The Torture & Murder of Cordell Richards | Morbid: A True Crime Podcast | Forensic Files

hey babe I'm Ash and I'm Molina and this is dark sided it's morbid [Music] [Music]
we can't get enough of uh babe on Tick Tock baby think about it every night and day it's so good it really is it's so
good if you're listening we love you if you can't tell we love you so much I'm on the show let's talk about Sinister
[ __ ] on the show yeah we are going to talk about some Sinister [ __ ] I would have babe on the show the app so [ __ ]
talk about something sinister manifest it by we're gonna get her oh we're gonna get it
bye bye everybody's like what the [ __ ] are you talking about if you didn't listen to our last episode which was a
crazy [ __ ] tale truth a Survivor tale um we were talking about this Instagram that Elena and I are I have to give
credit where credit to do Elena found it and now it's just become an integral part of our Lives it is and it's called
um at Sinister Pond babe and she's hilarious and I just I Gotta Give I gotta give credit when somebody
makes me laugh and brightens my day yeah I want him to blow up and not in like a
bad way like in a good way like I want I want her to get a billion followers and
get paid you want her to get what the kids call clout there you go clout I just wonder I hope she's getting paid
because she's she's doing a service get that it's like Mama Todd I'm like I hope
she's getting paid because she makes my day better I hope mama is getting all the Bounty lips that the Earth has to
offer truly truly all right well that was all very wholesome and happy bag and this is Sinister babe oh no it's it's
dark side it's really dark-sided this is honestly this is a this is a tough one um so I think we should just get ready
okay there you go we should get right into this though so I have it out of that I
don't know this one so I know the name okay I've heard the name I just have not heard details about this it was actually
pretty requested in our inbox really yeah I would shout everybody out but there's a lot of you that wanted this
story shout out to all of you shout out to anyone who suggested this so this story takes place in how Elena and Kevin
from Tick Tock would say the 90s um and it takes place on March 4th 1999 but this was more than just the 90s the
murder of Cordell Richards which we're going to talk about today is truly one of the most brutal cases I think I've
personally covered oh not like we have covered but that I've covered okay so Cordell was an okay County restaurant
worker and father of two and his body was discovered on this day like I said March 4th 1999 he was burned beaten and
found chained to a tree oh my God yes his remains were left in an isolated wooded area just outside of some land
that was going to be soon turned into houses I think there was a couple houses on the plot but it was like a newly
built neighborhood okay cordell's body was discovered by a 12 year old boy oh just playing in that
wooded area in Fort Walton Beach Florida and when he found the body he immediately ran home to tell his parents
what he had seen they immediately contacted the sheriff's department and the police headed out there ASAP
so they found the remains actually partially skeletonized intensely charred and again like I said
bound to the tree by a very heavy chain now upon closer inspection there was a thick
cord tied around the victim's wrists which were behind his back and there was duct tape covering the remains of his
mouth the County Medical Examiner at the time Dr Michael burkland was obviously called
to the scene as soon as possible at first he wasn't even able to identify the gender of the victim he had because
he was so beyond any recognition whatsoever that's awful couldn't even determine a cause of death other than of
course the body had been lit on fire now the body was not only burned past the point of recognition but also
significantly decomposed the body had been out in the elements for quite some time there was actually barely even
Flesh on the bones anymore and there were no organs left to be tested I actually didn't realize how quickly
organs decompose so when I first read that I was just like oh so there's no like healthy organs to test but then I
looked it up because I was like were there no organs left at all or just none to to test wait a second so and I knew
you would love this according to a BBC future article quote soon after the heart stops beating cells become
deprived of oxygen and their acidity increases as the toxic byproducts of chemical reactions begin to accumulate
inside of them enzymes start to digest cell membranes and then leak out as the cells break down this usually begins in
the liver which is rich in enzymes and in the brain which has a high water content so those are the first to go
eventually though all other tissues and organs begin to break down in this way cell death I didn't realize how quickly
it happened that they just are gone that your heart is keeping everything going it's so freaky when you really start to
think about it it's a delicate process yeah seriously so the first observation that Dr Brooklyn was able to make made
me feel like I was reading the butcher in Ren all over again the part where Ren explains the presence of blow flies as I
was reading this I was like the butcher in the run so Dr birkeland was able to determine that the body had been left
chained to this tree for at least two weeks because he found the presence of maggots however there was something
strange about the presence of these maggots some of them were also charred not all of them some of them so excuse
me this told him that whoever had left this body in the woods had come back at least two weeks later than to burn it
wow so now it was time to bring the body back to his office to carry out a full-blown examination but it would be
quite the feat to do so because of the advanced state of decomposition and also the fact that the remains were so
considerably damaged already the crime scene technician and Dr birkeland had to be super careful with these remains and
they had to keep them in the same exact position that they were found while they
were transporting which I can't imagine the pressure wow because they didn't want to disturb any potential evidence
so they just this is the way they had to do it yeah now once the remains were carefully transported the examination
started Dr Brooklyn found that the victim had suffered multiple skull fractures evidence of blunt force trauma
to the shoulder blade sternum and ribs and also what appeared to be defensive injuries on the hands and arms and he
also noticed what he explained as a quote probable chop injury to the left neck oh
yeah so the victim was believed to be a man in his early to mid 30s and Dr Brooklyn
believed that he had been killed about one month earlier meaning that he would have been dumped
in the woods close to February 4th of that year now because of the circumstances a
precise cause of death really couldn't be determined because there was just so much going on here but Dr Brooklyn
concluded that quote the manner of death was homicidal violence with combined features of blunt force trauma to the
head body and upper extremities and a probable chop injury to that left neck she's and he believed that the victim
was likely beaten with some kind of Club he said God now what was stumping him though was the charred maggots the body
had been discovered like I said with bindings on the wrists and tape covering the mouth so the man was presumably
alive when he was transported to this area and then killed most likely after being chained to that tree and beaten
so why did the killer or the killers come back two weeks later and further destroy the Remains by burning them yeah
what was that about so anyways iding this man was incredibly difficult at first but then the doctor
noticed and I thought this was crazy the only reason why Cordell was ever able to
be id'd is because of there was enough soft tissue on the right thumb to get a partial fingerprint what isn't that nuts
my God forensic science man forensic science is crazy unbelievable it really is so the doctor got that partial
fingerprint and handed it handed it over to detectives and he was like do what you can
