start talking about their
differences they decide mutually this isn't working out and she's going to have a week or so to move her stuff out
of his house but the rest of the story obviously we don't know how true this story is
because we only have one side and then there seems to be some kind of contradictions like when he says oh well
we we're both kind of tired of our [ __ ] and then but I'm going to be sitting on
my motorcycle upset uh basically with my head in my hands when he hears this gunshot go off yeah and then we have
this interview if you want to call it that that continues on and I thought that the the parts that I could hear and
have included here in our telling of this True Crime Story look I get it that they're colleagues
and they've probably known each other for a handful of years or so I thought that the detective was
incredibly over the top casual in the questioning of Jeremy Banks now maybe that's a good thing maybe she's
trying to put on this Persona and give off this vibe that hey you just experienced the worst thing possible
I'm Gonna Keep It kind of light in in this moment while we're recording but I just I don't know I found her to be
a little too casual it was it was a little uncomfortable for me to listen to to the conversation
to be frank I agree with you on some level but we have evidence of this Jeremy guy acting like a lunatic they
show up there he is basically on top of the body once they get a pulse he starts becoming angry
and punching according to according to Deputy Maynard yes those are actions of somebody that like you said I mean he
has this known temper so maybe her strategy was I'm gonna try to remain as calm as possible so I can keep him as
calm as possible in the detective's vehicle detective Heinz asked if Jeremy was drinking that night Jeremy is
forthcoming saying yes I was drinking beer Heinz says what kind Jeremy says Bud Light Heinz goes uh and laughs
um this is yeah kind of what I what I meant here Jeremy responds big ones you know I'm assuming he means the big cans
which you get it at the uh concerts Heinz goes on to say how many do you think you had Jeremy says four five
maybe when he says big ones I don't know if he's talking about 16 ounces or 22 ounces well that's what she's 522 ounces
is a lot of beer yeah Heinz asked Jeremy to describe what he did when he kicked the door open
Jeremy is crying during his response or at least that's what I believe I'm hearing
he says I kicked the door open and I kind of veered in and I saw her feet I ran in and by this point he's he's
crying hard he says I saw blood coming out and I just grabbed her hand and I started I dialed 9-1-1
now we need to point out here Michelle was found with a gun lying next to her and this gun
is Jeremy's service weapon so we have a 9-1-1 call we have the deputy showing up
they see one of their own over the victim the victim appears that she shot herself it's with his gun and
then once they get a pulse of the victim the deputy that they know the boyfriend
he starts acting erratic and now they're doing this interview correct and I hate
to keep kind of underlining this but I think that it's important to do so that that behaving erratically is according
to one Deputy I couldn't find anybody else backing up that statement the closest I could find was the other
Deputy saying that he grabbed Jeremy up and told him I don't care if you've been
drinking but you need to sober up yeah but there should be some evidence of this if he
put dents in the cop car well exactly and maybe that's part of the problem right that that evidence is not
available to the general public that that evidence is being withheld or covered up right
it's worth noting that for most of the interview in my humble garage opinion here that while we can hear or I believe
I can hear Jeremy crying at times during this interview for large portions of this interview Jeremy does not sound sad
at all to me uh he I never hear him say Michelle's name at any time he does admit that he did
not try to perform CPR or anything of that nature he did say that he held her hand a little but when First Responders
came in he was not doing that he was about three feet from Michelle he also very strangely admitted to detective
Heinz that he initially tried to obscure his identity in the 9-1-1 call now this
is weird this is very strange red flag yeah it's look I've heard the 911 call and that's what I thought he may have
been doing or again in the moment maybe he's not thinking clearly look I thank God in heaven that I've never had to
find myself in a situation like this so I do not know how I would respond how I would behave I don't know that there is
a common or typical way to behave in this scenario but what's weird is that he is openly
emitting this to the detective in this interview in her vehicle an hour and a half later well I think a lot of people
assume that when you find a loved one that you're going to be hysterical and that's what I think a lot of these
people that call 9-1-1 that are possibly guilty of a crime they almost act hysterical because that's what they
think they should be acting like and look I can't say for certain but if one of my loved ones died and they had the
911 tape of me calling 9-1-1 I'd probably be criticized for being overly calm but that's because in any of these
emergency type situations the best thing you can do is to try to stay calm right
the other thing too is don't kill your girlfriend right so then you don't have to figure
out how to act on the 9-1-1 call I'm not saying that that's 100 what happened here we want to go through all of the
information first before we give an opinion but yeah it's I think in in any scenario
where people are suspicious I don't I'm to the point Captain where I think I've heard enough of these 9-1-1 calls and I
