Screams for Help /// Part 2 /// 656 | Forensic Files

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man who hits St Patrick's Day like a hyper juicy Berserker here is the captain I drink
all the green beers not just one all of them it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
Tona [Music] friend I am and we are extra excited to be featuring this wonderful beer from
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and thanks to our friends for helping us out with this week's Beer Run let's give
a couple shout outs here Captain first up we have Katie and Aurora Ontario and a big we like your jib to Michael juel
in Parts Unknown Mexico a little Parts Unknown springing up down in New Mexico we also have Sonia in Parts Unknown she
wants to be in charge of litter control and I say have at it uh but we will not be able to pay you Sonia so thank you
for your efforts and for your help well there's no littering in Parts Unknown because it's penalized that by death or
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us out at true crme garage and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] the St John's Sheriff's Office wrapped
up their investigation quickly determining that Michelle O'Connell's death was a suicide Michelle's family
disagreed the Hasty closure of the investigation and the rushed ruling did not sit well with them and they demanded
further investigation but this was very very complicated because not only was Michelle dating a deputy in the St
John's County Sheriff's Office her mother and brother Scott worked for St John's Sheriff's Office as well Scott
was a deputy like Jeremy and actually introduced Michelle to Jeremy right Patty Michelle's mother was a clerk in
the office but despite their affiliation with the Sheriff's Office Michelle's family realized very quickly that the
Sheriff's Office had closed ranks almost immediately in order to protect one of their own even at the crime scene this
was very interesting to me here Captain this part right here this does not sit well with me at all so let's go back to
the crime scene Jeremy's family was allowed in the home Michelle's brother a sheriff's office Deputy in that
jurisdiction was held back by his fellow officers he was not allowed to enter the
home that makes zero sense of course they could have been trying to Shield him from seeing his sister dying on the
floor I get that but for another thing here her family Michelle's family says that she would not have absolutely would
not have killed herself and I get it most families in suicide cases say this but I believe that there may be some
proof here so let's start off with this idea one fact in this case is that Michelle had just landed her dream job
and was supposed to start this dream job the very next day she would be working full-time in a daycare center for kids
this was a dream of hers teaching and working with children the job offered things that she had been striving for
working towards in her life these things such as benefits including health insurance for her and her daughter and a
retirement plan and the Clincher she could bring her daughter Lexi to work with her every day Lexi would be allowed
to attend the daycare with her mom the daycare that her mom would be teaching at we also know that Michelle had plans
to meet up with a friend Mindy Fox on the night that she died furthermore around 10 p.m. Michelle texts her sister
who was watching her daughter Lexi saying quote I'll be there soon to pick up her daughter and Michelle was in fact
packing to leave Jeremy for good right we know that based off of what Jeremy said we know that off of one of the
couples after the concert actually goes back to Jeremy's house with Michelle and
Jeremy they witness some of this they're only there for a few minutes but they say that when they left two things
happened Michelle was packing to leave Jeremy that night and Jeremy told the other couple everything would be okay so
they decided to leave but again look at the motive why would you be packing anything up if you were so distraught
and thinking of killing yourself exactly that's what I'm getting at here why would you tell your sister you're
picking up your daughter why would you tell your friend that you still intended to hang out with her that night Mindy
Fox and why we know that Not only was packing based off of these Witnesses based off of what Jeremy says but also
the crime scene photos show suitcases packed why would she pack and then kill herself yeah it almost seems like once
that couple left well he knew that he was in control of the situation now and he was going to try to stop her from
leaving we also have Michelle's family that says they have evidence that Jeremy was abusive saying that Michelle had
confided in her family about this a few other details that that need to be included here uh some information and
we'll just throw the information out there and you can interpret it in any way that you see fit there wonderful
beautiful listener so some of the information is that Michelle had lunch that very day the day that she died with
her sister Chrissy and told her sister that she was scared of Jeremy and was going to be leaving him that night after
the concert Chrissy was one of the people that that counseled her and told her hey don't go to this concert at all
just skip it forget about it right Michelle tells her don't worry about it I purchase the tickets long before I'm
going to the concert her sister told the New York Times that Michelle told her that she was injured after Jeremy had
