Anatomy of Murder - Ambushed (Seath Jackson)

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

A missing teen leads to a group of friends. When they speak with police, no one's story is the same. It will be up to law enforcement to unravel the brutal truth.For episode information and photos, please visit: anatomyofmurder.com/ambushed/Can’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc

It was, I don't know if I'd call it heartbreaking or just so disappointing. They played a part in killing this kid, and they're just like, can we go home now? They ask you, you tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. You understand me? Because the only way this detective can help us is if you say the f***ing truth. Because we didn't pull the trigger. You understand me? It is really shocking.

Really heartbreaking. To go from little neighborhood skirmishes and neighborhood fights to premeditated murder. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anastasia Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Murder. Teenage years are often marked by falling in love for the first time, feeling the first taste of real freedom, and starting to figure out what kind of person you want to be in the world. There can also be a lot of drama in this phase,

relationships forming and ending, boundaries being pushed and tested. Some of those friendships can last a lifetime, while others may have a much darker path. Which brings us to the story of 15-year-old Seth Tyler Jackson from Marion County in Central Florida. Captain Brian Spivey of the Marion County Sheriff's Office knows Seth's story well. Brian is currently in his 28th year of law enforcement, and there's one thing in particular that has driven him over the years. I love seeking justice. Whether somebody had something stolen

from them or whether they were just a weaker person that got beat up by a bully or a homicide case, I love seeking justice. And there's no case that's too small. I try to put myself in a victim's shoes and say, hey, if my hard-earned money worked for this item and it was stolen, I would want it back. I would want to find who did this. And so, you know, my many years of being a deputy and a detective, I just loved that hunt. But getting that justice often isn't easy. In 2011, Brian was working in the major crime unit as a sergeant of the Homicide Division. On Monday, April 11th, Marion County Sheriff's Office got a call from the mother of a local teen. She received a phone call from an anonymous person saying, your son was shot last night.

And then she's looking back and thinking, okay, well, I had some texting conversation with him, and then I haven't had any further since then. And so she was probably worried, probably nervous. Seth was a 15-year-old high school sophomore from Bellevue, Florida, which is part of Marion County. It's an area that sits right in the middle of the state. He had lots of friends, loved martial arts and video games,

and like many his age, Seth was also beginning to date. The area where Seth and his family lived, which is about 70 miles northwest of Orlando, was quite spread out and was also home to other kids his age. Several younger kids or younger adults live in this neighborhood, and they kind of roam the streets together. There's several small neighborhoods, several dirt roads that you can connect from one house to another very easily by walking or riding a bike. So they have interaction with each other pretty regularly. Seth would occasionally spend the night out at a friend's and was good about staying in touch with his mom. But on that Sunday night, his texts abruptly ended. Initially, just by him not being at the house

is not something that would raise too many red flags. And then when you combine that with the fact that he hasn't been seen overnight, now it becomes a bigger red flag. Seth's mother showed police the last text messages between herself and her son. Seth said he was meeting up with his ex-girlfriend, another local teen named Amber Wright. The pair had started dating in 2010. So Amber and Seth had been boyfriend and girlfriend on and off for an unknown amount of time.

They lived in the same neighborhood. They likely went to the same schools. Now, Seth's mom wasn't crazy about their relationship. They had broken up and then gotten back together on what seemed to be a regular basis. But their breakups were becoming more dramatic, with each person taking to social media to blame the other and sometimes name call. And then soon enough, they'd get back together again. As this pattern was explained to police, they decided to start their search for Seth with Amber. Investigators found Amber at her home. She was with a friend of hers named Charlie Ely, and the pair said they had seen Seth the previous night.

But they also said something else that was strange, something that had happened after they said goodbye to him. They mentioned that they last saw him down the road near some stop sign. And they mentioned, yeah, we heard some firecrackers and he ran off. Going back and forth again between Amber and Charlie, one of them is saying, yeah, he ran off in a zigzag direction like he was dodging bullets. Now, the sound of firecrackers and gunshots can sometimes sound similar, certainly to the untrained ear. And the story did seem to line up with the phone call that Seth's mom had received.