now back in the woods investigators were combing through this scene they sifted actually through a significant amount of
evidence there were empty cans there was a roll of duct tape that matched the one
that had been used to cover the victim's mouth various clothing items that seemed
to belong to the victim and there were Tire Impressions that were left in the dirt at the side of the road near the
site automatically we're going to get excited about that but unfortunately none of these things
would give them any evidence that they would there's something on nothing so but nonetheless obviously they went back
to the station and they start sifting through all the missing persons reports they could find from early to
mid-February yeah and they're able to narrow down their search based on Dr Brooklyn's approximation of the age and
the confirmation of the sex and their pool was pretty small at that point and the most likely victim they believed was
31 year old Cordell Richards Cordell was a military veteran he had served in the U.S Air Force for almost
10 years from 1985 to 1994. he'd been recently divorced and had two young daughters at the time and at the time of
his death he was living in an apartment in Fort Walton Florida and working at a local IHOP
he'd been actually reported missing by his friend Martin Stone Martin realized on February 13th that he hadn't heard
from Cordell in over a week he called him on the phone he emailed him a couple times he actually even made several
trips to his apartment during that week but just couldn't get in touch with his friend oh man so Martin actually went to
the IHOP and checked in with some of the co-workers he was like have you seen Cordell at all they're like we actually
haven't seen him since the beginning of the month oh and that was super super out of character for him yeah he was a
very reliable employee so after doing everything he possibly could to locate his friend Martin went to the police and
asked them to do a welfare check so the welfare check was conducted that same afternoon actually by officers Josh
Duma I hope I'm saying that right and Mike Nichols they pounded on the doors they pounded on the windows but they got
zero response officer Nichols noticed that there was one window though that was slightly open and he was able to
push it completely open and crawl through it and once he was in he looked around to find to find himself what
seemed to be in a storage room like inside of the apartment so then he located the front door and
was able to let the other officer in as well as Martin and Sergeant brune who had shown up just behind them so they
searched room by room by room by room called out for Cordell called out for anybody but got zero response and then
they finally reached a bedroom door and it seemed to be locked with a deadbolt and there was a towel stuffed under the
crack between the door and the floor sketchy yeah I would say so just a little it was a little bit so they knock
on that door and ounce themselves and finally the door opens but it was not opened by Cordell instead
seventeen-year-old Ronald Bell answered the door and identified himself and then
identified his girlfriend fellow 17 year old Crystal maestus 17 years old both of
them 17 years old she appeared to be just waking up from a nap she was wrapped up in a sleeping bag on the
floor just sleeping oh okay just snoozing yeah just sneezing now they explained that they had actually been
subletting the room from Cordell Crystal had been living there a couple of months
now and because she had been kicked out by her parents Ronald didn't live there he said and he claimed he actually
really didn't know much of anything about Cordell and Crystal told the officers that she hadn't seen Cordell in
the past week she said said the last time she saw him he had gotten some court papers and left in a hurry without
saying anything to her interesting yeah so soon it would be concerned uh confirmed excuse me that the body
discovered in the woods was Cordell Richards because he was a member of the Air Force his fingerprints were on fire
and were a match for that partial thumb print taken by the medical examiner what
luck like that's in my opinion like a one in a million yeah that really is now so now that they had a positive ID it
was time for the investigators to really start ramping up here who killed this guy and why did they do so yeah by all
it counts that's the thing Cordell was really well liked he was really hard-working he really seemed to have
few if any enemies all of his co-workers at IHOP told the investigators that he was quote good-natured and popular he
had a house cleaner who insisted quote he would have done anything for anybody in the world
even his ex-wife had only good things to say about him she told the investigators
that he was a quote reliable hard worker and a good dad oh that's really sad it is I forgot he was a father to two young
daughters the only thing she could think of that was going like slightly poorly in his
life was that he was having some money problems she said but that was really the only thing she
could think of yeah and as the detectives dug deeper into cordell's life all their findings seemed to
confirm what they'd been told that he was a good guy they didn't hear from one person at this point that he was a
shitty person and that's rare yeah like you're gonna find someone who's like um actually if I'm being honest like
yeah and the ex-wife for the ex-wife to say I got nothing bad to say about him like he's a good dad he's a hard worker
yeah the only thing I can think of is he's got money problems right now and she didn't even make it seem like they
were like major she was like she was just like that could be that's something right
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they also found out that he spent a lot of time caring for his elderly grandparents who weren't doing so well
around the time of his death they were pretty much getting by his grandparents due to his physical and financial aid oh
wow yeah now the comment about his money problems led the detectives to believe that maybe it was some kind of factor in
his death so they went down that Avenue a bit longer but they eventually ruled it out because it turned out the money
issues really weren't that serious oh he was just kind of trying to make ends meet yeah it just wasn't like great yeah
exactly so next they turn to the area where Cordell had been discovered they canvassed a neighborhood that was
adjacent to the scene and were able actually to connect with a couple that gave them a pretty strong lead oh boy
Donald and Robin burden lived in a cul-de-sac in that housing subdivision where Cordell was behind where Cordell
was found okay and the two of them told detectives that in early February they had been out for a walk they always went
out for a walk daily and they said this day they saw three young people in a car
they'd never seen those young people and they'd actually never even seen that car
so it kind of made alarm Bells go off when it's that kind of neighborhood mm-hmm people notice things on a
cul-de-sac neighborhood we always be knowing we always know a dead end street we always be nowhere everyone is looking
at the cars going through a cul-de-sac and if we don't recognize them we say oh damn it it's Diamond so tired it's
dark-sided it's dark side giving Sinister by this car actually was kind of darksided it's given Sinister Vibe it
truly was Vibe they described the car as being a small brown or tan hatchback and
they said the rear uh right window appear to be broken and covered by some kind of board
Donald the man said that he believed the car's occupants were a young black male
a young white female and another person in the back seat that he believed was a white male but he wasn't completely sure
about that one so the detectives saying to the couple for their information but because they
had no leads or suspects all they could do really was go back to the apartment with a search warrant and then that was
when they carried out a search of the home now according to a forensic specialist
the apartment was unusually sparse but quote there were some items left behind that the average person wouldn't leave
behind and one of those items was cordell's bicycle it was really weird that it would be found at the apartment