shown her a quote submissive move where he slammed her down now I've heard this referred to as a body slam type
technique this story seems a little complicated we have persons that say they believe this was abuse we have
Jeremy and others that say we were just goofing around and maybe it got a little
out of hand he was showing her a move this according to him and some others but again other people thought that
there was something more going on than just hey we were goofing around well it seems like everybody in her family and
her friends said if you viewed this relationship as a whole if he just simply said pass or fail or is it a
positive relationship or a negative one that most people thought it was a negative relationship there's too much
fighting there was too much arguing well and like I said earlier Captain sometimes these situations are abusive
and sometimes they're just two people physically fighting mhm and we do know that Jeremy did admit that sometimes
when they argued it had gotten physical in the past he told law enforcement that in his statements
we should also note that Jeremy is 6'1 225 lbs at the time and Michelle's 5'4 119 PBS at the time well here's where I
disagree with you when I when you're saying that sometimes there's abusive situation and sometimes it's a couple
that fights and then they get physical as a man you then have to remove yourself from that situation and
if if if you continue to have arguments that escalate into violent situations as a man you should remove
yourself from that relationship and on top of that he's a deputy if domestic violence calls come
in and they show up at his house and he gets arrested he can lose his job but I don't think in any stretch of the
imagination that this Jeremy banksman is any definition of a man we have some evidence of him being a hotthead like I
said yesterday and this comes from Thanksgiving 2009 when Jeremy had an argument with Michelle's brother Justin
because Justin did not feel that Jeremy was treating his sister very well so Justin asked Jeremy to and Jeremy let it
be known that he was caring at the Thanksgiving dinner table this the this guy's a piece of [ __ ] and I would
have been like oh you're carrying I I am I'm going to castrate you you son of a [ __ ] that's what I
would have said who gives a [ __ ] oh I'm carrying but and here's the thing too is
because somebody stuck up for her I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of abuse physical verbal emotional
mental abuse this guy seems like a turd basket I think we should take a better look at the crime scene or the death
scene we know that Jeremy's service pistol was found lying on the floor on Michelle's left side reminder she was
right-handed her family pointing out that they believe this is an issue and does not jive with the story or the
findings of the Sheriff's Office the retention holster that held his gun was there as well the holster is designed a
retention holster is designed for someone unfamiliar with the weapon to have trouble drawing it from this
holster to pull the weapon out of the holster we have a a few different sides to this argument one if you don't think
it's suicide you might make the argument that Michelle may not have known how to
pull the gun from The holster and therefore could not shoot herself the other argument would be she lived with
this man for for over a year and he may have shown her at some point how to remove the gun from The holster this is
what is typically referred to as a level three security when it comes to these types of holsters there's from my
understanding Captain there's like four different levels and what you have here in in this situation again I don't know
exactly what kind of holster he was using at the time but typically what you have in this
situation is level three retention there's four levels of retention holders the higher the number the more retention
the more difficult it is to get the gun out of the holster typically when we're talking about law
enforcement they usually carry level three retention holsters this to make it difficult if
they are in an altercation for someone to take their weapon out of their holster right makes sense I go back to
his carelessness of just having his gun and his holster out when he claims that he said to her you know don't do
something stupid or don't do something to harm yourself if you actually thought that she was going to harm herself and
you're not the giant the biggest giant piece of [ __ ] in this world you go make
sure that your gun is secure you make sure that your gun is locked away that's correct cor captain and here's the thing
the there there were two shots that were fired and we know that based off the evidence at the scene the 911 call and
Jeremy statements to detective Hines most people will argue in a suicide type situation you would not
expect there to be two shots that just the simple fact of having two shots is an indicator that something else was
going on that she was being attacked rather than deciding to take her life I'll counter that by saying that I don't
think the second shot necessarily determines anything for us outright because there are there's plenty of
proof that in these types of scenarios that a suicidal individual has fired a test shot prior to turning the gun on
themselves right now you could also argue that there's an altercation taking place there's a a physical attack going
