June 17, 2025

Novela 9: The Highs Ice Cream Store Murders w/ Rainbow Crimes

Novela 9: The Highs Ice Cream Store Murders w/ Rainbow Crimes
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Join CJ from Rainbow Crimes as she tells the story of the Highs Ice Cream Store Murders.
On April 11, 1967, in Staunton, Virginia, Sisters-in-law Constance Smootz Hevener and Carolyn Hevener Perry were shot and killed while working at the Highs Ice Cream Store. While a prime suspect was arrested, charged, and tried, he was ultimately acquitted, and the mystery of who killed these young women went unsoled for over 4 decades. Finally, after the case had long gone cold, someone came forward with the answer as to who the killer really was.


Find CJ and more information about her podcast here

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WEBVTT

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Dark Cast Network, the best in indie podcasts. I'm Griffin

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and you're listening to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes of

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the LGBTQ Plus.

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Hey, this is a true crime show with adult content. No,

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I'm not recording well naked. I just mean that I

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sometimes drop swear words. Hey, they're Rainbow Warriors and welcome

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to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes of the LGBTQ Plus.

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I'm your host, CJ. There will not be a new

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episode next week is I'll be on the road to

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the True Crime Paranormal Festival in Denver, and it's actually

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an eight day road trip, so I'm not one hundred

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percent sure if there'll be an episode the week after

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or not. We'll just have to see how the trip goes.

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So far, the trip's been kind of rocky for me,

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and I haven't even left. But that's because the breeder

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who said she'd deliver me a Multese puppy in Denver,

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she went and promised out all her puppies to other people,

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and she did not save one for me. She didn't

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take deposits, and I made the mistake of thinking our

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texting back and forth would solidify her bringing me a puppy,

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So that's gonna be a bummer for me. You know,

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I have this huge hole in my heart that Nilah

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held and I just can't seem to get it filled

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even a little bit. I did rent a van out

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for our road trip to haul me, my daughter, her boyfriend,

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and their two big dogs along. Oh yepie, that should

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be an interesting trip. But at least with the van,

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I don't have to strap my totes of merch on

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top of the vehicle just to lose it all over

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the highway somewhere. Are missing but not forgotten LGBTQ per

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in this episode is forty one year old Taylor Casey

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from Chicago, Illinois. Taylor went missing from a yoga retreat

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in the Bahamas, to be more specific, Paradise Islin and

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Nassau on June nineteenth, twenty twenty four. Exactly a week later,

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on Wednesday, June twenty sixth her phone was found in

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the ocean, but all of her other belongings were still

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at the retreat. The organizers of the retreat have asked

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the Bahama Police to investigate into Taylor's disappearance. These same

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people learned of her being missing when Taylor failed to

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show up for her classes on June twentieth. She was

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last seen late the night of June nineteenth. Bahama police

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seemed to be keeping whatever information they have close, and

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they're sharing very little of it. This generally means we

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don't know if it's because they don't have anything to share,

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or if they believe foul play is involved. They're not

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even saying if Taylor's phone in the ocean was found

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close to the retreat or not, although they are saying

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they've conducted an intensive investigation into Taylor's disappearance. I hate

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feeling doubtful that the Bahama police are competent, but I

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remember on the case of Rebecca Quorium on the Disney ship,

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law enforcement from the Bahamas was lackluster at best. Oddly,

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just after Taylor disappeared, the US issued a Level two

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travel advisory to the island due to crime, to which

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I say, damn. It'd be nice to know these things

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before a person actually travels to the place. Right. Taylor's

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family and friends are extremely worried about her. If you

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or anyone you might know was on this retreat, lives

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in the Bahamas, or may have information on finding Taylor,

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please contact the Bahama Police. Taylor is a light skinned

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black woman, standing five ten and weighing one hundred and

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forty five pounds and Taylor, we hope you're found safe.

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My friend. I'd like to preface this case by telling

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you it's an oldie. It's a double murder that occurred

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in nineteen sixty seven and remained a cold case until

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the killer confessed on their deathbed in two thousand and nine.

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She was a simple girl at the age of eighteen, tomboyish,

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really short hair, no makeup, sort of slouched when she walked.

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Her confidence and herself seemed to be lacking. She was

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a hard worker, though she had two jobs. One was

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at a hospital as a nurse's assistant, and the other

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she worked part time at Hyge's ice cream store in Stanton, Virginia.