don't think it matters if you're over the top hysterical if you're completely calm somewhere in between I think if
people are suspicious of you they're going to be suspicious of you hearing that call having said that I think now
is a good time to play that 9-1-1 call [Laughter] is she still breathing no there's blood
coming out of everywhere please okay she's not breathing call dispatch on tattoo get them here now
calm down again to me this is somebody making a 9-1-1 call and going how am I supposed
to act because he comes in you can't understand a word he's saying he's shouting that address and when they
start calling him ma'am it's almost like it pissed him off and then he's like and then he he's it's
a Freudian slip but he says let me tell you the truth and he says and then he's like I'm one of you and he calms down
now he's telling you the information you need to know now here's my problem if you're not in law enforcement and you
and you are hysterical and you don't know how to calm yourself down that would make some sense but this [ __ ]
is trained he's trained as a deputy he has to call in how many times has he showed up to a scene that there's an
emergency and he has to be professional and get the information to the people and he knows how important
that information is so he has training in CPR into in in medical things that he could have done
to help save his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend however you want to look at it but he also has training on how to give
information to dispatchers and he doesn't it's like he doesn't use any of that training
but I think it's on purpose that he's not using any of that training agreed I mean you don't want if he is guilty of
shooting his girlfriend and ending her life he doesn't want to save her or help her
or or provide help to her be it through somebody else right because then he's got we we now have a
living witness who can tell us okay Jeremy may be telling you this story but here's my story and by the way I'm the
one that took the bullet so the thing that's incredibly weird to me there's a few things that jump right
out that tape right off the tape there first off I think my girlfriend just shot herself is the
way that he first explains it yet when he talks to detective Heinz an hour and 25 30 minutes later
he's saying I heard the pop and I knew what it was immediately right he then tells
detective Heinz that he kicked in the door and he finds her after hearing a second pop and there's
blood coming out of everywhere according to what he says on 9-1-1 so it look I know he lives on a street
named Sherlock place it does not take Sherlock Holmes to figure out if you knew what that pop was immediately like
you told the detective later and you kicked down the door and she's on the floor and blood's coming out of
everywhere it's not I think my girlfriend shot herself it's my girlfriend shot herself so that's a
weird way of of kind of delivering or not fully delivering the information like you're saying Captain but then
can I'm not the only one hearing how drastically his voice changes when he's called ma'am a couple of times Bingo and
it's like his it's like he was he using a different voice on purpose in the beginning
he was acting was he acting I'm an actor and then his voice changes completely when he's called ma'am it's almost like
you hear the bonehead Meathead 23 year old dude coming out in this guy douche and it's almost like Eric Cartman
you will respect my authority yeah situation where it's like hey not only am I a man you know it's sir it's sir
and not only is it sir but I'll tell you the truth I work with y'all I'll tell you the truth so you weren't
telling us the truth earlier or you were purposely concealing this which we now know is fact he was purposely concealing
his job his job title and who he works for in that call per what he tells detective Heinz his friend who's being
extremely casual and um cordial with him in the moment he tells her that he was attempting to
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betterhelp today thank you [Music] all right we are back the cheers mates hang on to the edge of your seats this
is going to be a wild one the attempting to conceal his identity is very fishy incredibly strange to me it's just
it like and here's here's where my head goes with it then is he thinking that if I don't say
that on the 9-1-1 call if I don't let the operator know who I am what job I hold I know that somebody from the
sheriff's office that I work at will be responding to the scene and likely may be the very first person
on the scene can I tell them what what went down according to me Jeremy Banks and they buy Hook Line and Sinker and
then tell it to the other people that respond and now I've just controlled the narrative and by the way I've controlled
it in a controlled environment that is not outside of the people responding and showing up to my home on this night
instead he slips and he lets out his job and now maybe this became something bigger
than he wanted from Jump Street what we do know that does happen 100 percent is that St
John's County Sheriff's Office kept the investigation in-house very quickly they are saying it was not an officer
involved shooting this situation was a suicide yeah I don't have a problem with them staying on the investigation but
maybe bring in a separate entity right away to double check your work even if it's
just one or two officers from another department they can come in and and double check
the work but I think there's enough contradicting storylines and narratives that Jeremy
Banks is telling the officers and his erratic behavior when she seems to be in the erratic behavior when it