down and maybe that first shot was delivered by Jeremy intended for her and it missed its Mark in this physical
altercation again I think that it's just too irresponsible to say that because there were two shots it couldn't be Su a
suicide I think that's just as irresponsible as the investigation or lack of investigation that they did
initially in this case to begin with so if you're faulting them for their lack of Investigation don't do the same thing
yourself yeah a lot of people think that they're covering for their Deputy but like we stated there's members of
Michelle's family that works for that County so I think some of their protection is for their lack of
Investigation I think they should have done their due diligence again bring in other law enforcement to double check
your work okay captain and here is something that is almost unheard of in fact we've reviewed vied hundreds of
these types of cases maybe not this exact scenario but hundreds of True Crime cases and I've never seen this in
any case that we've covered so far there is a follow-up interview with Jeremy and
rightfully so because I don't think that the first one was very well structured to begin with but in this follow-up
interview Jeremy admits to detective Hines that quote I've already read the report I know I probably shouldn't have
I just wanted to know what went down on the other side end quote okay well have we ever reviewed a case where
a person who may be sitting in the suspect chair someone who maybe looked at as being involved in someone's death
had the privilege of reading the police report or the report that's been put together by the Sheriff's Office prior
to being interviewed a second time by one of the detectives in charge it's completely irresponsible he should not
have been privy to that information and also where are these tests done why why didn't they do a ballistic test to see
if he fired a gun that day why not do a test on on Michelle to see if she fired a gun that day correct him reading this
report too gives him the ability to know what lies to prepare in advance to explain way evidence that points away
from suicide and the reason why this is completely irresponsible is because he has actions
that day that showed that he was trying to control the narrative the way he was acting on the 911 call the way he
started acting when they got a pulse and then making statements in the initial interview again like you said maybe it
was too casual I think that would be a tough situation to be in especially when somebody's being erratic but he's then
telling in the initial interview that he was basically trying to control the narrative yes this is when misc
Congeniality detective Hines should stand up end that follow-up interview March into the Sheriff's Office and say
look boss our investigation has been completely compromised Jeremy's read the report even when he knew he should not
have he just admitted that to me on tape right it would be responsible it would be the right thing for us to do boss to
cancel our investigation and bring in an outside agency if you didn't do it on day one this was your opportunity right
and detective Hines decided not to do that she continued to conduct a very casual interview follow-up interview
with her colleague Jeremy Banks everybody say it with me all at once dropping the ball you're dropping the
ball according to a scathing expose by the New York Times the St John's Sheriff's Office rushed to judgment that
the case was a suicide or more disturbingly decided to cover up a murder as a result they never bothered
to one collect or even check Jeremy's phone or Jeremy's and Michelle's computers two canvas the neighborhood
three require the officers on the scene that night to file reports documenting their observations as required by St
John's Sheriff's Office protocols four assemble a timeline for that night or maintain a crime scene log five collect
and test evidence at the scene including a bloody t-shirt and a glove six test the gun handle and Trigger for
Michelle's DNA they also did not check any of the bathroom sinks or shower traps for blood evidence they also
failed to interview the family Michelle's family despite repeated requests by the oconnell for an
opportunity to weigh in well tell me if I have this right we have a picture of Jeremy banks at the concert and that
shirt that he was wearing at the concert has not been found that's absolutely correct I mean 100% correct like come on
people to put it plain and simple the oconnell family repeatedly requested an independent investigation into the death
of Michelle oconnell and despite it being protocol when there was an officer involved suspicious shooting the St
John's Sheriff's Office desperately tried to keep the investigation inh housee in fact they even sat down with
the oconnell and explained why the FDLE had not been requested to help out Lieutenant Charles Bradley said to the
oconnell family in a recorded interview quote to be honest with you my investigators are far and above better
than what FDLE is ever going to give you end quote this of course is false and self-serving the two investigators on
the case had handled just three homicides sides between [Music] them this show is sponsored by better
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difference [Music] all right we are back a much a much needed beer break cuz this case Colonel
just gets me steamed gets under your skin I'm steamed I just I don't I I just don't get it I don't understand