because he didn't drive and he used that bicycle to get around everywhere hmm so
like that that that's a big red flag too that's huge because the fact that it was
left behind LED detectives to wonder if he'd been forcibly removed from his apartment because if that's how he got
around exactly so because this was now a suspicion the detectives had the apartment sprayed
with luminol when they did so they found evidence of blood spatter in the living
room and among the blood spatter were various bloody fingerprints and a bloody handprint oh yeah and they did testing
on the spatter patterns to determine what kind of attack would have created such a pattern and it was consistent
with blunt force trauma to the head oh God just like the medical examiner Dr burkland had noted on the autopsy he's
got a spot on with his autopsy hell yeah medical examiner and to be that spot on
with a body in that condition that says a lot about this medical exam yes like that's the thing practice you know I
mean the fact that they could only get fingerprints off of like the tiniest bit of soft tissue on a thumb right a
partial print and he was able to get that and then able to tell all this stuff like chef's kiss doing your job bringing
Justice to someone like that's all we ask for like we out here that's all we want that's all we need so while
technicians were busy processing the evidence over that at the apartment the detectives were working on interviews
with cordell's housemate Crystal and her boyfriend Ronald oh boy Crystal told the
detectives that she had been dating Ronald for the last few months and that they were very much in love 17 year olds
you know how it'd be very much in love now she explained that about a month prior she had been kicked out of her
parents home and Ronald was the one to help her find the sublease at cordell's apartment he had seen an ad Cordell put
in the paper about looking for a housemate and the rest was history so the detectives asked how the living
situation had gone and crystal said at first it was fine but then cordell's Behavior toward her started making her
feel uncomfortable okay and it was inappropriate she said in a number of ways for one thing she was 17 years old
and he was 31 so if he was making advances that was a very inappropriate absolutely and for another thing
according to her she was not interested whatsoever she alleged that he made inappropriate comments toward her and
sometimes would come into her room wearing quote only bikini underwear allegedly just to talk
okay we don't know if this is true or not this is what Crystal's saying I would really take it with a grain of
salt because everybody else in this man's life co-workers house cleaner like people that really are barely even
connected to him or completely connected to him all agree that he's a great person yeah so this is interesting and
I'm assuming this person that's talking is not uh the most credible of humans I wouldn't call them trustworthy I'm just
I'm just like guessing out how the end of this goes yeah yeah so she said at first he would leave when she told him
that she wasn't interested but there was one occasion recently where she said he
grabbed her pushed her against the wall and hit her head and her head had hit the wall behind her with like the force
of the attack I guess you could yeah that would be [ __ ] up if that was real that'd be super [ __ ] up and you know
we weren't there we don't know does it justify murder no no absolutely not I don't think much many things do nope so
she said this was the second time though that Cordell had become physical with her and in another room Crystal's
boyfriend Ronald told the detectives that he actually had only just learned about the altar altercations between
Crystal and Cordell and it was because he saw bruising on Crystal's back from the last altercation he said he asked
her about it and she told him everything and after he learned what happened he bought her that deadbolt for her door
and told her that she should have a friend sleepover more often to make her feel safe like on nights that he
couldn't be there yeah and that friend would end up being Renee links now as the two were explaining their
stories to Detectives ah the detectives were all thinking amongst themselves that something about
this story just didn't seem right they said to them Crystal and Ronald both seem to be being disingenuous
they were already pretty skeptical of this couple when they found out that Ronald's car had a close resemblance to
the one that Donald and Robin had told them about a couple from earlier and that was right about the time of the
disposal of the body remember so they had been able to do a search of Ronald's car after getting a warrant for it but
it actually didn't turn up much of anything but detectives weren't ready to give up on this lead yet and that was
smart questioning staff and fellow classmates at their High School where they were both students would prove to
be more than productive it turned out Ronald had been absent from school from February 2nd to
February 5th and a classmate told detectives that Ronald had asked him to borrow his truck
within that same time frame a separate student said that in early to mid-February Ronald and Crystal asked
him for help getting into a computer that they didn't have the password to huh and he said that when he went to
Crystal's apartment which he knew belonged to a man named Cordell after he said that after he attempted to get into
the computer Crystal and Ronald had driven him home and along the way they threw out multiple trash bags full of
stuff from the apartment uh yeah I'm I always wonder in these situations high school students no one's
question ing no none of you like even when I was 17 years old and if I got a ride home from somebody that was
throwing trash bags out the window I'd be like hey what are you what are you doing I'd ask like I would just throw it
out always ask or I don't know observe yes quietly observe see what's happening there if you don't feel safe asking yeah
write that down somewhere just go huh just tell your mom tell your dad tell your adult I don't know like even then
even then and now when I drive by a trash trash bag on the side of the road I'm like well is that a body is that
body parts I'm like I always wonder so I feel like it's like that that would be on my mind trash bags you'll be like
what are you throwing out this one what's happening but so the detectives tried to search the dump the dumpster
excuse me in those areas but the trash from that period was long gone at that point because remember it's been a month
at this point so it's like in a landfill yeah but they were not far from their big
break in the case yes on March 17th somebody placed an anonymous call to the Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers hotline and
said that they actually had information about the murder of Cordell Richards the
caller was very nervous and frightened about any repercussions that would be involved if they did give information
and they said that they would only come forward with their information if they were allowed to remain anonymous
throughout the process this person was granted that on anonymity and then he told the detectives that
around early February a friend of his Renee links remember her name she was the friend that slept over ah told him
that she and her friends Crystal and Ronald were planning to kill Crystal's roommate Cordell because he made
advances toward Crystal I just came right out and said it okay mm-hmm it turns out that Renee links had been
interviewed prior to this tip actually in the presence of her mother because she was a minor both women the mom and
Renee denied knowing anything about cordell's murder but luckily the evidence police had already taken in was
plenty to arrest all three teens at this point Ronald Bell Crystal maestas both 17 years old and Renee links
on March 18th police officers arrested that 17-year-old couple at their high school and Renee links was arrested at a
local animal shelter where she was doing community service for a previous parole
violation wow now when Renee was able to speak with her mother her mom was able to break
