Chapter 87: Murder in the Mine-The Murders of Breezy Otteson and Riley Powell

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. Welcome to the bell Wich Podcast, a show that covers the infamous legend of the historic Bell Witch haunting in Southern United States in the nineteenth century, where the Bell family experienced frightening happenings within their home. Hang on a second, No, no, no, that's the wrong Bell Witch. This is a podcast about being a WITCHI pagan in the twins first century, airing biweekly with different guests on each month sharing their pearls of wisdom and gems of knowledge from their very own witchy businesses. I call it a moot loot. Here we cover a wide range of pagan and witchcraft related topics, from sigils, spells, and spirits to reiki rituals and pagan parenting while camping in the Bell tent named Eliza's got nothing to do with the Belwitch from the nineteenth century in tendancy that scared people to death in a little townhouse, which may or may not be true. Pretty cool story,

1:33 but yeah, it's their own Belwitch. This Belwich Podcast is brought to you by Swales the Friendly Green Witch from Leeds Uk, an oorvan witch with a strong Yorkshire accent, a love of all things wade, spooking magical, and a smelly dragon named Dave. So tune in every two weeks for a sprinkling of Yorkshire magic. Listen to the Belwitch Podcast with me Swales, a Friendly Green Witch. Wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead. Lisa is not with me today and that's not for any other reason other than the fact that I wanted to record and she was not home.

2:13 So the story I have for you today is actually coming to us via CJ from Beyond the Rainbow podcast through Crimes of the LGBTQ. She has let me borrow an episode from her before. We've collapsed with her before when we covered the murder of Kayleen Oling. CJ is also the creator Dark tast Network. We love CJ. CJ's awesome. CJ's a true fairy pod mother, So after you listen to this, head on over to her channel. She is also everywhere, and I'll put links down below where you can find her because she's wonderful. Give her some love, tell her that I sent you. So this episode was actually written by CJ. We're going to try something a little bit new. I've been dealing with some pretty aggressive insomul lately. I've been very tired. I've also been working a lot, so I haven't had the time that I would like to dedicate to researching. I have a couple of cases on the back burner that we are slowly getting through. But today CJ has so graciously helped me out.

3:24 The story I have for you today is one that is so senseless and the fact that it should not have happened, and no murder should happen. However, this case really hit me hard because it is so terrible and it is so heartbreaking for two young people to have lost their lives. The story I have for you today is the murders of Breezy Otsen and Riley Powell. Their love was special. For one, it was young loves, true love brielin. Breezy Odsen was only seventeen years old and she had been dealing with the death of her mom for several years, and she was struggling to feel young again.

4:12 But she found that love from her boyfriend, Riley Powell. Now Riley was eighteen years old, and there were many times that he too struggled to feel loved, but with Breezy he felt warmth and comfort. Riley had gotten into a bit of trouble in high school. He had taken a gun to school, not for anything nefarious, but because he had plans to go rabbit hunting after But as everyone knows, bringing a gun to school is not good for anybody. Because of this, Riley was actually sent to a boy's home and he ended up changing schools, graduating, and he got a job as a plumber. Now, the young couple's dreams were of having a future and a family together someday, and in fact, over Thanksgiving of twenty seventeen, Brazy told her aunt that she might actually be pregnant.

5:06 For the time being, though the young couple were living with Riley's dad in Eureka, Utah. Now Eureka is about seventy five miles south of Salt Lake City and part of Juab County. It sits in the East Tintic Mountains, and East Tintik was named for a U tribal chief named Tintik. Eureka is also located in the Tintick Mining District, which has hundreds of abandoned mines in the vicinity. Or Gold, silver, copper, and lead were the popular resources of these mines. The area continues to serve as a historical site of a time of great prosperity for many now. Another couple with great importance to this story would be the couple of Jared Baum and Morgan Lewis Henderson. This couple was much older than Ryley and Breezy. This older couple had a lot more baggage that they carried with them as well.

