Chapter 70: A Fight for Justice-The Murder of Kaylene Oehling w/ Beyond the Rainbow

0:00 Hi guys. I'm Courtney and I'm Lisa, and welcome to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead. Brought to you by dark Cast Network indie Podcasts with a Twist. Hey, I'm Gina and I'm Amber, and we're here to bring you the Weird True Crime podcast where we cover true crime cases that will leave you asking yourself, did that really happen. We'll dive into questionable cases throughout history that are solved, unsolved, or just plain unbelievable.

0:53 We'll also talk about the quirkier side of true crime in episodes we like to call what the When's Day, so be sure to subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast service. Oftentimes you'll see true crime podcasters will title their episode the mysterious death of someone, And while this case could be titled that, for the family of victim Kayleen Oling, especially for her father Jason, they feel there is no real mystery to their loved one's death. They consider her death a murder, and they also believe they know who her killer is after seeing the message the man they suspect the Kayleen's murder, who is named Michael Mano, sent to Jason. I tend to agree The message from the alleged killer told Kayleen's dad, I took care of her too bad. You can't search my backyard, and then fine, I killed her, but you have no proof, followed up with a laughing face emoji. That's a bold and disgusting move to send a message like this to a grieving father, whether or not Mano is Kayleen's murderer or not. Michael Mano had also texted a nude picture of Kayleen to Jason and to one of Kayleen's younger siblings. I wanted to throw that out there to show what kind of sick dude we're talking about.

2:29 Let's get a little into Kaylen's background. Kaylen was a self proclaimed bisexual woman, and she'd come out as bisexual in high school. Kayleen wasn't too much about school, and she had dropped out. As I've discussed another episode, some people just aren't institutional learners, and they learn more from life experiences. This was Kayleen. She got more out of working on cars than sitting in algebra class trying to figure out how numbers and letters add up. Kaylen was a junior firefighter and she loved volunteering with her dad at their church growing up, she was a tomboy and she preferred playing with toys that were deemed to be boy toys. This is something I can very much relate to. Kayleen loved hanging out with her family. She was a great big sister. Another thing Kaylen loved was doing nails. She aspired to do hair and nails for a career some day. While it's not one hundred percent cleared just how Kaylen met Michael Mano and became romantically involved with him, what is clear this guy was not a good match for her. Mano was twenty five years Kaylen senior, making him forty four forty five years old when they started to date.

3:50 He also has a felony rap sheet as long as a new roll of toilet paper, and I've thought that a fair comparison, since this guy is a shit stain of a human. Kayleen broke it off with Mano when she discovered he was cheating on her with another woman, and after Mano's love bombing of Kayleen was all done, she started to see him for the asshole he really is. Weeks after their break up, Kayleen found out she was pregnant with Mano's baby, Jason. Her dad accidentally discovered about Kaylen's pregnancy a few months before she went missing. He'd gone into her room to get something while she was in the shower and he saw the positive pregnancy test. Both of Kayleen's parents came together and sat her down for a long conversation. That's when Kaylen decided to move in full time with her dad and her then stepmom. They were going to help with the baby and help Kayleen get her ged. Both things were something Kayleen really wanted to have happen. Kayleen moving in with Jason was going to be a good thing. It got her away from Michael Mano, and it put Kayleen on the right track to raise her baby. Exactly four years ago as when twenty year old Kayleen Owling disappeared, making her family frantic with worry. The date was January tenth, twenty twenty, right before the shit show of COVID had everyone locked down. Kayleen was out visiting a

5:24 friend before she was supposed to head to her mom's home in Etna, Pennsylvania. Kayleen had plans to babysit her younger siblings, who lived with their mother. However, in spite of texting her mom very early in the morning that she'd be there later. Kayleen would never get to her mom's. Later that same day, Kaylen's mom called Jason to let him know that Kayleen never showed up and no one could get Kaylen on her phone either. Then the mom waited a bit, hoping Kayleen would return on her own, but when that didn't happen, she went and filed the missing persons report on January twelfth. Kayleen was a pretty responsible young lady, and it was highly out of character for her not to show up when the whole point of her being near Etna was to watch her younger siblings. Jason claims the Etna Police department did a crappy job from the get go on Kayleen's case. After Kaylen's mom filed the report, Jason tried to follow up with an email to the police. He asked for a copy of the report so he could maintain a paper trail, but the Etna police didn't file the report with the National Missing Database until March thirteenth, twenty twenty. That's a day over two months later. Can you imagine being the parent of a missing child and the cops dropping the ball on your kid for two freaking months? It's beyond infuriating Jason, who was displeased

6:56 with Etna Police department's lack a daisial interest in looking for Kayleen. He begged the police department to transfer her case to the county, but they refused. The Etna Police department only went once to Michael Mano's residence to ask questions, in spite of everything that was shared with them about the man. Finally, half a year later, after tiring of Jason's asking, the Etna police agreed to transfer Kaylen's case along with an active warrant to search Mano's home and property. Mano lived in the residence with his mother, his kids, and his current girlfriend. When the new police department on the case of Allegheny County went to pay a visit to Mano's house, the girlfriend and the mother told the police they couldn't go into the garage because there was a vicious dog locked in the garage. Say what, you can't refuse the police to go into places if they have a warrant. If you have a vicious dog in the garage, the police can put your dog down. So what the fuck? But the police didn't search the garage. I only wish that they had known a year or so prior. When Kayleen was still with Mano, he had padlocked her in that garage. Kayleen met up with Mano between the time she was done visiting her friend and when she was supposed to go watch her siblings.

