69 South
Podcast 69 South is about mystery, true crime, attempting to find the truth in a world full of chaos. We dig deep in to current and past true crime incidents. Reporting what we find to our listeners. We want to become your reliable source for all things relevant, while we live in a society that is truly lost.
69 South
2024 Wrap-Up: Stafford Farm Update
Could a prank spark chaos and what revelations lie beneath the snow? Join us as we kick off the new year with a retrospective on the most riveting true crime stories of 2024. We start with a chuckle-worthy tale from the Y2K scare—a power outage prank that had everyone in a frenzy. Then, we shift focus to the Karen Reed case—a saga filled with twists, including the controversial text messages of Trooper Proctor and the intriguing insights of dog bite expert Dr. Maria Russell. With the trial looming in January 2025, we'll unravel the tension and public division surrounding this gripping case.
From unsettling drawings to violent messages, the case against Jennifer and James Crumley raises pressing questions about parental responsibility in the wake of their son Ethan's school shooting involvement. As the trial unveils ignored warning signs, we explore the evolving public opinions and Jennifer's recent appeal to overturn her conviction. This conversation extends to Michigan's legal stance on holding parents accountable, highlighting the critical roles both families and schools play in identifying red flags to prevent such tragedies.
Prepare for a chilling exploration of radical beliefs and murder with Lori and Chad Daybell, the so-called "doomsday couple." We uncover their anxiety-laden phone calls and update you on Lori's upcoming trial for the alleged murder of her previous husband. Dark twists abound, but we also provide fresh insights into the unfolding Adelson family drama, promising more revelations as 2025 unfolds. As we wrap up the year, we extend our wishes for a safe and happy New Year and guarantee more gripping stories in the months to come.
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Disclaimer: All defendants are INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY in a court of law. All facts are alleged until a conviction!
Welcome everyone to podcast 69 south, where we discuss and discuss true crime, cold cases, current events and hot topics, along with our state of society today. This is your trigger warning. Our podcast content is produced for adult listeners, 18 years of age and older. We discuss situations that may be offensive and triggering to some listeners. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Hello everybody and welcome to 69 South Podcast. We want to wish everybody a happy new year, and I am Chop, and with me always is my beautiful co-host, julie.
Speaker 2:Happy new Year, and I am Chop, and with me always is my beautiful co-host, julie. Happy New Year.
Speaker 3:I cannot believe. It is a quarter of a century into the 2000s.
Speaker 2:Remember back in 2000 when everybody thought the world was going to end.
Speaker 3:I do remember that and I also remember when I was a little bit younger man. Man, when it turns 2000, I'm going to be old as shit. And now we're 25 years into it and I don't think I'm that old. It's fucked up how your perception of life changes when you're certain ages I was 17 in 2000 I was a couple years older than that, I think you have any fun stories about uh I do remember, you remember how everybody thought everything was going to crash and the power grids were going to be messed up because nothing was programmed to go over 1999.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was celebrating this little bar down the road here called the old barn and I snuck back in the back and when it snuck I mean when it struck midnight on 1999, I took the main breaker and I shut it off and it shut the band off, the mics, the lights, everything off, and everybody started screaming and running out of the bar and everybody was freaking out.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 3:It was fun. We want to thank everybody for their support in 2024. And we hope to bring you more cool killer ass stories in 2025.
Speaker 2:And we hope to bring you more cool killer ass stories in 2025. And there's true crime happening every day, so I don't think we're ever going to run out of any stories to tell you, but for right now, we're going to take a rerun through 2024 of the cases that captivated the nation and that we followed.
Speaker 3:A lot of these cases we sat through painstakingly every single day and 75% of them was boring, but we want to be able to tell you the good shit and the interesting shit in them. So, without prevail, we are going to go through some of these court cases and just lightly brief you on it, maybe point you back to the episodes that we did on these cases and tell you any updates or anything that's going on or future cases that's going on with these.
Speaker 2:Well, I want to start with my favorite case, a case that just drew me in and I can't get enough of.
Speaker 3:Let me guess Karen Reed case.
Speaker 2:Karen Reed yeah.