down how serious the situation was and she was like you need to make a plea deal because you're in a deep here
Renee was 15 years old at the time of cordell's murder 15 . holy [ __ ] but she was able to make
that plea deal wow she would be able to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of murder if she confessed to helping
Crystal and Ronald and explain what the whole story was so she told the detectives that she had
met Ronald earlier that year and that she had been spending more and more time with him and Crystal as of late at the
time she wasn't getting along with her mom and so she kind of moved in with Crystal and Cordell at one point
she too said that Cordell had made comments to her that made her feel uncomfortable for some reason she said
that he was under the impression that she and Crystal were in some kind of relationship and he suggested that they
should all sleep together she said okay she said that she was made so uncomfortable by this actually that she
the first night that she was there after he made this comment she ended up leaving and spending the night somewhere
else okay now the next night was February 2nd and Renee went back to the apartment because Cordell was planning
to be out pretty much all night and she knew that so Ronald came over to hang out with the two girls and Renee alleged
that he was the one to bring up the idea of quote beating up or killing Cordell Richards those are two very different
things yeah both very wrong and both two completely different things yeah but he
said he was pissed off about the advances that he'd made to Crystal and he needed to learn a lesson so Renee
said At first she didn't think that Ronald was serious and she especially didn't think that Crystal was going to
go along with this but she was wrong Jesus Crystal agreed and added on to this that if they were to kill this man
they could stay in the apartment for the rest of the month because the rent had already been paid oh my God and if they
needed extra money they could just sell off some of his stuff she said oh okay this kind of
like this to me there's a different motive here totally like that that's that's a lot of
thinking that's a lot of planning yup that's not just I'm angry because you did something that made me feel
uncomfortable so I'm gonna go off in a rage and like a crime of passion kind of thing I mean obviously this wasn't a
crime of passion anyways because of the prolonged torture of it all exactly but even if that something like that had
happened and like they were pissed and all that like this doesn't make sense no that you would come up with oh you know
what yeah I'm really pissed that uh this happened so we should uh kill him because I'm so mad about it and I'm so
like uncomfortable here but you know what's cool is we can stay in this apartment for the rest of the month and
if we need extra money we can just sell off his stuff like all of that doesn't just come together in a moment no that's
not your if you're really sitting there going something's wrong here we need to get rid of him which is a wild way of
thinking anyways like just get a [ __ ] different apartment you're also not going to be thinking of like other
things that you can do to make this better you're just thinking of the one focused we need to rid ourselves of him
100 I mean no we will not know because obviously nobody was there except for the people that are involved here but
like to me this is um it's not semen semen right the Math's not math yeah the math is not math no
not at all but Renee said she knew for sure that they were really going to do it when the couple went to Walmart and
came back to the apartment with a rope a chain and a lock which they said would be used when they killed Cordell my God
now Renee told detectives that that same evening Ronald called his friend Calvin
Smith and asked if he could be of assistance in the murder but Smith told him that he couldn't sneak out that
night so he wasn't going to be able to do that so then they called Renee's friend Demetrius and she had actually
stayed at his house she said the night before when she had been made uncomfortable his answer was along the
lines of quote he might help some be uh he might help beat someone up but not kill them oh okay well everybody's gone
either way you know he said that if he changed his mind maybe he would page them
my God yeah this is so callous and so like if I change my mind about helping you murder that man I'll shoot you a
beat like what he never ended up uh beeping them that night or paging them wild so since they
couldn't find anybody to help they said they gave up on their plan for that night it just it wasn't really panning
out not for tonight you know so Ronald headed home but told the girls to page him if anything went down the 90s Renee
said that something did happen after he left I guess the two or she says that the two girls got a call from somebody
who identified themselves as Heather and said that they were cordell's girlfriend
the woman said that she oh yeah I was just I was gonna tell you that all over it but one more time I was just
rereading my same line but then she told the two girls that they should kiss each
other they said they then realized that the collar was actually Cordell calling from the Next Room
like I don't know okay so one of them went to confront him something went poorly and they ended up backing
Crystal's room and they had locked themselves in they paged Ronald and he showed up soon after that and as soon as
he heard what was happening he went into the living room to confront Cordell and
as they were arguing Cordell started to move toward the front door they said like almost like he was just gonna like
dip because he was like what the [ __ ] yeah that was when Ronald grabbed him shoved him and got him into a headlock
and as Ronald was holding Cordell he told Crystal to go get the baseball bat that he had brought to the apartment
that night oh boy that's the other thing it's like this is uh this is very planned very prepared for
very we know what we're gonna do if you don't bring a baseball bat somewhere thinking you're not gonna kill someone
I'm sorry you hit someone with a baseball bat that's attempted murder that's exactly like this the math is not
mathing not at all so she was the one to hit him first take Cordell first as Ronald was holding him
in a headlock that doesn't Shock Me Crystal started hitting him in the legs she said Renee said weekly at first but
then eventually she hit him in the temple area of his head my God that hit knocked off his glasses and split his
skin Oh up near his Temple at which point he obviously started bleeding she said Renee said as she walked she saw
the man lose Consciousness from the beating and the intensity of the headlock and once he lost Consciousness
she said all three of them so she was very much a participant in this tied him up with ropes and wrapped him in a
blanket he's not dead at this point they then placed him into the back of Ronald's car and drove to that wooded
area behind that cul-de-sac in Fort Walton now after they dragged his unconscious
body into the woods Renee said it was actually Crystal that suggests they kill him by lighting him on fire
that's how she wanted to kill her Crystal Crystal suggested that they light him on fire as a means of
murdering him Crystal needs to be and bye for like forever like you like throw away the key like that's a that's
diabolical like that is real cold cold I want to watch someone suffer kind of [ __ ] and your brain like I know people
who have been abused before or like been in horrible situations and I've never heard any of them say that they want to
light their abuser on fire well and that's the thing and it's like and if somebody says that that's one thing like
I want to light this person on fire you know what I mean like totally like like I'm sure somebody has said that like I'm
hyperbole you know hyperbolically but to be standing there with the action actually able to be
carried out and be like let's go let's light this man on fire while he's still alive it's like
whoa like pump the [ __ ] breaks and at this point again they've already purchased a [ __ ] chain like that's he
brought a baseball bat they got a lock for the chain like yeah that's the thing if this was a let's beat him up and