8:22 This would have been the early morning hours of January ninth and January tenth, right around one am, so technically January tenth. Kaylen's purpose for seeing Mano was to try and get her grandmother's necklace he had taken from her. At one thirty six am, a text from Kaylen's phone to her mom was sent to assure her mom she'd be home later that morning to watch her siblings. At three forty am, Kayleen's phone pinged over the sixty second Street bridge in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. Ten minutes later, Mano's phone shows that he made a call to his friend a mirror. Nearly twelve hours later, at three pm, after Kaylen missed her babysitting detail, Kayleen's mom called Mano and asked where Kayleen was. Manos said that Kayleen didn't want to talk to her, and he refused to put Kaylen on the phone. Alleghany police didn't do an official group search until August twenty twenty, although her family and friends did several group searches on their own. And then March nineteenth, twenty twenty three, Kayleen's case moved from a missing person's case to a homicide case because March nineteenth, twenty twenty three is when her remains were discovered in Allegheny County. Now I'm going to pass the baton to Courtney of the Book of the Dead for more information on Kaylen's case. Courtney, thanks c J. On March nineteenth,

9:58 twenty twenty three, a Sunday, hunters were in the woods near the twelve hundred block of Washington Boulevard in the Lincoln Lemington Belmar area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just after two fifteen PM when they stumbled upon a human skull. Once investigators were called, they arrived and found more human remains that Friday. The remains are confirmed to be that of Kayleen. When he was notified, Jason said, quote all the blood just ran for me just hearing them words. Jason, it's Kayleen. It's confirmed. Total shock, just total shock, because you just always hope for a different outcome, and I can only imagine the mix of emotions that comes from being notified that your loved ones have been found after waiting years for information. There's the anguish of having the unimaginable pain of learning that his daughter is gone, but you also have that sense of something akin to relief because Jason can lay his baby to rest. But now there is that ache and suffering of just waiting for answers as to what happened.

11:05 On March twenty fourth, once the family was notified about the identification, Jason and other family members arrived at Washington Boulevard to create a memorial for Kayleen at the site where she was found. While there, Jason and his daughter found two more bones. Pittsburgh Police and the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner were notified of the discovery, and they came back to the scene to investigate. Where the medical examiner found an additional bone. According to Jason, the manager of operations for the Alleghany County Office of the Medical Examiner, Nelson Early, confirmed on the thirtieth that the bones were the forearm, shoulder, and toe of Kaylen Oling. The biggest issue with these additional bones being found is that it indicates that investigators did not thoroughly investigate the scene when they were first called by the hunters. These bones were found not miles away. They were in the exact same area, so how did police miss them? That tells me that the police did not do their job properly Unfortunately, and this could be due to the condition of Kleene's remains, the medical examiner was unable to determine a cause and a manner of death. And just for a clarification, the cause would be the method in which she died, whether by a strangulation, trauma, et cetera. And the manner in which she died is

12:37 the categorization such as homicide, natural causes, suicide, et cetera, et cetera. Now, when Kaylen was found, according to Jason, the clothes she was wearing the days she disappeared were also found, which clearly indicates that Kaylen died the day she went missing. So at least in my mind, police would have to be looking at the last person confirmed to have seen Kayleen that day, which was Michael Mano. Additionally, the site where she was found was about twenty feet away from land reported as belonging to Michael Mano's father, Pasqual just beyond the railroad trucks. This area also had security cameras nearby, which if police had done a proper investigation from the get go, it's very possible they would have discovered these cameras and would have been able to view the footage if they investigated Michael Mano and his family properly. Now that's not to suggest his immediate family had anything to do with it, but looking into his family would have led them to land in close proximity. This would mean that Kaylen could have been found soon after disappearing, saving her family years of heartache, and it also means that the police could have possibly had visual proof of who put Kaylene's body in that area, further aiding in the investigation.