why there's so many cases where it's like you you sign up to be a cop so you can protect and serve so you can do the
right thing live by the letter of the law and it just seems like so many of these individuals are are willing to
compromise their integrity well Deputy Menard does not fit into that group in my opinion in fact she was one of the
first on scene that night she goes on to tell 2020 that protocol we are trained that when we arrive to every
scene that the scene it's a homicide scene that we have arrived at until proven otherwise but she says in this
situation quote immediately it was almost like they were taking Jeremy's word that she shot herself at that point
we were told it was a suicide so that goes against their training it goes against this Sheriff's Office
protocol and what they train their deputies to do when they arrive on a scene where there's been a death well no
and so let's let's unpack that a little bit because like you said the protocol is to
go this is a homicide until proven otherwise so once everybody starts assuming it's a suicide and not
investigating as a homicide anybody that set by and watch watch that happen anybody that set by and let that happen
and let them just go well this was a suicide and we're not going to investigate it they're they're just as
guilty in my mind when you when you see the wrong thing happening and you just stand by you're as wrong as that wrong
thing happening like this is what's wrong with the world well I don't fault Deputy
Maynard at all I mean she's telling us what she witnessed and what she believes is wrong with this investig no no I'm
not blaming her I'm just saying that all the other deputies that were there that
just went along with this narrative and didn't do the work to go hey we need to stop what you're talking about we need
to investigate this as a homicide they're equally as wrong is what I'm saying the other weird thing here
Captain is the pills that were found in Michelle's purse and found in her jeans Pockets but none were in her
system and the facts of the matter are this those pills in the pill bottles that they found in her purse or in her
jeans Pockets belong to Jeremy right they were not Michelle's pills her family pointed out that if she wanted to
die and I agree with this 1,00% why wouldn't she have ODed on these pills instead of shooting herself right and we
should note that per the Sheriff's Office investigation none zero none not one single pill or bottle had Michelle's DNA
on them this according to tests that were later conducted that in itself is one of the most suspicious things in
this investigation and that was found at the death scene yeah I'd say it's number
two for me as far as suspicious things cuz like you said if there's no DNA found on the pills or the bottle that
means somebody placed these pills and these bottles in those locations to me the only person there at the scene is
Jeremy so why would Jeremy do this it it's to establish a narrative and it's the narrative that he's been trying to
establish in other points of this investigation it goes along with the the statements that he's giving to detective
Hines in the back of her car just an hour and a half after the body's found yeah and you know I was able to talk to
a retired detective about H you know showing up to a scene and and working a scene knowing that it's possibly a
suicide and the first thing he said is look statistically women don't kill themselves by gunshot then this
detective said to me do you know what one of the number one things that women do on the
day that they commit suicide if it's planned they get their hair done and do their makeup and all that stuff yeah
because they want to look presentable even in death putting a barrel of a gun and pulling the
trigger I'm not saying it's impossible because she's a woman unfortunately it happens every day I what this detective
is telling you is absolutely true the statistics bear that out and tell us that but unfortunately it does happen
every day so I don't want to circle around that too much when there's other to me bigger red flags glaring red flags
with with things at the at the scene there now within a 4-month period And this is 4 months of increasing pressure
by the public and by the family to bring in an independent impartial investigator
or investigators the sheriff in charge of St John's this is David bsha he begrudgingly requested an
independent review of the case in January of 2011 within 2 weeks of starting on the
case agent Rogers who came in from the FDLE uncovered two female neighbors who were standing outside around 11: p.m. on
the night of the shooting they're outside chatting and smoking the women were Stacy Boswell and
Heather ladley Rogers interviewed them separately under oath and they both said that quote a man and a woman were
screaming they could hear a man and woman screaming M Boswell said in an interview with the New York times there
was something wrong there was nothing playful no nothing it was somebody that was scared they were arguing we heard
her yell help and there was one gunshot and then she yelled help again and there
was a second gunshot Miss ladley told agent Rogers after that they heard silence saying that it was probably 10
maybe 15 minutes and then the sirens came according to m Boswell that's why they didn't call anybody they hear this
screaming the screams for help people were arguing they hear gunshots they don't call this in because they hear the
sirens coming within 10 to 15 minutes now I will say this Captain this 10 to 15 minute window you could look at it