teach him a lesson kind of thing he wouldn't buy a chain for that well and it would have already been over exactly
it would have been over there wouldn't be a second location no there wouldn't be a let's light them on fire while he's
alive there wouldn't be a let's tie him up and bring him somewhere else there wouldn't be a bat involved there
wouldn't have been any of that you would have beat him up with your fists you would have left and never come back
exactly this was something very different the intention was very different this was fulfilling a
different void foreign [Music] it is hard to stick with working out I think we can all agree personally it's a
thing it's like a real perfect storm for me it's like a scheduling issue and it's
also because I can't stay motivated like I just get bored and I don't want to do
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endurance ride work out when it works for you this is a big one Peloton offers thousands of on-demand classes so you'll
always find a workout whether you exercise daily or you're new to working out Peloton can help you achieve those
fitness goals I love seeing the little calendar that they show you on the screen that says hi Elena you're on a
three-week streak of working out I'm like hell yeah I am try Peloton risk-free with a 30-day home trial new
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[Music] so she said Renee that they used uh the can of cigarette lighter fluid that
Ronald had in his car Renee said it was actually her idea to get the man to give
them his ATM pin so that they could steal his cash before they lit him on fire God they removed the blanket from his
head and he actually agreed to give them the number and begged them not to kill him oh Ronald was angered by his
pleading and started hitting the man again with the baseball's awful eventually all three of them had taken
multiple swings to this man now in the woods after chaining him to this tree I don't I don't understand this I don't
understand somebody getting a lesser sentence either for giving this information like you took swings at them
you're a different kind of individual if you can look at a man tied to a tree and
hit him with begging for his life while he's begging for his life and you sit there and say oh we should get his ATM
pin while we're out here beating the [ __ ] out of him while he's seen to a tree wow what the [ __ ] is wrong with you
yeah and I think this would have happened regardless of any of the circumstances yeah going on at play here
because if you're capable of doing that you're capable of doing that no matter what the circumstances absolutely oh
it's it's so oblique while this was happening Renee said that Ronald hit Cordell so hard that he ended up making
a comment that he was Babe Ruth oh my God that is so beyond the callousness involved in this the
callousness here and how nobody none of that registered for any of them as like what the [ __ ] like that's your man oh
this is someone's Dad yeah like this is somebody's son wow after they were done hitting him they dragged him even
further into the woods so I'm sorry he actually wasn't chained up at this point this was elsewhere this was just out of
the car exactly so at this after they had all done that and Ronald had his Babe Ruth moment according to him they
dragged him further into the woods and then excuse me chained him to that tree where he would eventually be found
Ronald was the one to chain him up and Crystal was the one to like light him on fire
[ __ ] and then they just left in Ronald's car I mean this girl our parents kicked
her out of the house obviously something is going on yeah she was having a lot of
problems before this so once the sun came up that morning they went back to the woods and Crystal and Ronald went
back to check on the body Renee said that she waited in the car Crystal and Ronald assumed that they would find
Cordell dead but they were actually shocked to find him still alive and faintly calling out for help are you
kidding me after being lit on fire he was still and beaten brutally left out in the middle of the night chained in
the middle of like nowhere basically still alive wow now when they found him like this they were actually worried
because there was a construction crew working on a house in that cul-de-sac nearby so they were like oh no he's
gonna alert the construction worker someone's gonna call the police and we're all going down yeah they're gonna
try to save this man how dare they yeah exactly we gotta stop that mm-hmm this is really [ __ ] up I mean all of
this is really [ __ ] up and it it's only gonna get more and more grisly as I don't know how that happens Ronald
actually at this point attempted to break cordell's neck but wasn't able to Renee said that when they got back to
the car they immediately drove to a local store where they purchased a large meat cleaver for 9.99 oh my God then
they went back to the woods and Ronald used the meat cleaver to cut cordell's throat that was that that was what the
chop was exactly holy [ __ ] then they drove this is going to send you to the Moon Alice
they drove back home to clean the meat cleaver and then returned it to the store for a refund are you [ __ ]
kidding me they cleaned it and returned it after cutting a man's throat with it like I have what no words
the [ __ ] detectives were actually able to locate the store where Renee claimed
they bought the knife they got surveillance all three teens are on surveillance not only purchasing the
knife but then returning it to the store for their 9.99 refund my God and then they ended up being able to locate the
woman who had bought the knife like imagine the police knocking on your door and being like hey did you purchase
a meat cleaver recently uh it was the murder weapon in a recent brutal homicide so we're gonna have to take
that back and imagine if you're like um I just cooked dinner with it like what the [ __ ] yeah
so they were able so not only are they like these kids are [ __ ] demons demons to go through
all of this you have to be a demon and then to add on to it these different layers of like let me just return to the
store I want my 10 bucks I don't give a [ __ ] that somebody else is gonna buy it
and use it to cook dinner for their family you really needed your 10 bucks after
you stole that man's pin and you were gonna take all his money you needed your 10 bucks and you needed to terrorize the
life of somebody else who's gonna buy that meat cleaver holy [ __ ] can you [ __ ] imagine no obviously not but
like I think that's like just what I always say I need to come up with something else I just I can't
it's hard I my brain doesn't compute that's horrible none of this holy [ __ ] and that woman absolutely had to have
used that meat cleaver because remember he wasn't discovered for a month yeah so
she had that Cleaver in her possession for a month and she bought it for a reason you don't buy a meat cleaver when
you don't need one no you buy it because you hear me because you need to cook something so they took the the police
took the meat cleaver into evidence but unfortunately they couldn't get any traces of blood because it had probably
been washed ten times over at that oh my God after Crystal Ronald and Renee were
all certain that Cordell was dead they went back to the apartment and Calvin Smith that friend from earlier who
wasn't able to sneak out and help them came over that night and helped them all Forge checks in cordell's name and Pawn
off some of his belongings including a TV and his violin oh my God I don't know why the violin just got me
no it's like the glasses got me like when they were knocking on me when you said the glasses were knocked off I
don't know what it was but I got a pit in my stomach it's just like I don't know what it is it's I think it's you
know what it is it's a unique part about someone it's a unique part about someone
and it's also I feel like bullies always use glasses with their tactics like so knocking them off feels like a very like
helpless it does moment and it is it's like oh he has glasses like he's the guy with the glasses and it's like I don't
know when they get knocked off it feels very like something's being ripped away I don't know what it is but then the