Speaker 3:If you were living under a rock in 2024 and you don't know about the Karen Reed case. Karen Reed case is a woman out of Canton Massachusetts. She was accused of running over her Boston police officer. Boyfriend.
Speaker 2:At a party and they accused her of being drunk and running him over. But she says she didn't do it. And the story goes way deeper and if you want to hear about it, you can go to our Secrets in the Snow series. It's a four-part series and it takes a deep dive into that case.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the Karen Reed case is really splitting the nation. You can go on Facebook and you can go anywhere that they're talking about these cases and you can see that everybody is divided on her, if she's guilty or if she's innocent. I personally have an opinion that if she is guilty, they damn sure didn't prove it in the court of law and she was found not guilty on one of the charges, and the other charges was the judge clarity mistrial.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's what happened, and that was back in July, and she goes back to trial on January 27th of 2025.
Speaker 3:Any new updates we have on this case. We do have one we. She did return to court. Her lawyers filed a new motion on the dog bite expert. Her name was Maria Russell and she was a retired emergency room physician from Los Angeles and a forensic pathologist for over 30 years. I personally like her testimony and I'll tell you what she has seen documented hundreds and hundreds of dog bites. So I think she's you know.
Speaker 2:I think she would be a good witness as well. But they just don't want a dog bite expert in this case, because the prosecutors don't think that he was attacked by any dog. But in my eyes the evidence says different.
Speaker 3:And Dr Russell has testified in numerous cases nationwide and, just for the record, her testimony has never been excluded. In any case she has testified in. They've always took her testimony with her experience, which should be taken for what it's worth, which you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's very experienced and she worked at the busiest trauma hospital in the nation, so I'm sure she's seen a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3:The only other update we have is Trooper Proctor. He was a big part of this case and kind of funny too if you watched his testimony. He is on unpaid leave pending an internal investigation.
Speaker 2:Trooper Proctor. He's in so much shit. I could only imagine being his wife. I would I die of secondhand embarrassment for her?
Speaker 3:A lot of the funny shit about Trooper Proctor was his text messages. He was just brutal and they made him read them up on the stand and live testimony on live TV and I'm sure his wife and family was watching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in live testimony on live TV and I'm sure his wife and family was watching. Yeah, they were like I can't even explain, but his face turned beet red.
Speaker 3:Like he referred to Karen Reeves' booty as a balloon knot, which I have never heard. But you guys should really go back and listen to Secrets in the Snow and I hope you enjoy those episodes.
Speaker 3:Said she was a whack job b b rhymes with the smallest dog in the litter runt. Moving on to one of the other cases that we painstakingly watched all the way through, and it was a um. This was a very controversial trial case because it was the first of its kind in the country. It is the Michigan school shooter case. Ethan Crumbly took the lives of four students and injured seven others, including a teacher in Oxford High School in Michigan. His parents, jennifer and James Crumbly, were charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Speaker 2:They were charged with involuntary manslaughter because the prosecutor thought that they didn't do enough to get their child help. Plus, they bought him a 9mm semi-automatic handgun four days before this happened and they didn't care to let the school know that they had done that. He was acting weird and his behavior was just off and he had hit the gun somewhere else in the school. But I don't know how they really know that, because they didn't search his backpack or anything like that. But then he, after his parents left because they were at a meeting at the school, didn't take him with them that day and he ended up shooting up to school 45 minutes later. And he was. He was trying to kill people. I mean he had.
Speaker 3:They found 30 empty shell casings his parents were both sentenced to 15 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after 10 years. I tell you what a lot of this case came out in the trial and everybody has different opinions on this and a lot of the nation was divided on this. And I have my opinions has changed over the course of this trial because at first I was like how do you control you know what I mean what your kids do? If your kids, if they could get a gun anywhere and go shoot up a school, I mean you can't really be responsible for that. All parents can do as parents is try to raise their children right, but you can keep your guns up and safe.
Speaker 2:And not buy a child that's having issues.
Speaker 3:Serious issues, by the way.
Speaker 2:Not buy them a handgun and then pretend like everything's okay.
Speaker 3:Now Jennifer and James Crumley. They were both held in custody after their arrest and while the trial was going on. Jennifer Crumley has now filed an appeal to overturn her conviction and she is wanting let out of prison while the appeal is being adjudicated. Now they're using the same judge that kept them in jail for the whole. You know, while the first case was being adjudicated.