two ways as suspicious or it's relatively quickly after they're hearing the shots we know that the call came in
at 11: 20 and Deputy Menard says that they were on the scene by 11:25 so that's all that's 5 minutes of your 10
minutes so that's 5 minutes of your 15 minutes just the response time to the scene so it doesn't sound to me like if
these Witnesses are right with what they say and what they say that they've heard
it doesn't seem to me like there was much of a delay in calling in 911 now of course every minute counts and it would
appear that there would would have been some delay the other thing that's interesting to me here is someone
yelling help you don't yell help and then shoot yourself yeah that doesn't make any
sense you don't yell help twice you do yell help when you're being attacked I don't know if you yell help in the
situation if he's confronting you with the gun maybe that's the first thing that instinctively flies out of your
mouth to me it doesn't the whole help thing doesn't make sense either way but it certainly 100% does not make sense
with the suicide well no it makes sense if he's beating you now agent Rogers arranged for the
Secret Service to give both of these women polygraph test and according to agent Rogers they passed these tests MH
now remember Jeremy stuck to his story that he and Michelle had not argued their breakup was somewhat peaceful I
guess he's outside she's inside while she's packing but here's another point of contention because you got these two
eyewitnesses and if you believe them then Jeremy's story is not correct because if she did yell for help for
whatever reason before she killed herself he would have heard that and so why wouldn't he report that to the other
officers the thing that I do not like here is the sheriff then goes out of his way to say look these two witnesses
they're not credible they said they were outside smoking uh they're potheads and they can't even
figure out if they were stoned that night or not so they're not credible well Jeremy's not credible either if you
want to go down that rabbit hole because he's telling you well I had about I don't know five six tall boys so that
means you had you know roughly 12 Beers that's that's a lot of alcohol here's what I say to the sheriff when he calls
into question The credibility of these two possible ear Witnesses you do not get to decide sir you chose that night
not to Canvas the neighborhood and interview neighbors you cannot then decide later when another agent comes in
and finds ear Witnesses you do not get to have an opinion about these Witnesses because you disregarded them from the
initial steps of the investigation as soon as your deputies put a [ __ ] foot on that scene you disregarded any
opportunity for a witness statement you do not get to decide you do not get an opportunity nor an opinion in my opinion
well and he's these ear Witnesses they don't have a dog in the fight so you're going to believe everything that your
Deputy says this Jeremy Banks this [ __ ] bag he's threatened people you know people think that he's been violent with
Michelle in the past he's defin definitely a douchebag and then on top of that when
when they get a pulse he starts putting dents into a police car and and that's the person you want to protect that's
the person you want to stand up for that that means you're as big of a piece of [ __ ] as he is in March of
2012 we now have a special prosecutor that's been brought in and this is to handle the case because now keep in mind
basically the the the very nuts and bolts of this thing is that the Sheriff's Office investig
concluded suicide FDLE is brought in it looks like they think that this is a homicide and
Jeremy Banks is the suspect that's the very simplest form to put it without going through a lot of information to
get there right in March of 2012 a a special prosecutor uh met with the oconnell family and actually announced
the closure of the case telling them that they found found insufficient evidence to prosecute Jer Jeremy Banks
the prosecutor told the family that here's why we cannot prosecute Jeremy Banks there was GSR on Michelle's hands
three medical examiners ruled her death a suicide and her DNA was found on the gun
so the prosecutor says the facts as they currently exist do not support the prosecution of Jeremy banks for any
homicide offense so once again this investigation is over there's so many red flags but the number one for me is
the ear Witnesses Michelle yelling for help that's what they heard makes no sense that you would yell
for help and then kill yourself the other thing that is a giant red flag is these pills and the pill
bottles that's obvious obviously somebody at that scene is tampering with evidence and then on top of that his
erratic actions his past the negativity surrounding him and Michelle's relationship the fact that we can't
find this shirt that he was wearing that night again tampering with evidence and then him trying to control
the narrative and his horrible ing job and I think his frity in slip well I'll tell you the
truth and then he gets all calm and then he becomes clear proving that his initial demeanor on the 911 call was a
fraud I mean how can you not investigate this more and like you said well eventually they do but the
thing is is I think maybe they miss their window and and if they would have done certain things and investigated
like a homicide and let the evidence take you where it needs to take you maybe that's the reason why they're