14:03 Now, the Alleghany County District Attorney's Office did confirm that Kaylene's death is being investigated as a criminal matter, but they have been incredibly tight lipped about the investigation thus far, which is interesting because they have a person of interest in Michael Mano at the very least. Now, the problem with the investigation is that there really isn't one, at least from the outside booking in Jason Olling has been fighting for the last three years for progress to be made, but it seems as if law enforcement is either not doing anything even though the case is considered active, and there has only been one update to my knowledge that has been given to the family, although that has not been made public at this time. Either way, if they aren't really talking, then the assumption is that they aren't doing their jobs. But unfortunately, as we've seen before, this happens all to often. So we're going to talk about Michael Mano, the man that Jason Owling wholeheartedly believes killed his daughter, and there is even an alleged confession from Michael, but the DA's office refuses to sign an arrest warrant. First of all, this shining example of an exemplary citizen has had multiple charges filed against him going back to nineteen ninety four. These include charges of corruption of miners, reckless endangerment, statutory sexual assault, conspiracy,

15:33 and criminal solicitation. And that is just a name of few. We're talking career criminal. Additionally, the corruption of miner's charge was due to Michael Manos sending sexually explicit photos of Kayleen to her younger sister in twenty twenty two via Facebook, as well as to Jason himself. Now, Michael took a plea deal in regard to this, pleading no contests and was sentenced to six to twelve years in prison with one year of probation. He was also barred from having any contact with the victim. It's interesting to me, though, that he only got one year max, when according to Pennsylvania law, the sentence for corruption of a minor related to a sexual act is up to seven years, and it's considered a serious criminal offense because it is one. Now, that's besides the fact that this was clearly a taunt. When you take into consideration the fact that Michael, as CJ said, taunted Jason on Facebook saying that he killed Kayleen prior to this happening. In fact, let me repeat to you the direct quote Michael said, quote, I took care of her too bad. You can't search my backyard. Fine, I killed her, but you have no proof, and then he very kindly added a laughing emoji.

16:57 What more do the police know based on this alone to bring him in, have a conversation with him, do a thorough search of his home, including the yard, the shed, the basement, everywhere. That alone should have been enough to bring him in. A spokesperson for the Alleghany County DA's office actually released a statement about this, where they said, quote, the decision whether to file criminal charges in a missing person's case in which a body is discovered after several years have passed must be approached carefully and methodically. The family will be justifiably passionate about obtaining justice for their loved one as soon as possible. However, we must proceed deliberately in order to ensure that there is sufficient admissible evidence to not just identify a suspect, but also that there is sufficient admissible evidence to link that suspect to criminal acts that resulted in the death of the victim. There can be no rush to judgment or arrest. There is an ongoing investigation with county detectives actively working with attorneys in our office.

18:07 The district Attorney will continue to confer with the county superintendent. However, details of an ongoing, active investigation cannot be discussed. As I've said in multiple cases that I have covered, I fully understand that there are procedures that need to be followed in regard to any criminal investigation. However, when there is evidence indicating there is an identified guilty person, coupled with the fact that the investigation from the very beginning was not handled efficiently like it should have been, this to me sounds like a cop out. Are we really that surprised?

18:49 There is a possible reason for Michael to have gotten such a lenient sentence, though, and that is because he is an alleged police informant for the and Wealth of Pennsylvania. Obviously, this can't be substantiated since police don't speak about who their informants are, but it could explain why his sentence was just a slap on the wrist and why no one at the DA's office seems to mind that he owes over twenty three thousand dollars in past who finds related to his charges just know that if the average person owed a substantial amount of money to the government, I'm pretty sure the government would be wanting to know why payments weren't being made If he is an informant, though, that would absolutely also explain why police have yet to sign an arrest warrant for him in regards to the murder of Kayleene Owling and have refused to go back to thoroughly search his home, which, if it's not obvious, is bullshit. Clearly this man knows something or or very much had something to do with it. If there is anyone with further information on this case or the murder of Kaylene Owling, they are asked to call the Alleghany County Homicide Unit at one eight three three two five five eight four seven seven or four one two four seven three twelve

20:22 hundred. They can also call the Pittsburgh FBI office at one eight hundred two two five, five three two four. The case number is zero one two seven five two zero. Thank you so much, Courtney for coming together with me on the case of Kayleen Owling. I'm gonna go ahead and speak for both Courtney and I. There's nothing more than the two of us would like than to help find justice for Kayleen and her family. And if this means removing a scumbag off the street so we can't hurt anyone else's child, that it'd be the proverbial icing on the cake. CJ. Thank you so much for having me join you in telling Kaylene's story and trying to get justice for Kayleen and her father and her family, and for you guys, thank you for listening and I truly truly hope we both truly hope that true justice is served in this case. If you haven't already, please take the time to check out CJ's podcast Beyond the Rainbow, True Crimes of the LGBT. She covers cases with a focus on the LGBT community and she does such an amazing job covering them and I truly recommend listening to her. And as always, we hope you have a wonderful week. Share this podcast with anyone and everyone

21:53 the world needs to hear it because the Olings need justice, Kayleen needs justice, and with that, I hope you have a wonderful week and we will see you in the next one. Bye. Guys, thank you so much for listening to this chapter of the Book of the Dead, and don't forget that you can always connect with us on Instagram, you can connect with us on Twitter, and you can absolutely connect with us on Patreon. We also have a merch store as well that we have frequent discount codes coming out for so that you guys can get merch hand You're on by myself at a better cost. We hope you have a lovely rest of your week and just remember please be kind and don't forget to always stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant. Bye guys, Byee,