But as officers questioned the teens further, some of what they said started making less and less sense. And then each time you asked another further question, the stories just kind of became peculiar. They didn't match what the other one was saying. It was just odd. Were they hiding something? And if so, what? And each time they would question Charlie, I think the story would just get more and more bizarre.

They just felt like she was embellishing. So embellishing, either A, making things up, or B, telling part of the story, but not telling the part that would implicate her as being involved in something. Believing the girls knew more than they were saying, officers alerted their supervisor. A report was taken documenting the exchange, which landed on Brian's desk the next morning. Was Seth still missing and after this puzzling exchange with Amber and her friend Charlie, Brian and his team knew it was time to look more deeply. It wasn't until the next morning that we started reading that report and

started coming up with sort of our own game plan on how should we handle this. And as they did, a new call came through. This one from an officer in a nearby county. He had been approached by another concerned mother, but this mom didn't have a missing son. She had a son who she said was a potential witness to a murder. Best we can tell, he told his mother that Seth had been killed, but he's basically indicating to his mother that he knows about it or he might have seen it. And so she's worried. She's the one who called a cousin who works at a police department just to ask for advice. You know, Scott, you can just go through the conflicting emotions the second you hear it.

Because here is this mom. The second that I even read this or was told this by Brian, I just thought, wow, this mom is told that her son is a witness to a murder. And the first thing she does is go to police. Well, I just thought, wow, this mom is told that her son is a witness to a murder. And the first thing she does is go to police. Well, I applaud that. But even some of what he had said, like you have to think that she's also going to be concerned about her son. I'd like to think that every mother in the same situation would make the same decision. Come forward, even though if the information does pan out, it injects your own son in what

could end up being a homicide investigation. Because we do know of cases where parents choose just to not get involved. The officer that had been given this information, well, he then called Brian's department and shared what he'd been told. And he tells us, hey, I have an employee that works for me who has relatives in Marion County, and those relatives have told him that their kids might have been involved in a homicide of a young boy. Are y'all investigating any type of homicides of a young boy? And we're like, we need to start paying attention, like, right now. Seth's case quickly became a top priority.

There's too much here for us to just say, eh, it's a missing person, we'll keep looking for him. I mean, we need to go full court press and find out what is going on. Detectives got information about the teen who claimed to have seen Seth killed. His name was Kyle Hooper, and he was just 16 years old. Kyle was also Amber Wright's half-brother, as in Seth's ex-girlfriend, Amber. And the mother who had voiced the concern about her son witnessing a murder, she was mom to them both. We know we're giving you a lot of names here,

and fair warning, you're going to hear even more. But stick with us, and we'll try to help you keep track as we go. So, so far, it's Seth Jackson, who's missing, Amber Wright, his ex-girlfriend, Charlie Ely, Amber's friend, and now Kyle Hooper, Amber's half-brother. Once we got that call, we want to try to get them to our office or go to them, one or the other, and start getting some stories on where have you been, what do you know.

With a list of who might know something about what happened to Seth growing by the minute, officers found out to locate the teens. Soon, Amber, her friend Charlie, Amber's half-brother Kyle, and their mom were all sitting at the sheriff's station. We had the deputies go down to the house, go down to the area and make contact with this group of kids that kind of always seem to run together, basically bring them in so that we can speak to them. The house he's referring to was Charlie's,

and when police went there to find her, there was another teen who now got added to the list of who they try and speak with. And when we sent deputies to the residence, Justin Soto is also there. So, hey, if you're willing to, please come with us. We'd love to talk to you, as a courtesy to the Major Crimes Unit.

