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

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[Music] [Music] right it was a normal bommy Florida night in September of 2010 three St John's County deputies
were getting coffee at a h station in St Augustine When A call came over the radio signal 18 shots fired the 911 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 me tell you the truth I work with you all he identified himself as Jeremy Banks a St 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 H station sped to 4700 Sherlock Place arriving at 11:25
p.m. 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 Holly 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 oconnell 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 this is screams for help a close look at the suspicious death of Michelle oconnell and this is true crime
[Music] garage [Music] as we heard in today's trailer Captain the sheriff's department is already on
the scene Deputy mayard stated that when she walked in she witnessed fellow Deputy Jeremy Banks huddled crouching
down and about 3 ft from Michelle's body cell phone and hand he appeared almost catonic 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 M 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 DSE in a police car manard 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 in 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 uh 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
a 11:48 p.m. 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 at23 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 bull crap 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 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 try 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 I look I get it that their 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 going to keep it kind of
like 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 the 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 going to try to remain as calm as possible so I can keep him as
calm as possible in the detective's vehicle detective Hines asked if Jeremy was drinking that night Jeremy is
forthcoming saying yes I was drinking beer Hines says what kind Jeremy says Bud Light Hines goes uh and laughs um
this is 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 at at the uh concerts Hines 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 oers or 22 oers well that's what she said 522 O is a lot of beer
yeah 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 911 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 911 call we have the
deputies 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 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 3T from shell he
also very strangely admitted to detective Hines that he initially tried to obscure his identity in the 911 call
now this is weird this is very strange red flag yeah it's it 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
admitting 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 911 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 have the
911 tape of me calling 911 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 911 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 suspicous icious I don't I'm to the point Captain
where I think I've heard enough of these 911 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 911 call oh 911
hey please get some into my house it's 4700 WR pleas what's going on please to my girlfriend I think she just shot
herself in blood every please she what she shot herself please pleas ma'am ma'am I need you to
calm down it's sir listen to sir it's sir listen hang on let me tell you the truth I'm Deputy banks at the St scy
Sheriff office I'm I work with y'all get someone here now okay I need you to calm
down then you know how it goes what's the address I don't 4700 shock place okay what's going on there my girlfriend
just shot herself with my weapon please get someone here now please sir sir we're doing that while I'm talking to
you is she still breathing no there's blood coming out of everywhere please please okay she she's not breathing call
dispatch on Tac two get them here now I are on the phone I need to calm down coming as fast as we can okay calm
down for me okay you don't understand please get some here to me this is somebody making a
9911 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 the 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 fraudi and 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 is 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 agree 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 Hines 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 Hines 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 911 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 kick down the door and she's on the floor and bloods
coming out of everywhere it's not I think my girlfriend shot herself it's my girlfriend sh not 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 Bing go
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 and then his voice changes completely when he's called ma'am it's
almost like you hear the bonad meat head 23y 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 Hines his friend who's being
extremely casual and um cordial with him in the moment he tells her that he was attempting to conceal his identity in
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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 that is he thinking
that if I don't say that on the 911 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% 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 and 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 911 tape and he told you he's concealing his identity but then you can
hear it so drastically so he's put in 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 911 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 day working security and responding to accidents and sit 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 give 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 20 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 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 91 one 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 in 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 of 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 called 91 1 because you're like I can't
help her I'll call 9111 okay fine but then when you call 911 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 try 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 911 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 p.m. 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 Holly 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 trying to control the
narrative a couple things I want to point out about his interview with Detective Hines is in that initial
interview he says Jer he tells detective Hines 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 Hines that the last thing he said to Michelle before he went out and sat on his motorcycle 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's
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 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 Hines as we already pointed out now after Michelle's body
was cleared the house was sealed up for Crime Scene text 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 cotch 45 caliber
pistol is lying on the carpeted floor it's got an attached tack search light the tack light is on the St John
Sheriff's Office concluded that Michelle may be unfamiliar with weapons and not used to handling them had accidentally
turned the tack 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 Bel 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 L you're later going to tell people about in these
interviews so in 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 Mak sure that it was locked away and secure very quickly the Sheriff's Office wrapped up the in
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 Hines 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 3
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 coordinator report let's keep the
scene on under locking 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 in respect my authori it's not Chief it's Captain all
right right it's sir godam it 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 are the responding officers I could see why you would just stay in stay in charge and bring in some
outside uh sources as uh 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 ruling
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 obvious ly 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're 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 SL Cut Above her right eye the other thing too that I want to point out and make perfectly
clear if if we were rev viewing 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 I couldn't I couldn't find it
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 F 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 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 and some odd months living girlfriend for over a year this is not like love ofy 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 involv 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 going to
break up with Jeremy that you you don't go to the concert with him but if he's planning on that 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 vient 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 pH 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 and 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 text her friend Mindy Fox at 8:14 p.m. saying quote I'm stressed
out she texts her sister Christine shortly before 900 p.m. 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 were asking this question Lexi is her daughter from a previous relationship not Jeremy Banks's
daughter right I believe she's 8 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 p.m. Lexi never forget now to some of the investigators
these texts were as good as a suicide note I think you 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 toward 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 daughter's 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 sometimes 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 got to 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 until 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
John's County Medical Examiner who seemed to agree because the cause of death was a ruled a
suicide and an intral oral gunshot wound this was the ruling by Dr Frederick hobin who issued the determination and
on the autopsy worksheet the doctor's notes say under how injury occurred quote deant 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 that an intraoral gunshot are almost exclusively suicides so just within hours of the
shooting a St 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 [Music]
given 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
[Music] [Applause] litter [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
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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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Brief Summary

The episode investigates the suspicious death of Michelle O'Connell and the questionable actions of her boyfriend Jeremy Banks.

Key points

The Scene of the Crime. Deputies arrive to find Michelle O'Connell dying on the floor. Jeremy's behavior is alarming.
Jeremy's Erratic Behavior. After finding a pulse, Jeremy becomes angry and aggressive, raising further questions.
A Disturbing 911 Call. Jeremy Banks calls 911, claiming his girlfriend shot herself. His demeanor raises suspicions.
The Voice Change. His voice drastically changes when called 'ma'am', raising suspicion about his identity.
Concealing Identity. He attempts to conceal his identity during the 911 call, which raises red flags.
Investigation Conclusion. The St John's County Sheriff's Office quickly concludes the case as a suicide.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is screams for help!

Narrator describing the situation of Michelle's death.

6:17WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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