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Her name was Sharon Diane Crawford, but she went bire

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middle names of Diane. At High's ice cream store, she

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worked with two girls, two girls she had actually went

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to high school with, but were a little bit older

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than her. One was nineteen year old Connie Smoot's Heavener,

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who was a twin having a twin brother. The other

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girl was twenty year old Caroline Hevner Perry, whose parents

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owned that particular ice cream shop. Still on her teens,

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Connie was already married, but then again, it was nineteen

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sixty seven. Marriage and babies as teenagers it was pretty

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common stuff. Connie had married the brother of her best

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friend and co worker, Carolyne. The two girls had been

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cheerleaders together in high school, and since Carolyne's parents owned

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the shop, she too worked there. Carolyn also was married

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and she had a two year old daughter. It was

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uncharacteristically hot April eleventh of nineteen sixty seven of people

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had visited the ice cream shop for their favorite treats.

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Diane had called out sick that day and one of

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the other two girls was filling in for her. But

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Diane had problems with her two co workers of Connie

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and Carolyn. Mostly with Connie. Connie had taken to teasing

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and name calling Diane for her appearance. Lesbian, dyke and

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other names were meant to be derogatory. They were her

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go to insults. Diane very well could have been a lesbian,

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but she had no experience in dating girls. She didn't

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have any experience in dating boys, so Connie's jabs were

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solely based on Diane's looks, and that stung Diane to

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her core. Prior to the evening of April eleventh, Diane

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had called up an acquaintance, someone she worked at the

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hospital with, actually, and she asked this girl, Joyce Bradshaw,

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she wanted to go grab a burger with her. Joyce

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said sure. Diane picked Joyce up, and once they got

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to the burger joint, Diane had Joyce open her glove

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compartment and no, that's not a sexual innuendo. When Joyce

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opened the glove box, a twenty five caliber pistol was revealed.

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Diane called the gun her baby, and she said, there's

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two bullets in it. When is for my stepdad who

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had allegedly molested Diane? And when is for the girl

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I work with? We now know that Diane was referring

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to Connie. Well, Joyce had no clue who the girl

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she worked with was, nor did she ask who it

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might be or why Diane wanted to use the bullets

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on the two people she named, because actually, right now

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she was kind of terrified of this Roague girl that

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she was with. And to be honest, Joyce couldn't get

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home and away from Diane fast enough. Back to April eleventh,

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nineteen sixty seven. At the ice cream shop. It was

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eleven PM closing time. Hys had extended their hours until

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eleven due to the warmer weather that was occurring. Connie

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and Carolyn were starting there closing the store procedures. In

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the back door of the shop, a figure had opened

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the door and they had popped in. It was Diane.

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She had come to tell Connie she wouldn't be able

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to cover Connie's shift the following day. For some reason.

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This started a verbal altercation between the two girls. In

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a fit of rage, Diane grabbed her baby that she'd

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been hiding somewhere on her body, perhaps in a pocket

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or tucked into the waistban of the pants she was wearing.

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She held the gun and she shot Connie, who immediately

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slumped to the ground. Carolyn was startled and she saw

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what Diane had done. She rushed over to Connie and

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she knelt over her protectively. That's when Diane took the

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gun to Caroline and shot her too. As the girls

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lay one on top of another on the ground in

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a pool of their own blood, Diane grabbed the money

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the girls had collected from the register and were going

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to drop into a security box. The total amount was

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a hundred and thirty eight dollars. I know that doesn't

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sound like a bunch of money now, but in nineteen

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sixty seven money, it was a good lot of pocket change.

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Diane fled out the back door to her car and

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she drove around aimlessly, wondering what she was going to do.

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She was hoping no one had seen her go into

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the shopp or leave, but she was nervous. After hours

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of driving around in a daze, the answers suddenly came

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to her and she drove to a farm that she

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had been to dozens of times. The farm was owned

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by Dave Bocock, who just so happened to be the

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detective in charge of criminal investigations for the Stanton Police Department.

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Dave was Diane's friend, and he was the one who

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taught her how to use her gun, which is why

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she had spent so much time at his farm. When

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she got to the farm, Dave, who was actually the

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first law enforcement at the crime scene, was home now,

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and Diane told Dave exactly what had happened. He told

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her not to worry, and he made Diane give him

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her gun. He then put it in a metal box

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and buried it somewhere on his property. The girls in

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the ice cream shop were discovered by a passerby who

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had used a payphone. This man called in saying he

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believed that there were injured people in the Highs ice

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cream store. He stated his name is Bill Thomas. Bill

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was a twenty four year old school teacher. Again, Detective

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Dave was the first law enforcement at the scene, and

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Detective Dave didn't yet know what had happened. But then

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more police in the ambulance arrived. Connie had already succumbed

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to her injury, but Carolyn was hanging on by a

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thin thread. She ended up passing away on the way

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to the hospital. To start their investigation that appeared to

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be a robbery gone wrong with money missing, police called

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upon Bill Thomas, the one who phoned the crime in.