Speaker 2:And go ahead if they would have turned themselves in, because I don't think any of them really had a bad criminal history maybe a DUI and a couple of petty arrests over something but what they did was they went on the run and the police had to track them down and somebody turned them in. So I think that's why they didn't get put out on bond.
Speaker 3:That's exactly why, plus, they had a shitload of cash on them when they were caught, like they could have cut out and not been caught.
Speaker 2:Well, thank God that they got caught. I mean, I don't know really if they're responsible for involuntary manslaughter, but they are. I think they hold some responsibility in this.
Speaker 3:very much so absolutely hold some responsibility. I kind of think involuntary manslaughter is a little bit rough, even though going through the trial they did do a lot of bullshit and they didn't do a lot of stuff that could have really helped the situation out. There was, you know, all kinds of warning signs and they were letting this child just get away with anything.
Speaker 2:And do whatever he want. He had no rules. They really didn't pay a lot of attention or really care. That's my opinion from what I've seen. He just got to do whatever he wanted.
Speaker 3:Ethan Kremley was caught in school scrolling through his phone looking at ammunition. When that was reported to the parents, the school had called the parents and wanted them to return the call so they could speak about the situation. And Jennifer Crumley never did call them back. What she did was she texted her phone's son and we all found this out later and said hey, you got to figure out a way not to get caught when you're scrolling through your Internet looking for ammunition, looking at pistols.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was like LOL, don't get caught next time.
Speaker 3:The day of the school shooting, there was also another incident that seemed like it wasn't taken care of, from the Crumblies and the school.
Speaker 2:in my opinion, yeah, I think that they both have some fault in this. A teacher found Ethan drawing and it was a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun, pointing at the words the thoughts won't stop, help me. In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above the bullet, blood. Everywhere Between the drawing of the gun and the bullet is a drawing of a person who appears to have been shot twice and is bleeding. Below that figure is a drawing of a laughing emoji. Further down there's words that say my life is useless and to the right it says the world is dead.
Speaker 2:Now this teacher took the photo of the drawing, which was on a math worksheet, and reported Crumbly, and he was then taken to the guidance counselor's office where his parents had to come in. They had their little talk. They said he didn't do anything wrong or anything that warranted any consequences, I guess, but they were just telling his parents hey, you need to get him some help and you need to get him help within 48 hours or we're going to call CPS. And they did not take him when they left and then he shot up the school.
Speaker 3:Forty-five minutes after Ethan Crumley's parents left the school, he began he opened fire. Crumbly's parents left the school, he began, he opened fire. I bet the victim's parents probably have a different view on what the Crumbly's are responsible for, but I don't think they're going to let Jennifer Crumbly trial on appeal because there is a law in Michigan that states you cannot be responsible for somebody else's hurting somebody Now.
Speaker 2:I'm not talking about what you don't have a duty to protect somebody else.
Speaker 3:That's correct. It's not your duty to protect somebody else and I'm not talking about, like the commission, of a crime law. It's a little bit different than what we're talking about. Somebody is robbing a bank and you're with them robbing the bank and they kill somebody, then you can also be charged with murder and that's how the state of Michigan kind of treated this. I think somewhat of a liability is due because you know this kid's bedroom didn't have posters of SpongeBob you know what I mean up on the walls and shit. The kid was drawing that shit at home. I bet he had Marilyn Manson pictures up, not dogging Marilyn Manson. But I'm trying to get a picture of this kid's room in my head. He's drawing pictures of him blowing people away. They're taking him to the shooting range.
Speaker 2:He's killing animals. He cut a bird's head off and kept it in a jar beside his bed. Imagine his room now bird's head off and kept it in a jar beside his bed. Imagine his room now.