not able to prosecute this individual they're also not able to prosecute because they did not do a thorough
investigation right as soon as they set foot at that scene we have it being worked like a suicide this is per one of
the deputies on the scene and from my understanding the deputy that arrived second at the scene is stating this
much and we know that the from the sheriff's own words he admitted that the Sheriff's
Office failed to Canvas the neighborhood for Witnesses failed to interview family
members of Michelle's which you would in suicide situations or homicide situations to
figure out State of Mind of all the individuals involved D so on and so forth failed to isolate Jeremy banks
failed to interview Jeremy banks failed to photograph Jeremy banks in a structured environment after the
shooting occurred so you go well there's insufficient evidence to prosecute well
maybe that's because when you showed up to the scene that night you weren't looking for
evidence right to prosecute that's why you don't have it after the fact it now you talked about the ear Witnesses not
having a dog in the fight and that's why we like him that's why we lean on the side and give them credibility they
passed polygraph tests administered by the Secret Service that should add to the credibility as well here's somebody
that maybe has too many dogs in the fight and I really did not see this coming based on how the early stages of
this investigation and story go but Scott oconnell Michelle's brother who works for the Sheriff's
Office may have too many dogs in the fight it's his sister who is now deceased it's his Department that he
works for declaring it a suicide he has sided with the sheriff and with the Sheriff's
Office and so he is the only person the lone wolf of of the oconnell family that
stands with the Sheriff's Office and from my understanding there there is no speaking to Scott
oconnell that the remainder of the oconnell family does not speak with Scott oconnell yeah like he said he has
maybe too many dogs in the fight but maybe that's self-preservation maybe he knows that if
he doesn't stay in line with his his Department that they'll figure out a reason to get
rid of him I don't know why somebody would put their job above their family but um it's possible I think that he
must believe that the sheriff's office is correct there is a Dr Phil episode where you can see the family
squabbling uh back and forth in front of millions of viewers where he is stating our sister killed herself and my
family just refuses to believe it the the other weird thing here too and I've we've seen this once or twice but it's
still very uncommon this this goes down in November of 2013 this is when Jeremy Banks sued the FDLE and agent Rogers
claiming that they violated his civil rights by wrongly accusing him when the case had been ruled a suicide now keep
in mind it was was his Sheriff's Office begrudgingly as it may be that asked for
the FDLE to come in and do a review of the case right so when you ask for an independent agency to come in and do a
review of a case it doesn't necessarily mean that they care a whole lot of what the determination was prior to them
being brought in so I don't know that this technically violates his civil rights according to as he stated it in
the law suit wrongly accusing him after it had been ruled a suicide what we do know too is that
Rogers did detain Jeremy banks for a very brief period of time he had put into place that they would
search Jeremy Banks's home while he was being questioned at the station by agent
Rogers the interview end a lot earlier than the agent had anticipated this because Jeremy requests
an attorney so there's going to be no more questions at this time he should be free to go however the agent not wanting
Jeremy Banks to be on scene and potentially manipulate evidence detained him from going home at
that time now the short of it without a whole lot of back and forth this didn't didn't go down over overnight but a
judge did dismiss this lawsuit that his civil rights were not in fact uh violated by the FDLE or agent
Rogers Jeremy Banks should be pissed off too because if he is not a murderer and
he is just a victim of Michelle taking her own life he then becomes a victim of them not doing their due diligence and
not doing a thorough investigation from the beginning and if I was being questioned
by anybody I would be pushing for that you need to do a thorough investigation you need to make sure that you cross
your tees and Dot your eyes because if the family starts questioning this if the community starts questioning this we
have answers for all those questions cuz I want to leave no doubt that I wasn't involved in the death of Michelle one
thing that we've not hit on yet here Captain is something that was brought up by the state attorney's office citing
examples of issues with potential evidence in this case and there were several but among other things was a
black glove that was photographed at the scene of this air quotes investigation that was not taken into evidence and the
state attorney's office is on record as saying quote and because that item was not collected we were not able to
determine the evidentiary value of that end quot quote what would have been found what
could have been found on this black glove had it been collected you have to wonder could it have been a whole lot of
gunpowder residue a whole lot of GSR on this glove that's certainly a possibility but