seems like there's a chance that she could live I think that's enough red flags and then if you go back and listen
to the 9-1-1 tape and he told you he's concealing his identity but then you can hear it so drastically so he's putting
up a front he is lying to the dispatchers for what reason you have no reason to lie to the
dispatchers if your girlfriend actually shot herself and I also thought it was an interesting line two lines you
pointed out when he said I think she shot herself and then he says she shot herself with my gun correct me if I'm
wrong Captain but the end of that 9-1-1 call he has asked a direct question of is she breathing
and he says no there's blood coming out of everywhere right is that is that what
he says is my recall correct there I believe you're correct so you're correct sir again he's trained and even if
you're not trained I can tell you this from my days working security and responding to accidents and certain
situations a lot of times you do not need to hear or check to see if someone's breathing to know that they
are breathing because in a situation where somebody is severely injured they sound different than when they are not
injured when they are breathing so it's it's a gurgling noise it's it's a very obvious situation that their lungs are
going up and down now it's very interesting to me that he says no she's not breathing there's blood
coming out of everywhere all right okay given the wounds and we'll go through some of the autopsy information here as
we continue on I would expect some blood to be coming out of everywhere what I'm getting at
here Captain is giving where given where she was shot or shot herself I could give him the benefit of the doubt if he
just did not know that she was breathing I'm not saying that she was what I am saying is that when EMTs arrived on the
scene what do we know that they did they attempted to save her life for 23 minutes right what is missing from the
public information about this investigation and all by the way if you don't rule it a homicide if you rule it
a suicide then all of this should be public knowledge this should be public information that we all have access to
what's missing from this investigation I want to know from that EMT from that that paramedic the first one on the
scene when you got to Michelle was she breathing because if she was he tells the 911 operator no she's not breathing
there's blood coming out of everywhere guess what where she was shot there would be blood coming out of her nose
and mouth because of her breathing and attempting to breathe and he would know that
per not just his training but any human with eyeballs would recognize that well no and and to
be fair maybe he's just in a State of Shock okay give you that one and I can give him this idea that look we all have
been trained to do things I've brought it up many times on the show you're trained as a banker what to do when
robbed most the time when you are robbed you do nothing that you were trained to
do because you're in shock okay fair so that's why you didn't go to her Aid and you didn't try to start doing CPR or any
um emergency measures to try to save her life but then you call 9-1-1 because you're like I can't help her I'll call
9-1-1 okay fine but then when you call 9-1-1 you have training of how to talk to dispatchers how to try to remain calm
during an emergency and you didn't do that and you actually tried to hinder the process
it's uh and I would like to know roughly what the time of death would be because I
wonder did he pause did he walk around the house did he um did he sing 99 bottles of beer on the
wall before he called 9-1-1 to make sure by the time that by the time that the EMTs got there that she
wouldn't be breathing right she was pronounced dead at 11 48 p.m and remember the call came in at
approximately 11 20 p.m that night and we have deputies arriving on the scene at 11 25
PM we have Deputy Maynard who says that she was there by that time and when she arrives on the scene there's already
Deputy Jonathan Hawley who is present on the scene at that time so very quick and
a very decent response time there uh the other thing too Captain you're hitting on some things here may have been con
trying to control the narrative a couple things I want to point out about his interview with Detective Heinz is in
that initial interview he says he tells detective Heinz and this is where he may have been
trying to control the narrative because again we only have one person to tell us
what was going on in the scenario and maybe he's trying or attempting to present evidence of
a suicide or her suicide so for example he tells detective Heinz that the last thing he said to Michelle before he went
out and sat on his motorcycle was quote I love you please don't do anything stupid
now he said earlier that evening when they were fighting that Michelle had told him or said to
him quote you make me so mad I want to kill myself yeah to me that sounds like he's controlling the narrative or trying
to let's just talk about it look statistically women are less likely to kill themselves
by gunfire so and I'm not saying that it's impossible but it's also strange that he is drunk
or at least heavily intoxicated where is he going to ride his motorcycle to he was not going to ride the motorcycle
anywhere he was just sitting on the motorcycle so he's just sitting outside trying to chill out trying to cool off
according to yes according to what he was saying but even his statement when he walks out and he says well don't hurt
yourself or don't do anything stupid or whatever his comment was to me that almost implies that he was
heading off to go somewhere so the death scene quickly became chaotic and confusing as we can imagine here