violin it's like that's a part of his identity he played the violin you know what I mean you're just pawning it off
like it's nothing because you just brutally tortured and murdered him ridiculous oh it's insane now Crystal
actually also confessed to her participation that's nice of her yeah how kind and actually much of what she
told detectives lined up with what Renee had already told them the only difference in the two girls story
stories excuse me was that crystal said she was the one to have waited in the car and Ronald and Renee went back into
the woods and that was when Ronald placed duct tape over cordell's mouth and cut his throat Now isn't that
convenient that they they both can't decide who was in the car well and isn't it convenient that Renee didn't have the
bit about putting the duct tape over his mouth but Crystal did but Crystal did interesting because it really didn't
tell us anything about that so who really was out there exactly [Music] um she told them that about a week later
they all worried that they had left too much evidence behind in the woods so she
Ronald and her 14 year old sister April all went back to the woods where Ronald covered cordell's body a second time
with lighter fluid and set it on fire again so that was why when he was discovered
that there were maggots but then there were other maggots that were charred because he was set on fire twice two
times and why are there so many kids a 14 year old just completely fine with this I'm sorry if my [ __ ] 15 year old
friend was like do you want to come out and light a body on fire that we murdered a couple weeks ago I wouldn't
be like yeah sure of course what the [ __ ] is going on with these kids like Jesus Christ yeah like someone
questioned something please you're like what is happening what is happening at home what is happening wow
it's insane and she said that anytime she or her sister Crystal was nervous throughout this night she said Ronald
assured them it was okay and reminded them what Cordell had done to Crystal and because he had done whatever he she
claimed he did he deserved this wow so between all the information they got from Crystal and Renee police were
actually also able to arrest Crystal sister April she was charged with accessory to murder after the fact but
the charges later ended up being dropped um because witness testimony couldn't against her couldn't be corroborated
so Ronald Crystal and Renee however were all held in a juvenile detention center
in Pensacola a judge then ruled that all three of them would be tried as adults and they were all subsequently brought
to the Okaloosa County Jail to await their trial I personally believe that they should 100 me too this is an adult
crime this is beyond yeah so on April 1st 1999 a grand jury convened to hear assistant state attorney Bobby elmore's
arguments which were in favor of trying all three as adults and after two days of arguments they all ruled in favor but
because the Florida Supreme Court had previously ruled that anybody under the age of 16 would not be able to be tried
as an adult Renee would have to be tried as a juvenile so essentially she got off with a
shorter sentence on a technicality but it's like you were very much their girlfriend absolutely you very much
participated that's awful this man died not only at your friend's hands but at yours too but you had every hand in it
absolutely your hand was on the bat [Music] now because she was offered a plea deal
for her cooperation an agreement to testify against both Crystal and Ronald she pleaded no content uh excuse me no
contest to that lesser count of manslaughter as well as false imprisonment and she was sentenced to
the maximum at the time which was 15 years in prison that's it 15 and she was released after
12 years in 2012. holy [ __ ] so she's just out there somewhere oh yup okay now Crystal went
to trial in mid-February 2000 a year after the murder the prosecutor and the uh and the defense were said by the
media to have quote sharply contrasting views of her involvement in cordell's Murder crystal sobbed in court while the
prosecutor described the full extent of cordell's injuries which had it been inflicted in part by her that would make
me so angry just starting there starting if cordell's like family or friends watching her SOB I'd be like shut the
[ __ ] up were you sobbing while you did it nope you said we were stopping while
he was sobbing begging for his life did that make you SOB no you were swinging harder because you're being shamed in a
public place right now for doing what you did the latter yeah the latter the prosecutor called her quote an enraged
enraged killer seeking revenge for a sexual advance and he told the jury that although it was Ronald Bell who set the
plan in motion Crystal had not only partooked book but mocked the man as he was dying and asked him how does it feel
oh God like she's a monster yeah Crystal's defense attorney painted a picture of a girl who was simply caught
up in a situation she just couldn't control of course calling her a crying passive bystander
she didn't testify in her own defense but the jury was shown a video of her interview with detectives in which she
places pretty much all of the blame on Ronald Renee did the same thing during her
testimony she said that Ronald was quote very angry that Richards had touched Crystal
but in his closing arguments the prosecutor stated that Ronald had always planned on more than just beating
Cordell he brought he brought a rope he bought a chain before Cordell had even gotten home that evening and the
prosecutor ended by saying quote they wouldn't have chained him to a tree if they intended to let him live exactly
there was only one reason they got the meat cleaver because Cordell Richards excuse me Cordell Richards continued to
defy the odds exactly now the jury deliberated for just about three hours before returning with a
guilty verdict for the armed kidnapping and first-degree murder of Cordell Richards the D.A made the decision not
to seek the death penalty and Judge Thomas Remington sentenced Crystal to life in prison without the possibility
of parole which is the mandatory sentence for first degree murder in Florida so she went away she went away
she went away now Ronald Bell's trial was next and that started on March 13 2000. the
prosecutor's argument in that case was pretty much the same as in Crystal's case they argued that the uh Cordell was
murdered quote as revenge for making sexual advances toward Crystal the defense argued that it was a
situation that had gotten tragically out of hand that's always my favorite thing
is when they're like yeah it's wild it just got out of control and it's like no out of control is when you buy a
moment too many shoes during a sale yeah and and whoops I spent the money I was supposed to use to pay my phone bill
like that's out of control out of control is when I finish an entire tub of Ben and Jerry's rather than the half
that I intended on eating exactly out of control is not brutally torturing and murdering someone I hate when the out of
control thing it's like we are not we're supposed to be humans here right we're supposed to be a higher species of like
on this Earth you're just equating us to a full-on jungle animal that like has no
knowledge of anything and it just goes off of hunger the other thing is okay so this was a situation that got out of
control so then why did they go back multiple times they were out of control that entire time they were out of
control still a week later when they went back and burned him even further yeah what sense does that they were it
doesn't make a very long period of out of control yeah huge out of control is a brief moment of being out of control
that control is not like a sustained state of being for that long of course it's not no but luckily the prosecution
was able to remind the jury of how kallus Ronald Bell had been they showed the video of the teens returning the
meat cleaver and all of the evidence that shows that this murder no matter what if it was a moment out of control
which it [ __ ] wasn't was premeditated yeah they bought all of the things used in this murder aside from the meat
cleaver before any of this had even gone down before last night was even happening exactly that's what bothers me