Speaker 3:And then he took that little bird's head and he went and put it in the school bathroom in the sink to freak the kids out and as early as march of 2021, he started sending his mother disturbing text in his state of mind, which included claims about demons and ghosts inside the home. He also reportedly videotaped himself torturing animals, making Molotov cocktails and sketched himself committing a school shooting, something he also joked about with a friend via text messages. Now, allegedly, his parents never sought therapy for him following any of those incidents or behaviors. That's why I feel like there's some liability. We all have liability and responsibilities, as parents Do. I think it's to the extent of involuntary manslaughter my opinion maybe not, but it is what it is and I guess it will come out this year in the appeals process and we will.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. How long do you think the appeals process takes?
Speaker 3:I personally think, if it goes through a couple of the Michigan courts, like the higher court than what it was tried in and that's the trial court, if it takes it all the way up to the Michigan Supreme Court which I think it will, and my opinion is that it will get overturned in the Supreme Court that could take anywhere from one to five years, as quickly as they move on it, of course, but I'm sure the court's not in a big hurry to whip it out next week.
Speaker 2:They're never in any type of hurry.
Speaker 3:So, with that being said, she's already been in custody for a couple years, I believe yeah, yeah. She would have been eligible for parole after 10 years. So if they keep her incarcerated until this is resolved and it is resolved she's probably going to be not too far off from the time she got parole.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because she's already got her time that she was incarcerated before she was found guilty and that was a couple years. So she's only got what seven more years before she gets to apply for parole. I bet you they're going to keep her in there, like you said, they're not going to give her a bond while waiting for this appeal.
Speaker 3:I agree, and they're probably going to drag it out to where, if it does get thrown out at the Supreme Court level, the under courts that first adjudicated this are going to make sure it's going to be at least at the 10 year mark.
Speaker 2:Minimum.
Speaker 3:Now Ethan Crumbly has also filed an appeal, but it's not to overturn his charges, it's to amend his sentence, and I'm sure that has something to do with his age, when, the time that the crime was committed, he was sentenced to life without parole plus 24 years, and that was for murdering four students and injuring seven others, including a teacher. I don't think that his sentence should be amended in any way.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. Even I know he's 15 years old, but he's still old enough to know better, and you just can't take people's life because you're having a bad day or you're depressed or whatever reason it is. So I think that his sentence is completely fair.
Speaker 3:I couldn't agree with you more, but when these appeals start going through the court system, we will definitely keep you updated on all these. Moving on to one of our other really favorite cases and this case has went on for years, but there was just a conviction for one of them and we're going to explain that it's the Doomsday Killers- you know those little signs that people have that say all because two people fell in love.
Speaker 2:That sign makes me think of this case, because four people have died, all because these two people fell in love. Oh, my goodness, goodness, um. So chad daybell was convicted of the death of jj vallow and tyler ryan. These kids went missing a while ago and the mother was like they're okay. Her and chad ran off to hawaii, got married mind you, chad's wife tammy had just died a month before this and they had been having an affair and laurie talked her brother alex into shooting charles valo and then she ran off. After he passed away up to idaho with chad, but her kids went missing. They couldn't find her kids anywhere. They've done welfare checks and everything else. Couldn't find the children and she wasn't producing them. And then they found the children.
Speaker 3:Didn't Lori Daybell use her husband's the one that got killed his credit card to buy the wedding rings for her and Chad Daybell?
Speaker 2:She did. That's some fucked up shit that's dirty.
Speaker 3:Anyway, we'll get back to how they were found. On June 9th they found the children buried on Chad Daybell's property, in his backyard. I want to play you a phone call that was intercepted by the prosecution, and this is Chad Daybell calling Lori Daybell while she was incarcerated, explaining to him that the cops were there searching.
Speaker 1:There's such a the house right now. Yeah, so Mark means we'll be talking to you.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well are they?
Speaker 1:in the house? No, they're out on the property. Are they se the house? No, they're up in the property.
Speaker 2:Are they seizing stuff again?
Speaker 1:They're searching, they're searching. They're searching on the roof. They're looking for animals with chairs.
Speaker 3:I know that was a little bit unclear, but if you couldn't hear, he said oh, are they, you know, are they seizing anything? Why in the fuck? If they were innocent, why wouldn't she be like? Why in the fuck are they searching the property? It was like you could hear the oh shit in both of their voices. And he was, he was done. You could tell he knew what was up.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he made an apocalyptic error because he was an apocalyptic book writer.