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He was kind of a witness and it seemed like

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a good place for them to start, especially since DNA

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testing wasn't really a thing back then. They most likely

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dusted for fingerprints as well, but with so many people

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in and out of the ice cream shop, It kind

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of seemed like a daunting task. Once investigators had built

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down at the station, he told them he saw two

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men run off. One of the men was black and

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the other was white. The black man was big, he

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was six feet tall, and the white man he was

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even bigger. It soon came out that Bill was lying

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about seeing the two men. No one really knows why

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he decided to lie about a story, but you can

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bet it put him to the head of the murder

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suspect list. For someone to make up a story and

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try to involve themselves even more into a case, it's

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a little suspect for sure, and that's what the police

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thought as well, well, almost all of them, with the

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exception of Detective Dave Bocock, of course. But Dave was

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ready to let Bill take the fall for the crime

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with no guilt on his conscience whatsoever. Since Detective Dave

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was the lead on the case, very minimal was done.

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He didn't even interview the victim's family for leads because

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Dave didn't need to. He knew what had happened. It

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wasn't too long after the murders that Joyce Bradshaw remember her,

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She's the nursing coworker of Diane's who went out for

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burgers with her. Joyce went to see Detective Dave to

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tell him about seeing a gun in Diane's car and

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relaying the chilling statement that Diane had made about her

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gun having two bullets and who they were four. What

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Dave told Joyce was that he knew about Diane's gun.

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In fact, he's the one who taught her how to

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use it in Diane's a crack shot. Joyce somehow felt

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very intimidated and frightened by Dave's words, and this fear

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made her decide to just drop it and not pursue

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her knowledge of Diane's gun and the ominous threats any further.

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A couple of days later, Detective Dave got a hold

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of Joyce. He told her that he gave Diane a

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polygraph test in which she passed, and that the bullets

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that shot the ice cream shop girls didn't match the

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bullets in Diane's gun. He told Joyce this to ease

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her mind and to get her off of his back.

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You're probably getting the idea now that either Dave is

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a dirty cop or he for some reason has a

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strong need to protect Diane, or maybe both. Some sources

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have said that the answer is both, with Dave being

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heard telling someone how easy it is as an officer

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to manipulate the system. There's speculation also that Dave might

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have been Diane's birth father. Her birth certificate only list

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her mother on it, but he might have taken a

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keen fascination in Diane because perhaps he was her birthdad.

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More and more suspicion was cast it a upon Bill Thomas,

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the alleged witness. He was arrested a year later in

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nineteen sixty eight, and he was charged with the murder

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of only Connie. What CJ Why only one of the girls? Well, warriors,

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This was actually a very smart move by the prosecution,

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and the reason they went after Bill for only one

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of the murders was just in case he was acquitted.

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If the prosecution lost the case against Bill for Connie's murder,

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they could still go after him for Carolyn's murder. Otherwise,

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if the prosecution went after him for both and lost,

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they couldn't read try Bill due to double jeopardy laws, which,

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as you probably know, is when a person who's been

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accused is acquitted by a jury and they cannot be

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prosecuted for the same crime twice. Now. Bill was kind

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of his own worst enemy, and he was doing stupid

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ass things like going around town and telling people he

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killed the two girls. People thought he was crazy, and

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to be honest, with continually inserting himself into the crime,

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Bill must have been a little off culter. I mean,

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it's pretty dumb to first lie to the police with

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a bogus story of two guys fleeing, and then to

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go on and tell everyone he did the crime. Something

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must have been going on with him. Maybe he felt

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he lived a meager existence and needed to feel important somehow.

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I just don't know. He was twenty four years old

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and a school teacher, that in itself was a wonderful accomplishment.

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I don't know why he kept trying to sabotage himself.

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So Bill goes to trial and the evidence against him

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is not enough for the jury to substantiate that he

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go to prison. There wasn't even a murder weapon found,

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His fingerprints were nowhere in the eyece scream shop. How

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could they possibly find him guilty in spite of the

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hearsay about him bragging to people he murdered these girls.

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In spite of him initially lying to the police with

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the fabricated story of who did it, there was nothing

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to prove his involvement. Back in those days, innocent until

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proven guilty seemed to hold more weight than it does today.

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It took the jury three hours to come back with

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Bill's acquittal. Now, the prosecutors, disappointed that they didn't get

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their man, had to wait to see if more evidence

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would crop up so that way they could go after

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Bill for Carolyn's murder. In the meantime, Diane moved away

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from Stanton, Virginia. She decided to not live her truth

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because the burden was way too much at that time,

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so she married a man and they had two children together.

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The man she married, his last name was Smith. She

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chose the ditch going by her middle name and to

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go by Sharon instead. She was now Sharon Smith instead

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of Diane Crawford. In two thousand and six, detective Dave

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Bocock passed away. He took Diane's secret to the grave

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with them. Other detectives who had taken over would look

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at this case with perplexity, wondering who could have killed

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these girls. Not one of them could figure it out.