And now their objective was to get whatever information they could that might lead to Seth and figure out, really, what happened. As we're bringing these kids up here, we don't have a body. You know, we're kind of in a missing persons investigation that's got some suspicious circumstances, but I wouldn't even say we're at a homicide investigation. So we're discussing, you know, how are we going to handle these kids as they're coming in? All of the teens here, except for Charlie Ely, were all under the age of 18. At the end of the day, they're still treated the same when we're investigating crime,

but we do have to afford them more privileges. You have to be more careful when you're reading Miranda. You have to make sure they truly understand. You have to give them the opportunity if they want a parent to act on their behalf. You have to treat their request to speak to a parent or have a parent present the same as you would the request for a lawyer. It's not a big difference, but it's something you definitely pay attention to. For the interviews, investigators were mindful of matching the right detective to the right team. Hopefully they can build some type of rapport that can help us lead to the truth.

Every once in a while, if you get an interviewer who just does not jive or does not gel with the person, then we'll switch that up. In that case, we assigned that and brought them in and started talking. And just to take a sidestep for a moment, what that means really is, based on your initial assessment of your subject,

you may, for example, decide to pair a female detective with a female witness or person of interest. Especially effective when intimate relationships can be part of the motive. And remember, these are minors. You have to have a parent or guardian sitting in, adding, as you know, Anastasia, a completely different dimension to the mix. The group was separated and each was taken to a different room. So at our office, we have three major crimes interview rooms. So that was kind of why we decided to go ahead and assign three detectives so that we could do these interviews simultaneously.

They initially focused on Kyle Hooper, whose conversation with his mom kicked off this investigation and pushed it into high gear. That interview began with Kyle's mom still in the room. Here's a portion of that conversation. I need to talk to you both. Do you want to talk to me at both at the same time? Yeah, don't bother. Is that? All right, you might as well. I need to know what I want to know. Are you going to be honest with mom in here?

He has no choice. He actually confessed to me this morning. At first, Kyle downplayed what he knew. But when his mom stepped out of the room, Kyle began to speak more openly. He said that primarily he'd actually been living at Charlie's house, who, remember, is a friend of his half-sister Amber, along with an 18-year-old by the name of Michael Bargo.

The group had been friends with Seth in the past, but after Amber and Seth's last breakup, that all changed. They're not together anymore. And from what we learned from the others, there was just some bad blood there. She had accused Seth of putting his hands on her and striking her at some point. Never really got a whole lot of detail about what her allegations were,

but all of the group of friends seemed to have heard that story. According to Kyle, it was his friends that crafted a plan to hurt Seth as a payback of sorts. Kyle had been present and, according to him, watched as Seth was attacked and the main player behind it, Michael Bargo, Amber's new boyfriend. Amber Wright and Michael Bargo started dating soon after she and Seth Jackson broke up. The obvious discomfort caused friction between Seth and Amber's new beau. Michael and Seth have had a tumultuous relationship, mostly because Seth used to date Amber and now Michael's dating Amber,

and that Seth would get frequent text messages from Michael saying, hey, you better not get found alone on the streets. The animosity between the two had morphed past just verbal sparring. Seth and Bargo had fought several different times and that each time Seth beat him up. And here you've got Seth, who's only 15 years old, and Michael, who's 18 years old. But the 15-year-old keeps beating the 18-year-old up. According to Kyle, after feeling the humiliation of someone younger getting the better of him,

Michael Bargo bought a gun and crafted a plan to seek revenge. It began with Amber telling Seth that she wanted to meet up and talk. Meanwhile, Michael, Kyle, Charlie, and Justin would be at Charlie Ealy's house lying in wait. And once Seth Jackson gets there, they've got some type of sticks. I think they might have a baseball bat.

And Michael Bargo has this gun and they're going to attack him. Now, Kyle appeared to be straightforward with his answers. He even went as far as to admit that he took part in the assault. As the interview continued and as we kept trying to get more and more of the truth, Kyle reveals that he's actually involved and actually had a weapon and actually hit Seth Jackson with this stick he was holding and then chased him into the yard. So Kyle's story continues to transform the longer and longer we speak to him. But ultimately, I think Kyle provided us as close to the truth as we were going to get. The other teens were not as helpful.