everyone from the St John Sheriff's Office showed up to offer condolences and moral support to their fellow
officer Jeremy his family and friends arrived as well he talked quietly with his stepfather who is a deputy sheriff
from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office this before he was interviewed about what happened that night and when he was
he was interviewed in a Cop Car by a colleague detective Heinz as we already pointed out now after Michelle's body
was cleared the house was sealed up for Crime Scene texts to pour over but they didn't do
much in the way of investigating as far as I can see Jeremy said that it was a suicide officers at the scene said
Michelle had a gunshot wound through the mouth and the gun was found right next to her they noted a bullet buried in the
floor right next to where Michelle's right arm had been and this and these parts of what they're
seeing at the scene is and was consistent with Jeremy's story that he had heard two shots
now crime scene photos show Michelle lying sprawled on the floor and the positioning and the details of the gun
are of Interest the gun a Heckler and Koch 45 caliber pistol is lying on the carpeted floor
it's got an attached attack Searchlight the TAC light is on the St John Sheriff's Office concluded
that Michelle may be unfamiliar with weapons and not used to handling them and accidentally turned the TAC light on
as she used the gun on herself further disciplinary records show that Jeremy was known for failing to secure
his gun in the past he openly has admitted that sometimes after work he just dropped his gun belt
on the floor where anyone could get at it well that's safe I want to point something out here regardless of what
happened in this situation if Michelle did kill herself if Jeremy is not responsible for her
death leaving your service weapon unsecured in a house that has a child in it this is not a good police officer no
he's a douchebag and on top of that just think think about this for a second you
you have this conversation on the way home you guys are talking about ending the relationship she has made some
comments to you that you think are alarming that you're you're later going to tell people about in these interviews
so instead instead of walking out to the garage and sitting on your motorcycle when he says oh don't do something
stupid or don't do something to harm yourself you'd think at that point he would go
figure out where his gun was and make sure that it was locked away and secure very quickly the Sheriff's Office
wrapped up the investigation at the scene Michelle despondent over the breakup had taken her own life I guess
would be the conclusion here now we do have some of the detectives that are backing up that conclusion so
we have one that says quote for her to stand still and allow someone to put a firearm in her mouth is ridiculous that
came from Eugene Tolbert who was one of two detectives on the case Tolbert said every time anything came up
that looked inconsistent with suicide there was something to explain it his partner detective Heinz said in a
recorded interview quote I didn't have any suspicions that it was anything other than suicide I think that's what
we were all kind of discussing but just making sure that we covered our bases end quote Yeah but their investigation
that night is roughly three hours it takes them roughly three hours to state that this is a suicide and again if it
is a suicide then the case is closed and all that information should be released
to the public but if I'm in charge and everybody at the crime scene or my co-workers are saying look
Chief this is looking like a suicide to me I'd go yep okay well let's wait till the
corner report let's keep the scene under lock and key and then let's if that's our finding
let's bring in another department and have them double check our work and then if we still rule a suicide again
then we can take our information and the information from the other law enforcement source
and release that information because that's what you owe it to Michelle's family well and you could also go into
Eric Cartman mode and respect my authority it's not Chief it's Captain all right
all right but sir there are so many ways and keep in mind here the sheriff in charge of St John's he's been around the
block he's been he's been elected Sheriff time and time again he can call in a favor he knows people he knows the
other sheriffs in the surrounding jurisdictions he could call in and say you know what can you send a couple
people out here we even if he wanted his team to work the case or work the scene
right send some people out as Witnesses or send some people out to get involved or
be a part of the investigation the proper thing to do would be to hand it completely over as quickly as possible
as you can to another agency yeah but I could see because you're the responding officers I could see why you would just
stay and stay in charge and bring in some outside uh sources as as basically uh checks and balance
system I'm going to continue on with the information that they the sheriff's department the sheriff's office has put
out there in regard to the situation and their rolling of a suicide they go on to
say that Michelle had no bruises on her body there was no disarray in the house or evidence of a struggle
obviously anybody that's dove into this case knows that there was a cut over Michelle's right eye but this is
explained Away by the Sheriff's Office saying that it could have happened as she fell after shooting herself which
does not go with even the initial autopsy findings the initial autopsy findings state that she was either
kneeling down sitting or lying on the floor when she shot herself her falling I guess maybe even if she