they knew what they were gonna do there was even further testimony given by Ronald's old friend Calvin Smith I'm
sure they're probably not friends anymore probably not Smith testified that Ronald had on more than one
occasion tried to get Smith to help him to murder someone he said that this is just something he wanted to do 100 and
this wasn't a person yeah hundred percent he said that on those occasions he just lied and said that his mom
wouldn't let him out because remember we're talking about 17 years old God sorry I actually can't help you murder
someone tonight my mom's cooking Brussels sprouts for dinner and she says I can't leave my mom said I can't come
out with you to murder tonight sorry maybe next time yeah I'll try again he also stated that the day after Cordell
was murdered Ronald had told him quote that they had beaten the man chained him to a tree and tried to burn him and
finally cut the man's throat Jesus now another friend Thomas Baldwin testified that he had been given that TV and the
violin and multiple other items that turned out to obviously belong to Cordell he didn't realize it at the time
and he pawned them at Ronald's request just days after the man had been murdered oh my God
so on March 17 2000 the jury found Ronald Bell Jr guilty of one count of armed kidnapping and first degree murder
and the penalty phase was held the next day during this phase the jury were shown
school records and jail records that showed he was a good student and a model in mate oh good like that's going to
change my opinion of you you chained a man to a tree and burned him alive and then went back and cut his throat open
and then went back and burned him again yeah it's like but I'm so glad you're doing great in there that's awesome yeah
good for you bud very glad both his father and his grandfather which is really sad that like they even had to do
this absolutely testified on his behalf and both men told the jury that he was a
good man who had been involved in both his church and his community the judge and jury were also presented with a
petition urging Mercy signed by 200 members of his church where his father was the pastor
the prosecution called one single witness during this phase who was detective Stan Griggs and he was able to
remind the jury how kallus Ronald had been and how he ended his friends again returned to meet Cleaver that they used
to kill a man just to reclaim 9.99 and I don't give a [ __ ] that he goes to church
people who go to church do a lot of bad things guys just like people who don't go to church do a lot of bad things BTK
went to church yeah plenty of them went to church most of them blame like God talking to them or somebody talking to
him yeah like it's that doesn't mean anything it doesn't mean it goes both ways people who don't go to church do
shitty things people go to church do shitty things and people who go to church don't do shitty things the people
who don't go to church don't do shitty things like so it has no basis in reality that's just another part of his
life that's cool that he goes to church has nothing to do with anything that's out not pertinent yeah not at all but
the jury holder the jury heard both sides and in the end they voted unanimously in favor of the
death penalty and on May 15th uh same judge judge Thomas Remington sentence Bell to death for what he called an
unspeakable horror committed against coordinator it was that's exactly what it was that's exactly what it was and he
was the ringleader the judge actually acknowledged the petition that had been signed by the members of the church and
said the defendant abandoned his religious training to commit a crime into of an Indescribable brutality and
unrelenting torture yeah that's the thing this is not it's bad enough when somebody stabs
someone or somebody shoots someone it's murderous murder yeah but this is so far
beyond and it's like you want to say carry on and say like he was a good church going boy okay he might have been
but exactly what this judge said he Abandoned Ship well and honestly when this took place that's honestly not even
helping the case because it's like honestly that scares me more yeah that you have the fear of God and wet and
still did this and that he sat in a church and and like did whatever he did in there and then he comes out and this
is what he does like that's even scarier you think about it okay so his dad is that the is the pastor at this church
his grandfather is involved in this church there's this huge Community remember Cordell Richards wasn't found
for a month yeah so a month went by where he sat in that church and pretended to be a good church going boy
knowing full well that he had lit a Man on Fire Two Times and tortured him tortured him and sliced his neck because
he couldn't break his neck when he tried to and it's like that so that's even scarier in church knowing that you did
that that's so much scarier that's the thing I'm like you guys probably hurt the case yeah that didn't that didn't
help not at all now in 2002 Ronald appealed his death sentence on the grounds that Judge Thomas Remington had
not given his age due consideration when the sentence had been imposed I think he
did and he was like wow that's even scarier yeah no during the sentencing the judge had concluded that Ronald's
age at the time of the murder was of little consequence he noted that Ronald had no history of
abuse and had come from a loving supportive family and on appeal Ronald's attorney argued
that the judge was laboring under a misapprehension of what the legal principles were that he was to take into
account at the time of the weighing process all right so Ronald's age he said was not given consideration but the
Supreme Court ruled four to three in Ronald's favor saying that even though a killer will
become eligible for the death penalty youth remains an important consideration in deciding whether punishment should be
life in prison or death so the death sentence was reversed and now Ronald is serving life in prison without the
possibility of parole just like Crystal I would take that yeah now in 2019 actually both Ronald and Crystal
appealed their sentencing based on that 2012 U.S Supreme Court ruling about no life sentences about the possibility of
parole yep I feel like I could I think I say that in my sleep yeah truly but the appeals
court reviewed both sentences and upheld oh good okay I was like don't you dare effectively re-sentencing both
of them to life in prison good now one of cordell's daughters commented on this resentencing saying the only thing I can
say is my family and I are just still in shock that we had to go through this in
court I thank God the judge found the wisdom to rule the way he did it's like those two little girls had
their father taken from them in the most horrific way exactly for no reason and I
had their father's reputation like ruined after his brutal murder after his brutal murder because of what this girl
says about him which is like now that we know what this girl did right like we're
really gonna take that I'm not taking anything she says without a grain of salt this one person who said that there
are three kids who said this happened but every adult in his life his ex-wife the mother of his children his
grandparents his co-workers at IHOP his house cleaner all agreed that he would have done anything for anyone yeah and
had never made them uncomfortable in any way that's a truly horrific and tragic tale truly and all that to say even if
he did make some kind of advances that made her uncomfortable that's [ __ ] up you don't tie someone to a tree and
light them on fire because they are acting like that like no no no no no I think we can all agree no no you don't
do that not at all you go to the police yeah exactly you let the law do what the
law needs to do that's the thing it's like you do not that this is not justified in any way shape form on any
Galaxy nope this is truly one of the most yeah that is truly one of the worst things I've ever heard mind-boggling oh
and it just feel so hard so bad for his family I know but yes that is the case of Cordell Richards and the three
teenagers who brutally murdered him that's horrific so without being said geez we hope you
keep listening and we hope you keep it weird bye yeah bye [Music]