what is not a possibility is Michelle oconnell putting on the glove shooting herself removing the glove and placing
it outside of the house where it is later photo gra that's not a possibility the other problem that I have with this
is Michelle's jaw was fractured in two locations and there's two camps one is saying well this could have been caused
by the gunfire and others saying that that doesn't necessarily always happen so again you have people that hear an
argument getting out of hand you hear a woman yelling for help they said she sounded
scared well is it possible that he was beating on her as that took place is it possible that he fractured
her jaw before he put the gun in her mouth again not a doctor I've said it a few times just in case people get
confused I've said it many times throughout the years I'm not a doctor here but I can rely on what I've heard
in the statements given by the doctors who have personally examined the deant and what we have here is a little
bit of push back right where if she was in the middle of a physical altercation with Jeremy Banks and then he shoots her
the push back is well wouldn't there be some bruising on Michelle and the medical examiner who we've not gotten to
this yet did a follow-up autopsy after Michelle's body was exhumed in January of
2016 his response to that question well shouldn't there be some bruising on Michelle if that in fact was the case
his response was that the amount of bruising can depend on how quickly the person is killed after those blows or
injuries are administered meaning that if if that was the case and she dies relatively quickly
after some hits then we may not see the bruising here yeah I want to give the body a
chance to create the BR the bruising and his answer to the jaw being fractured and it was a pretty obvious fracture
which was weird that it was missed the first time around but his answer to that is this we do not he does not believe
that it was done or occurred because of the gunshot because there was no damage to
soft tissue areas that would he would expect to see if it was done per The Gunshot and what's interesting to me
here is the amount of force that it would take to break the jaw the jaw is one of the most one of the strongest
bones in your body right so the amount of force that it would take to break that jaw what do they say in boxing you
and I love love to watch a little boxing they say chin music right give him a little chin music knock him out hit him
right bust him right in that jaw with an uppercut knock him out this medical examiner says that
there's a good chance that she took a hit maybe with the butt of a gun and that the force of that blow the breaking
of that jaw may have knocked her unconscious and then she was shot through the roof of her mouth go back to
what the Sheriff's Office off said earlier the detective said it would be very difficult for a
person in an altercation to allow a gun to get into their mouth you could easily
close your mouth you could easily turn your head from side to side you could duck you could Bob you could weave
there's a million things you could do to get the nose of that gun out of your mouth and they're saying it had to be
this is one of the determining factors for us amongst other that it had to be suicide because we would not expect to
see a gun in the mouth of a shooting victim well guess what if this medical examiner is right after the exhumation
and says she may have been unconscious when that shot occurred that changes that whole
perspective right then and there yeah it's just sad you know because if it's suicide then they didn't do right by
their own officer to do a correct and thorough investigation but it just it's but it's
just a it's a sad and frustrating case overall Dr William Anderson who did the second autopsy pro bono so he's not
being paid for his opinion he's giving his expert opinion after conducting a second
autopsy Dr William Anderson says in my opinion it was a homicide there was a gunshot wound to the mouth that put a
hole in the tongue but didn't do any other damage to the teeth to the gums to the floor of the mouth the very soft
tissue that basically would have been destroyed if there had been enough force from that blast to break the jaw end
quote Anderson goes on to say that the mandible is a very strong bone one of the strongest in the body for it to
break and no other damage to the mouth to be caused indicates it was not caused by The Gunshot and this fracture was
fresh not old furthermore he noted that Michelle's tongue was retracted and blocking her Airway as it could have
been if the gun was forced into her mouth but it would not have been if she put the gun in her mouth herself quote
the findings are most consistent of blunt force trauma causing incapacitation of Miz oconnell and
subsequent gunshot wound inflicted by another again his opinion it was a homicide yeah you have the fractured jaw
you have the pills with no DNA from M shell on them you have the ear Witnesses you have his erratic Behavior you have
their past relationships you can't find this shirt one of the Deputy thinks that
he cleaned himself up I mean there's just so much pointing towards that he's guilty of this crime
but even if he's not guilty then you need to do your due diligence to figure out if it's a homicide or a suicide so
where does the case stand today I think that we can sum up where it stands today and I'm going to refer
to a letter that was written by the mother by Patty oconnell this letter was written to the St Augustine Record and