They were very guarded in their stories, very in self-preservation mode. Behind the scenes, the detectives were strategic as they gathered information. We're kind of playing a little bit of musical chairs. And then every 15 minutes or 20 minutes people are coming out and we're kind of comparing notes and each detective is letting the other detectives know what they've learned and what they've been told so they can go back in and use that information to try to elicit more stories or more information from the person they're interviewing. This strategy worked. This information is what each of the detectives brings back to their interview room

and to the person they're speaking to, like Charlie or Amber, and ultimately kind of cracks the door open for them to start talking about what they know. Amber claimed that her motivation was that Seth was no saint. She provided quite the laundry list to investigators. I was like, he hit me. He cheated on me. He turned my friends against me. True or untrue, detectives didn't know, but Amber admitted that she had initiated the plan with a text to her ex, which read, I kind of need to talk to you about us working things out. She asked Seth to meet her at Charlie's house and also said not to tell anyone, claiming that she wanted them to work it out alone.

Seth expressed apprehension about the invite. He texted Amber that he would never forgive her if the plans were to have him, quote, jumped or set up for a beating. Seth was suspicious about where this was coming from, and she had to send more messages or even have a conversation with him to convince him, I just want to talk. It's all good. Amber ultimately coaxed him to show up for the supposed meet. Only once Seth got inside the house, he was attacked by Michael Bargo and Kyle Hooper.

Amber claimed that she and Charlie hid. Here is some of her conversation with police. And, like, as soon as he got up and, like, he went towards Seth and hit him, I looked at Charlie, I was like, run. We ran to her room, went in her bathroom and shut the door. Amber said she then heard a series of gunshots. We shut the bathroom door and we heard another door just fly open and we just heard gunshot after gunshot after gunshot. And after maybe like five or six times of hearing it, it got quiet.

During the detective's interview with Kyle Hooper, who remember is Amber's half brother, he said that it was Michael Bargo who fired the gun. And then all of a sudden I hear, bam, bam, bam, Mike sitting there laying bullets into him. So you saw Mike Bargo shoot Seth? Yes, ma'am. While police found Kyle believable, Brian had his doubts about Amber and her friend Charlie's version of events. Charlie and Amber tried to say, OK, well, we were in the bedroom. We didn't know what happened. Michael Bargo threatened us. So we were scared, which we we didn't really buy. It just doesn't doesn't make sense. This is your house. This is your boyfriend or current boyfriend. Amber and Charlie's attitudes also baffled Brian. I don't know if I'd call it heartbreaking or just so disappointing that here's a 15 and

an 18-year-old girl who they played a part in killing this kid. And they're just like, can we go home now? With Amber and Charlie appearing not to grasp the seriousness of the situation, detectives decided to try a different approach. They put Amber, Kyle, and Charlie into a room together and left them to talk amongst themselves. Well, at least they thought it was alone. Because the room was being recorded. We step away and Charlie and Amber start going off on Kyle and start calling him the weak link and basically saying, I can't believe that you told them. Basically insulting him and getting mad at him.

Like, why are you talking to them? Why did you tell them all this? Who cracked first? I did. I had to. I had to. I had to say that. I had no choice.

That was the only way. Because if they would have found any other detail or anything... Well, I mean, we're saying everything that's f***ing true. Now we are. After listening to the teens discuss amongst themselves what they'd been saying to detectives, they brought each one of them back into separate rooms. So after seeing that, we split them up again. We confront Charlie and Amber with that information combined with what Kyle said. And both of them kind of see, okay,

well, it's, you know, the cat's out of the bag now. So they start telling us the story as well. So I think it's worth exploring, Anasiga, the technique for a moment that they used here. In general, recording somebody without their knowledge at a sheriff's station or a police station is a calculated move by law enforcement, a strategic technique to extract what they call unguarded information. Your target might reveal details about the crime, incriminate themselves, or like in this case, about each other. But it doesn't come without controversy, and there are concerns. It's a classic case of balancing effective investigation with the boundaries of ethical conduct. And this exchange between Amber and Kyle would paint a harrowing picture as it became more and more clear that Seth wouldn't be coming home alive.