was kneeling or sitting up that that that's what they're saying where the the right eye cut could have come from
and we'll get into this cut a little bit more because there are some scientific findings that change throughout this
case but this is their initial reaction to that their other reaction to that cut
is also that it could have been the result of the positioning of the gun which one expert is telling us may have
been upside down and you talk about statistics Captain where they say that it is less likely
for women to use a gun to commit suicide one stat that is weird is that it is very common that when a gun is used in a
female suicide that they tend to use both hands and so this other expert is saying that
the he believes that she was holding the gun with both hands and one argument that the family has
always had was that look she she was right-handed the guns found near her left hand
well this might explain away that scenario because they're saying she would not have used her weaker less
dominant hand and the experts are saying well she probably used both hands and the gun was upside down now they go on
to say that the recoiling of the gun after the shot could have created that cut which is very difficult to believe
because a gun doesn't recoil forward it recoils backward away from where the shots fired so that
doesn't ring true it rings less true to me than than uh the idea that it would have
moved forward and created this bruise Cut Above her right eye the other thing too
that I want to point out and make perfectly clear if if we were reviewing a homicide case
yes sir or a child abduction case which we do a lot of those here right we always talk about motive even if we know
who the perpetrator was or even if we don't know who the perpetrator was right we talk about what could be the possible
motive in those scenarios well let's talk about what could be the possible motive for her to commit
suicide because I couldn't I couldn't find him yeah my issue here too is like if her
friends and family are telling us what's correct and now this is not information
that the deputies got right away and this is not in their report of them claiming it's a suicide because they
just didn't do their work to interview and and talk to everybody but when you talk to the fan friends and family and
they say well yeah she was planning on ending this relationship and but going to the concert anyways so
the fact that she would be so distraught over this breakup that she was planning to initiate
doesn't make a lot of sense to me it's almost like I mean take another suicide scenario man
loses his job he's distraught goes home and kills himself most of the time a man
doesn't quit his job and is so distraught that he quit his job to start a new life that he goes home
and kills himself yeah if it doesn't add up if it's reactionary it's reactionary
because it's something that is out of your control right right being fired from your job opposed to willingly
quitting your job where here it doesn't make any sense even the wording that he says she told
me you make me so mad that I want to kill myself okay let's set that aside for just one second and examine that in
in just a minute that's one of the dumbest statements but ever first of all she told people in advance I'm breaking
up with him this night tonight after the concert I'm breaking up with him how do
we know that happened because several people told her you know what maybe you probably shouldn't go to the concert
right this seems like a big deal maybe you shouldn't go to the concert fill in the blanks here for people that don't
know the case I get why she went to the concert she paid for the tickets concerts aren't cheap and on top of that
it wasn't just Jeremy and Michelle going to the concert it was three couples yeah
very good point so this was like a group event why not go and have a good time or
at least attempt to you've you've only been with this guy for his own words a year in some odd
months living girlfriend for over a year this is not like love of your life scenario
well and and again she knows that not that she's going to break up with him it's not something that is out
of her control she could have chose to do that at another time she has a daughter
she's a good mother there's no I could see no reason for her to kill herself and then let's say that let's say that
for some reason she did say to Jeremy you make me so mad I want to kill myself well doesn't that sound like a vengeful
angry thing wouldn't you do that in as much of a way possible to hurt him right out of anger I'm not going to sit
here and pretend to be an expert on suicide but I would think that that would involve something a little more up close
and personal than locking yourself in a bedroom while your ex-significant other is who knows where yeah I I get people's
argument of if you're gonna break up with Jeremy that you don't go to the concert with him
but if he's planning on the going to that concert with you and then you then tell him hey I'm going to take somebody
else we know that this guy has been violent or physical towards her based on what her friends and family
have said we know that they've had very heated arguments that people when when she's
talking about her relationship to friends and family they all know that it's more argumentative than a positive
it's more of a negative relationship than a positive relationship if you don't go to the concert with Jeremy and
you go with somebody else or just go by yourself you're running the risk of him calling
harassing you and ruining your experience when you spent the money on these tickets now I will say there are
some weird text messages from Michelle's phone that night and nobody is disputing that these texts