it says my daughter Michelle oconnell was found shot dead September 2 2010 in her Deputy boyfriend's home he told his
co-workers she did this Deputy Jeremy bank's co-workers failed to investigate they only took his side no investigation
was possible for Michelle the public needs to know that no one in the St John's County Sheriff's Department or
State Attorney's office ever asked our family what happened why no one from the St Augustine Record has ever interviewed
us even after the New York Times and the PBS Frontline stories in November of 2013 why Sheriff shaer admitted to major
mistakes but claimed to the record in a story December 12 2013 that he quote got it right how the
sheriff investigated his Deputy a conflict of interest quote no man can serve two masters end
quote the FDLE should have been called in immediately our family told the sheriff's office that Michelle told us
and her friends that she was a victim of domestic violence the sheriff did not investigate the sheriff and the
prosecutors rushed to conclude it was a suicide side without evidence the sheriff's national accreditation must be
reviewed by the Council on Law Enforcement accreditation this week and be suspended revoked or placed on
probation Jeremy Banks was allowed to read the investigation before his formal interview and treated like a brother not
a suspect why two respected crime scene experts determined it was a homicide and
three determined it was not suicide but no charges were filed why deputies did not canvas the neighborhood why the cut
and bruise on Michelle's eyelid was the result of violence yet we were told that
a gun discharged forward not backward that Michelle used her non-dominant left hand to grasp the gun upside down with
no hand injury and that the shell case ings ejected on the wrong side all physical
impossibilities why two witnesses heard an argument a scream and a shot another scream and a second shot the sheriff
knowingly lied to the justice department about them and the deputy claimed there
were no raised voices one medical examiner changed his mind another barely looked at the
file Lieutenant Bradley callously said my sh busted every tooth in her head he wouldn't let me see any photos I held
firm this made him angry he showed me some photos but not all why after claiming it was a suicide the sheriff
would not look me in the eye and would not look Michelle's Daughter Alexis in the eye either why the sheriff bragged
about paying for Michelle's funeral why the only person currently under investigation was agent Rusty Rogers who
suspected sheriff's deputy Jeremy banks in Michelle's death why there must be an
FBI and Federal grand jury investigation of Michelle's death and possible civil rights violations coverups collusion and
other Crimes by law enforcement I am grateful for the public support for this our family is thinking about a Michelle
oconnell house a safe place for victims of the national epidemic of Officer involved domestic violence yeah that's a
very powerful letter by Michelle's mother and that is where that investigation that story sits today the
oconnell still needing help and still Seeking Justice for their daughter Michelle but then in January of
2019 a teenage boy came home to find his father shot dead this is a homicide that
many have suspected could be directly connected to the death of Michelle oconnell but we'll have to dive into
that next [Music] week want to thank you guys so much for joining us here in this true crime
garage flying garage ship if you're looking for our bonus episodes or the first 50 episodes those are available at
True Crime Garage in our store so check those out Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
listeners this week Captain we are recommending the angel maker arsic a midwife and modern history's most
astonishing murder ring by Patty McCracken this just came out yesterday and this is a great read you're going to
want to check this one out you can find that recommendation along with many many
more on our recommended page on our website true Crim garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't
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Screams for Help /// Part 2 /// 656

Part 2 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

Michelle O'Connell's suspicious death raises questions of murder vs. suicide amid a flawed investigation by the Sheriff's Office.

Key points

Michelle O'Connell's Death Ruled a Suicide. The St John's Sheriff's Office quickly determined Michelle's death was a suicide, but her family disagreed.
Jeremy's Follow-Up Interview. In a follow-up interview, Jeremy admitted to reading the police report before being questioned again.
Call for Independent Investigation. The O'Connell family repeatedly requested an independent investigation into Michelle's death, which was denied.
Suspicious Evidence Found. Pills found at the scene belonged to Jeremy, not Michelle, raising questions about the investigation.
Witnesses Hear Disturbance. Two neighbors reported hearing a woman yell for help before gunshots were fired.
Investigation Critique. Criticism of the Sheriff's Office for failing to properly investigate the scene.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Why would you be packing anything up if you were so distraught?

Discussing Michelle's actions before her death.

7:46WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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