And in the face of this callous story from the teens, Brian decided to do the most humane thing he could. With Seth missing for days at that point, Brian brought Seth's parents to the station. We wanted to make sure they were aware of exactly where we were with the case. We wanted them to know we're working this. We're doing everything we can. Brian will never forget Seth's mom's reaction. During this meeting we have with her, that's when I tell her,

we have credible evidence, we have witness evidence, we believe we're working a homicide case. And you could see the statement just go right over her head. As the news sank in for Seth's stepfather, it seemed that Seth's mom just couldn't process Brian's words. It was heartbreaking trying to look at the husband and say, you get what I'm saying, but she doesn't get it. And it was just that instinct in her that's like, nope, I'm not going to hear that. That was tough. Even when we left the meeting, you could

still see that she was just like, no, y'all keep investigating and do what you do. And I appreciate your efforts, but he's going to show up. You know, Anastasia, we have said that death notifications are absolutely the most difficult of an investigator's job. You're taking a tremendous responsibility to the family who are at the beginning of their journey to justice. They're looking to you as the investigator to make it happen for them, to get results. And Seth's mom and stepdad were at the beginning of what could be a really long road. You know, some of you may be thinking about her reaction, that it was basically like, just went right over her head. And she's like, nope, nope, my son will be fine. We'll find him.

It's not that uncommon. You know, I've seen it myself multiple times. People talk about it and everyone reacts differently. And it's like this fight or flight response. You just can't process the unthinkable. And so it's almost your brain just wanting to unhear what's just been said. So it's definitely something that I've seen before. And detectives suspected that the news would remain grim. Based on their statements, police arrested Amber Wright, Charlie Ely, Kyle Hooper, and Justin Soto. All were charged with Seth's murder.

It was our belief that Michael, Justin, and Kyle participated in the murder, in the attack, and that Charlie and Amber were involved in both the plan to lure him there and the plan to attack him, even if they weren't the ones who grabbed a stick or had a gun. They lured him there and through numerous texts and conversations convinced him to come. The police next set out to find Michael Bargo. He was the one holding the gun. He's the one who came up with the plan. And so we want to find him. Police tracked him through his phone and located him later that night. He was also arrested. Now, Bargo had been described by the group as an intimidating leader,

so Brian was surprised by his appearance. He's an 18-year-old kid who, he's five foot nothing. I mean, I doubt he even weighed 100 pounds, but he had an ego that you'd have thought he was the biggest guy in the room. He just walked around like he owned the place. And he put up that aura, but at the same time, he was just this little punk kid. Barger chose not to speak with detectives, but they were working to build their case without him. Detectives obtained a search warrant for Charlie Ely's home, which is where much of the group

Kyle, Michael, and Justin all appeared to be staying. The home was in a rural area made up mostly of mobile homes. The property was secured while the teens were interviewed to ensure that this likely crime scene remained intact. We're getting information that it might have happened at this one particular house, so we had a deputy go and just basically sit there to secure the scene, make sure no evidence disappears or is disposed of.

Brian and his team made their way to the house later that day. We didn't want to start searching or collecting evidence that day, but we wanted to kind of get a grasp on, OK, what are we dealing with here? And when we went through the house, there was nothing in the house that would tell you, oh, my gosh, a murder happened here. You know, there's not big amounts of blood. It doesn't look like there was a stabbing scene or anything. One thing that stood out was the state of the house. Dirty, chaotic. It appeared to be a home without parental supervision. For a neighborhood to have a whole bunch of kids who run around, to have an 18-year-old who has their own house with no adult supervision, it was just a recipe for disaster.

During the interviews, however, detectives learned that there had been parental oversight, but rather than prevent the teens from committing a crime, one parent had been involved. After Seth was murdered, one of the suspects reached out to Amber's father, James Havens, who also happened to be Kyle's stepfather. Their request? Help in disposing of Seth's body. Just a warning to our listeners that the following information is disturbing and may be upsetting to some.