come from Michelle herself and these to me would make me call into question the idea of
suicide here so she had sent some texts to her friends in some of her family that night
this is on the way and on the way to and from the Paramore concert that she and Jeremy went to so she texts her friend
Mindy Fox at 8 14 PM saying quote I'm stressed out she texts her sister Christine
shortly before 9 pm saying promise me one thing Lexi which is her daughter will be happy and always have a good life now
we should note here because I'm sure some people are asking this question Lexi is her daughter from a previous
relationship not Jeremy Banks's daughter right I believe she's eight years old at
the time her sister responding to the text comes back with promise you what question mark and Michelle responds that
no matter what Lexi will always be safe and loved Michelle responded make sure Lexi is number one not like us
her sister responds what's going on I'm scared so I'm not the only one that thinks that these texts are weird
clearly her sister does as well now a text to her brother Scott Michelle wrote at 10 06 pm
Lexi never forget now to some of the investigators these texts were as good as a suicide note I
think he can make an argument either way I think you could say that these sound suicidal and that she's possibly
going to do something to herself and I think you can make the argument that they sound like somebody that's now
in a a difficult situation or maybe abusive situation and she's afraid for her life yes I wonder here if this while
it sounds like she may know that the end is near for her so that would Point towards suicide
you could flip the coin and it land on the other side to me which would say maybe she's experienced some physical
abuse from Jeremy Banks or was concerned that that's the level that this thing could get to and escalate to tonight
and I'm just doing the motherly thing and making sure that I've circled the wagons and my friends and family have my
back and my daughters back and I know that no matter how this ends for me or what comes of tonight that my daughter
will be taken care of hell who knows a lot of times in these situations yes we do have an abuser but
there are some times where we have situations where people just physically fight each other
and that to me is very different than abuse who's to say that it's never come to
that for them who's to say that these strange texts don't mean well if I end up in jail tonight
because I gotta defend myself or because he and I sometimes get into it in the worst way
will my daughter be taken care of tomorrow and the following day and the day after
that and so I can figure this thing out as said the investigators believe these texts were as good as a suicide note we
know that based off of what uh the sheriff in charge said in his report and then we also have the St Johns County
Medical Examiner who seemed to agree because the cause of death was a rule to suicide
and an intro oral gunshot wound this was the ruling by Dr Frederick Hoban who issued the determination and
on the autopsy worksheet the doctor's notes say under how injury occurred quote decedent shot herself with an HG
meaning a hand gun one thing that is weird we keep citing statistics here but one thing that is
weird that we should know is the an intra-oral gunshot are almost exclusively suicides
so just within hours of the shooting a Saint John's Sheriff's Office Deputy went to Michelle's sister's home and
said well the investigation is done it's a suicide and no other explanation was given
[Music] thank you I want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage so much more to get
to join us back here in the garage tomorrow same bat Time same bat Channel and until then be good be kind and don't
litter [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music]

Screams for Help /// Part 1 /// 655

Part 1 of 2

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September 2, 2010 - a 911 call comes in requesting help. When deputies arrive at the scene they find a woman that is unresponsive. The 911 caller is the homeowner, boyfriend of the woman and a deputy as well. He tells his fellow officers that he was outside in the garage when he heard a shot. He says he ran inside and heard a second shot. He tells emergency services and the responding officers that his girlfriend shot herself after the two broke up that night. It was immediately apparent that it was his service gun that was used in the shooting. What is unclear is whose finger pulled the trigger. This began one incredibly questionable investigation. Was the Sheriff’s office covering for one of their own? Join us in the Garage as we review the suspicious death of Michelle O’Connell.

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

Brief Summary

The episode examines the suspicious death of Michelle O'Connell and the investigation involving her boyfriend, Deputy Jeremy Banks, raising questions about suicide versus foul play.

Key points

The 911 Call. A frantic call reveals a shocking situation. 'I think she just shot herself.'
Jeremy's Erratic Behavior. Witnesses describe Jeremy's strange actions after finding Michelle. 'He started growling like an animal.'
Missing Tape in Interview. Jeremy's interview has a mysterious 25-second gap. What happened during that time?
The Gunshot Incident. Jeremy recounts the moment he heard the gunshot. 'I heard the pop and I knew what it was immediately.'
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Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think she just shot herself.

Caller in a panic about his girlfriend.

3:41WatchMar 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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