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Or even come up with another viable suspect other than

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Bill Thomas for yours. The families of the victims continued

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to hound the police, asking them why they could not

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find out who murdered their daughters. Even with advancements in

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DNA technology and ballistic evidence, police had no answers for

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them as to why. One detective commented that a typical

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murder case would normally have a three inch thick folder

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on it, where the file on Connie and Carolyn was

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only half an inch thick. There just wasn't much to

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go on. In two thousand and eight, the case had

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some life pumped back into it. That's when Joyce Bradshaw,

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who had been holding on to what transpired the night

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she went with Diane for burgers and saw the gun

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in Diane's glove compartment and had heard Diane's ominous threats

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of killing two people. This information had to still be

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laying really heavy on Joyce's mind for her to bring

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it back up. She made a call to crime Stoppers.

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Also in two thousand and eight, a cousin of one

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of the victims, whose name is loll Sheets, he had

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been looking into who murdered his cousin, Joyce goot winted

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this and she went to him with her information. This

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this information resurrected the memory of the long forgotten part

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time ice cream shop worker who had called in sick

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the night of the murders. Moel Sheets is the one

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who got the police active again on this case. The

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case was over forty years old. Sharon Smith aka Diane

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Crawford was no longer married and I'm not positive if

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her husband passed away or if they divorced, but her

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children were grown by now and she was ailing, so

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she moved back to Stanton. Their female partner. Sharon was

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now finally comfortable enough to deliver truth without worrying about

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being teased for it. But her health was so bad

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she was admitted to a nursing home. She was dying

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from kidney and heart failure. When detectives went to question

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Sharon Smith in August of two thousand and eight, she

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did not want to tell him the truth, but she

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finally relented that she was the one who shot both

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Connie and Carolyne in the head. After she drove around

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for a while, she went to Detective Dave's ranch and

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she gave him the gun which he buried somewhere on

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his property. In November of two thousand and eight, Sharon

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was arrested. Anna mugshot of her was taken in her

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bed at the hospital she was in. She remained at

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that hospital facility until she passed away just a few

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months later on January nineteenth, two thousand and nine. Family

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members of the victims were still none too pleased with

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the police, even after Sharon confessed. They felt the police

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were dragging their feet so Sharon could leave the world

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peacefully without having any consequence for her actions in nineteen

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sixty seven, although it must be said that the families

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have felt some comfort in finally finding out who really

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killed their loved ones. Rest in power, Connie and Carolyn.

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Our true crime quickie was sent to me by my

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buddy Jamie b. This case is from Utah and it

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just happened March of this year, so unfortunately there's no

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final resolution yet, but one is being worked on, so

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they're getting close. The story is about a twenty one

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year old trans man named Alex Franco. Alex had his

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life quickly taken from him. It was fairly soon after

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he willingly climbed into a white jeep Liberty. This was

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in front of his girlfriend's home in a Taylorsville neighborhood

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of Salt Lake County, Utah. Also in the white jeep

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Liberty were a fifteen year old boy and two seventeen

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year old boys. These miners whose names are being withheld

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because of their rage. At least one of these three

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were known by Alex. Alex had arranged for these teens

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to pick him up so he could buy himself a gun,

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but it would seem that these teens had other plans

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for Alex. My assumption in this case is that the

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gun Alex was set to buy is the same gun

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that murdered him. The three teens knew Alex had money

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on him enough to buy a gun, and that's when

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the whole situation turned on Alex and became a robbery instead.

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The fifteen year old held the gun on Alex and

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one of the three teens pepper sprayed Alex's eyes, and

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then Alex was shot once in his head, which killed him.

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The car then sped away with Alex's body still in it.

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The three teenagers drove to a remote location in a

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nearby desert and they dropped Alex's remains there. One of

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the seventeen year old kids actually turned himself into the

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police and he led authorities to Alex's body that was

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dumped in the desert. His name is now public record,

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but it's really not important in the telling of Alex's story.

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He claims to have been the driver of the white

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jeep Liberty. The three teens have been arrested and they're

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being charged as adults. Their trials have not happened yet,

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but it does look like the state of Utah is

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taking the case very seriously since these teens will be

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tried as adults. Rest in power, Alex. I love your

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Rainbow Warriors, You matter and I'll catch you in a

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couple of weeks after the True Crime Paranormal Festival in Denver,

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and my road trip is over fingers crossed in good

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Jujus in the universe for me, Please that it's going

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to be a safe trip in that maybe I'll be

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able to find myself a little Maltese puppy to bring

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home with me. Remember, it's not a crime to be

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gay or to live your truth unless sure murderer