6:07 Forty one year old Jared was a wildly crazy jealous man. He'd leave their house in Mammoth, Utah and tell Morgan she'd better not ever have any male visitors while he was away, and Morgan always promised that she wouldn't. Jared had also been in and out of jail ever since the age of fifteen, when he had robbed a Burger King fast food restaurant. Thirty four year old Morgan, on the other hand, was actually acquainted with Riley, as she had dated the much younger man briefly at one time, and the two of them remained friends. You know, a few days after Christmas, Morgan would call up Riley and make plans for him to come over to the house. After Jared had left. Morgan wanted to smoke some weed and she knew Riley could score some now. Riley told Morgan he would only come over if he could bring Breezy too, which Morgan was fine with. She said, that's fine, no problem, that both of you can come over. That December twenty ninth, Riley and Breezy spent some after Christmas time celebrating the holidays with Breezy's relatives, and later in the evening, they drove to Jared and Morgan's home in Riley's cheap Now, Jared was not home, and remember he said, under no circumstances could Morgan have men in the house if he was not there.

7:29 Now. Not long after hanging out and smoking some weed, Jared would actually arrive home and freak out at the presence of Riley and Breezy in their home. He flew off the handle at Morgan for disobeying him, and then he bound Riley and Breezy. He tied both teenagers up and ductate their mouths. In fear for her own safety, Morgan knew she was in big trouble with Jared, and she became complicit in assisting him. Jared dragged both Riley and to Riley's jeep and shoved each one of them into the back seat. He yelled at Morgan to get into the passenger seat. The gee pulled up to an abandoned mind shaft. Jared got out of Riley's jeep and pulled ball teenagers out of the jeep as well. Morgan got out of the car and waited for further instruction from her boyfriend. While roughing the teenage couple up, Jared removed the duct tape from their mouths now Breezy asked if she could be untied, as she was pregnant and her hands were going numb. Jared just chuckled and congratulated both of the teens on their pregnancy, and he told Breezy no because they were almost there. He led them to the front of the mine. Jared made Morgan neil on the ground. He then ordered Breezy tinniel beside Morgan. Breezy did as she was told. Her sobs were loud and tears heavily streamed down her cheeks. Jared made her watch as he'd beat Riley bloody, and then he removed a knife from his pocket. Morgan reached over and held one

9:02 of Breezy's bound hands. Jared repeatedly stabbed Riley, and Riley fell to the ground and was gurgling. He managed to sputter out the words I'm dying. Jared stabbed Riley a few more times and then waved at him, saying, quote, goodbye, Riley, you piece of shit, as he rolled Riley down a two thousand foot mind shaft. Satisfied with what he had just done to Riley, Jared walked over to a terrified Breezy, who was pleading and promising she would tell no one would happen there that night. I guess Jared was feeling a little bit more remorseful, a little more soft due to the crying, whimpering Breezy because he walked behind Breezy and Morgan. He told Breezy would all be okay. As he stood her up and held her from behind, Jared decided to end her life quickly and painlessly. He slid her throat and then he pushed her into the mind shaft too. Morgan suddenly felt warm blood on her leg and it was from breezy. Morgan was also crying as she watched Jared use his foot to try and cover all the blood on the ground by moving dirt around.

10:13 Morgan more than once thought she too would be dying that night. As the dust settled, Jared wiped any residual blood on the knife off on his jeans. He folded up the knife and put it back in his pocket. He kneeled in front of Morgan and told her to pull herself together and that she needed to help him clean up the mess or he'd hurt her and her son. They soon were both trying to cover blood with the dirt. Now, Jared got back into Riley's jeep and told Morgan to also get in. As Jared shut the driver's side door, he said to Morgan, quote, I told you you couldn't have guy friends. The couple abandoned Riley's jeep behind some trees about a mile from Cherry Creek Reservoir, and Jared made sure to slash two of the jeep's tires so it looked as if maybe the driver was in distress and just left their jeep there. On January second, twenty eighteen, Riley and Breezy were reported missing and a search for the two teens was underway. Search and rescue teams looked nearly everywhere they could think of, including out some of the mines, but they never looked in the minds as they were too deep. On January nights, on a tip from either Breezy's family or Riley's dad, police went to Jared and Morgan's home. They answered the home and began to ask Jared and Morgan questions. The couple answered that they heard Riley got into a physical altercation on New Year's Eve, but they didn't know with who, the reason, why, or what happened to Riley and Breezy. Afterwards, police left

11:46 to go soak in with the couple had just told them, and to see if they could find any leads of Briley being in a fight on New Year's Eve. On January eleventh, Riley's sheep was located and impounded. Police obtained to search Warren for Riley's mother's house, and it would seem the police immediately suspected foul play in the disappearance of Riley and Breezy, but I'm not fully sure why they would suspect Riley's mom. There's been no information about the relationship between them and his mother being hostile, but either way, she was cleared. Still at an impasse in the case, police decided to visit Morgan again on January twenty fifth, based on a Facebook conversation that they had found where they read that Morgan had invited Riley and Brazy to her home on the twenty ninth. Now, Jared was there, and the police conducted their second interview of Morgan inside their police car at her and Jared's residence, but Jared had to stay outside and just watch so as not to influence her witness statement. Now, not having Jared with her to take over the conversation or answer for her, Morgan still told the police the teens never came to visit her the night of December twenty ninth, like they were supposed to. Detectives continued to press Morgan, and she finally admitted that, yes, the kids did come over.