On March 4th, 1999 the body of Cordell Richards was found in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The man had been absolutely brutalized. He was tied to a tree, beaten, burned, and had his throat cut. The medical examiner notices something strange though; he found maggots present at the scene but some of them had been charred. This meant that the man had likely been burned after his body had already begun decomposing. Why would the killer(s) come back after the fact? And better yet, who had done this to the 31 year old father of two?

Thank you to the lovely David White for research assistance!

References:

Associated Press. 1999. ""Teens charged with veteran's death."" Lakeland Ledger, March 19.

—. 2000. ""Teen emotional as lawyer describes scene of slaying."" Ocala Star-Banner, February 16.

—. 2000. ""Video shows suspects returning cleaver."" Ocala Star-Banner, March 18.

—. 2002. ""Court reverses death sentence."" Sarasota Herald Tribune, November 8: 7B.

—. 2000. ""Girl, 17, convicted in killing."" Sarasota Herald-Tribune, February 18: W6.

Gainsville Sun. 1999. ""Accessory to murder charges are dropped."" Gainsville Sun, September 23: 1.

—. 2000. ""Son of minister gets death sentence."" Gainsville Sun, May 17.

Hawkins, Erik. 2020. Florida Teen Trio Torture, Bludgeon And Immolate Man Chained To A Tree. February 27. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.oxygen.com/killer-couples/crime-news/kristel-maestas-ronald-bell-murder-cordell-richards-torture#:~:text=When%20Fort%20Walton%2C%20Florida%2C%20police,with%20his%20wrists%20also%20bound.

Kristel Rose Maestas v. State of Florida. 2021. 1D19-1767 (First District Court of Appeal, State of Florida, April 20).

2003. New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science. Directed by Bertrand Morin. Produced by New Dominion Pictures. Performed by New Dominion Pictures.

Ronald Lee Bell, Jr. v. State of Florida. 2002. SC00-1185 (Supreme Court of Florida, November 7)."

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

The episode details the brutal murder of Cordell Richards by three teenagers, exploring the crime, investigation, and trials.

Key points

The Discovery of Cordell Richards. Cordell Richards was found brutally murdered, chained to a tree in Florida.
A Gruesome Examination. The medical examiner struggled to identify the victim due to severe decomposition.
The Investigation Begins. Detectives ramp up their investigation after identifying Cordell as the victim.
Community Witnesses. Witnesses reported seeing suspicious individuals near the crime scene.
Murder Plot Revealed. A friend reveals the chilling plan to kill Cordell due to inappropriate advances.
Teenagers Arrested. Three teens are arrested in connection with the murder of Cordell Richards.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was burned, beaten, and found chained to a tree.

Describing the brutal murder case.

3:04WatchJan 25, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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