Speaker 3:But with that search they did find JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan on the property and they later both were convicted of their murders.
Speaker 2:And now Lori Vallow Daybell is facing trial in Arizona for the murder of Charles Vallow, which Lori's late brother, alex. He claims self-defense when he had to shoot him. Everybody the prosecutors and the police believe it was a setup and she is going well. Her trial is expected to happen on February 27th of 2025.
Speaker 3:Can't wait for that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, this woman is like the kiss of death.
Speaker 3:You can look in her eyes and tell she's a little bit fucked up.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what they said. She used to be like a great mom. She was present, they had a real nice life and then she started getting into this um religion and this chad was a, a doomsday book writer. That's why they're known as the doomsday couple, and her family believes she's brainwashed by this man. But I think it works both ways, because she I don't.
Speaker 3:She's been married four times, going through men left and right who knows I got a clip of charles valo, the one that she's getting ready to go to trial on the murder of. I want to play that for you guys and let you hear him describe her.
Speaker 1:What's her mind? I don't know how else to say it. We're LDS. She thinks she's a resurrected being and a god. And remember the 144,000. She's come. Jesus is coming next year. She took all the money out of her bank account today. My truck has gone from the airport. She went to the airport and got it. I just flew in from Houston, from Dallas, houston and Dallas. So where's your truck? I don't know. A friend of mine's truck had picked me up. I went to the CSI to file a report, which is the community bridges or something. Psi, to file a report, which is the community bridges or something. To file a report. So you did the petition. Yeah, they ordered a pickup. Okay, what time did you do that? Hour and a half ago, okay. So what makes her a danger to herself and to others? She threatened me, murdered me, killed me. She threatened to murder you. Yes, how did she do that? My bishop, right there, is in the car. He was on the phone with me today when she said I will have you destroyed. That's what she said there.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's not a threat to kill you Yesterday was a threat to kill me. What did she say yesterday? She said you're not Charles, I don't know who you are, what you did with Charles, but I can murder you now with my powers are what you did with Charles, but I can murder you now with my powers, man, that poor dudes.
Speaker 3:I wonder if she was like normal and then just one day she got really fucked up or something. Man, because that poor dude, and then just not long after that is when that guy got murdered. So and that's what she's going to trial for is that guy's murder her husband, charles Vallow wow, valo Wow.
Speaker 3:You can watch the whole 20 minute. That was a body cam video and it's just insane. You could tell the dude is tore up about it. But with that being said, with that being said, we're getting short on time here and we will be out in 2025 with plenty of the doomsday killers court cases because they keep us busy. They could keep a podcast, a whole podcast, busy.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, For days on end.
Speaker 3:And they're not done yet. She's got new murder trial starting and we'll be right there to bring it to you Now. Last but not least, we want to do a small update and a couple of statements about the Stafford trial that we covered a few days ago. First and foremost, our hearts go out to all the victims in this case, but we do want to cover everything that's going on and we're not going to cover anything that's not in the public, so you can get everything. Just as fast as we get it right here, we will let you know. We do want to update you that both of them are out of jail. Both Brian and Sonia posted a $60,000 surety bond and $4,000 cash. What that means in layman's terms is they posted 10% of the $60,000, which basically means $6,000 to a bondsman and $4,000 cash to the court or the jail, which is usually used for like fines and bullshit when they get convicted. We do have one other update on this case.
Speaker 2:The update that I have found out today is that there was a motion filed today to dismiss one of the 11 no contact orders that are in place. No contact orders that are in place and I'm assuming that the no contact order is the victim, that he has a child with that I believe he's living with.
Speaker 3:I don't see the courts giving him like erasing the no contact order for any of the victims. That's. That's pretty fucked up man.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. I'll tell you what I was floored when I seen that, but I don't think that they are going to grant it at all because she was a victim.
Speaker 3:As soon as we find out the very particulars of that, we will let you know.
Speaker 2:And tune in next week for our part two of the Adelson family drama.
Speaker 3:Good old Charlie the dentist killer. We have plenty of updates on him. You guys are going to trip.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, I hope everybody has a safe and happy new year and you'll hear from us next year or we'll see you in 2025. Have a good day, good evening, whatever Outro Music.