13:12 They stayed about forty minutes, then they left, and after they left, she had no idea where they were. Morgan had just outed herself as a liar to law enforcement. Obviously, the heat was on and time was closing in on the lying Morgan and her jealous boyfriend. Police were keeping an eye on the couple, and on March twenty third, Morgan was pulled over for speeding. A search of her car turned up on registered weapons in illegal drugs, and Morgan was arrested. At the station, Morgan was again questioned about Breezy and Riley. She finally admitted to withholding knowledge about the two teenagers who were missing. She told the detectives her boyfriend Jared Baum had murdered them, and she also told them exactly where they could find the teen's bodies in Tintic Standard mine number two. When police went again to search the mine Morgan had told them about, they put a long wired camera with a light down the mine shaft. About one hundred feet down is where they found the slightly decomposing bodies of Breezy and Riley, still bound by rope. On March twenty eighth, Jared was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Breezy and Riley.

14:30 A few days later, Jared is charged with two counts of first degree murder, along with a storing of other related felonies. The medical examiner revealed Breezy was actually not pregnant as she had suspected, so there were no charges in relation to a possible murder of their fetus. Jared's day in court turned into a month long trial. Now Morgan agreed to testify against Jared, her now ex boyfriend, in exchange for a plea deal which earned her three years in prison for obstructing justice. Morgan told the court that they had went home after dumping Riley's cheap They had burdened her clothes and showered and scrubbed their bodies with bleach. Jared dumped his knife in an old oil drum, and Riley's cays were buried in multiple dirt piles. Morgan also testified she was so distraught with the guilt of the teenagers being murdered she bought an illegal gun in some mushrooms. She was driving to the mountains to kill herself when she was pulled over for speeding and taken to jail. Now the defense tried to play upon the fact that Morgan lies. She lied to the police a number of times before coming clean, but the prosecution pointed out Morgan has been reliable since she told the truth.

15:44 She led police to the teen's bodies and evidence surrounding the case. After the month long trial that happened four years after the murders, the jury deliberated for eighteen days and came back with a guilty verdict for Jared. At first, the prosecution was deciding if they wanted to seek the death penalty, but they ultimately decided against it and to go for a life sentence without parole. Much to the chagrin of the teen's families. The judge sentenced Shared to life without the possibility of parole. In twenty twenty three, the Tenttik Standard number two Mine was sealed, preventing any more public access or tragedies from occurring there. However, many of the other minds in the vicinity were purchased by the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining with the intentions of reclamation and reopening them. These were wildly senseless murders.

16:44 These two teenagers, Riley and Breezy, had done nothing wrong. They were good kids. They were just looking forward to their future together. They were both vibrant young teenage barely adults, and Jared Bomb, in his irrational jealousy, killed them for hanging out with his wife or his girlfriend. And part of me sympathetic to Morgan because she didn't want to be in that situation. I truly believe that she only went along with it out of self preservation. You know, she herself did not lay a hand on the two, and while she lied, I know that a lot of those lies were probably out of fear of retaliation from Jared.

17:38 This was a short one today, or I guess you can consider it more of a mini chapter, a short chapter, a mini episode, what have you. But big appreciations to CJ for helping me out this week. There's just a lot going on for me behind the scenes, but I have a few days off coming up. I'm going to spend all of that time researching and working on Lisa's Christmas present and trying to take a very long nap. But again, head on over to Beyond the Rainbow. T're crying to the LGBTQ and show CJ some love for the work she did on this episode and again helping me out. We love her dearly. She is wonderful. Go say something nice to her. She deserves all of the good vibes forever and ever. But with that, I will leave you to enjoy your thanksgiving for those that are in America and celebrating Thanksgiving this week or tomorrow by the time you listen to this and with that, I will see you in the next chapter of the Book of the Debt. 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

19:11 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, Bye night.