Once he's dead, they realize they have to get rid of the body. So they build a really big fire in the backyard. This is a rural area of the county, so it's not out of the ordinary for people to build fires or burn trash or excess wood. So they build this fire, they make it really hot. Michael Bargo and Kyle Hooper had placed Seth's body into a sleeping bag and then taken it out to a fire pit. Here is some of the conversation Kyle Hooper had with investigators.

Let me ask you this now. So he burnt the body all night, and you saw the fire going all night? All night long. He started getting a high, and I helped him put it in there, and I come back in the house. When you say you helped him put it in there, you're talking about Sassabonic, right? Yes, ma'am. It was in the body bag and everything. Amber's friend, Charlie Ely, confirmed that she had also seen a fire in the backyard. And I peeked out the window and I saw them burning. I don't know what they were burning or anything. You saw them burning something

out the window? Yeah. The following morning, the group made a call. They asked for help. Not help for Seth, but help to get rid of the evidence of their crime. And that call was to Kyle's stepdad, James. From there, police brought James into the station. As we speak to him, we learned that the next day after this fire had died down, they took shovels and collected as much of the remains as they could. And it was James, who remember is Amber's dad and Kyle's stepdad, that came up with the idea of where to take what was left of Seth's remains. It was him who said, well, I know of a lime rock quarry. We can dig it all up and just go dump it in the quarry. And he helped them do that. He helped them dig the stuff up. I think they used his truck to transport these

buckets over to the quarry and dump them. After he admitted his role to Brian, James was arrested as an accessory, making him the sixth person arrested in connection with Seth's murder. Police secured Charlie Ely's home and returned for a thorough search the following day. We're setting up our evidence personnel to come back. We know we're going to be collecting shell casings and DNA swabs and possibly fingerprints. We're going to be looking for the stick or baseball bat that was possibly used. We're going to be looking for a gun. We're going to be looking for rounds that maybe would have been shot into a wall or passed through Seth into something else. We're not sure exactly what we're going to find.

Inside the house, police used luminol to test for blood, and it came back positive on the bathroom floor and wall, as well as the living room floor. Also within the crime scene, investigators located.22 caliber shell casings, which were consistent with the gun caliber that they believed was used to murder Seth. Then, while they were completing the forensic search of the home, investigators got a knock at the door. A timely visit from a man who told them he had sold the gun to Michael Bargo. He describes the gun.

He describes like the name brand and how it came. Unable to find the gun at Charlie Ely's house, police next got a search warrant for Michael Bargo's home. And in his room, we find this box that this gun came in. I think we found some ammunition, an empty box that's definitely for a gun. So it starts to confirm that yes, Michael Bargo had access to a gun and likely carried a gun. So it starts to confirm that, yes, Michael Bargo had access to a gun and likely carried a gun. Then an important clue was provided by one of those teens. Check the air conditioning vent of Charlie's house. So back inside her house, police removed the air conditioning vent cover from the wall. But it wasn't going to be that easy because there was also mechanical ductwork,

which are those long silver tubes that make up the central air unit of a house. Not wanting to take apart the whole house, Brian thought of a somewhat novel approach. I was on the SWAT team, and so I got a piece of equipment that we had from SWAT. There's a little camera lens with a big long cable that stretches several feet, and it was in case you need to slide it under a door and see who's inside or just for any number of uses. And it's got an infrared at the end, so you can, it's battery operated, you can turn this infrared on. So if it's dark in the room, you can still see. Brian took the camera and slid it into the ductwork. Almost as soon as the infrared camera was turned on, it gave investigators exactly what they had hoped for, a gun.

And that gun recovered matched the gun described and the gun box found in Michael Bargo's home. While the search for the firearm was taking place, technicians were also focused on the fire pit in the backyard. The interview with Kyle Hooper gave police strong suspicion about what they might find. I just need to know, did you guys put the body into the burn pit? Well, I grabbed him and I helped him put it in there. But then I walked back into the house and he did what he did. I told him what I can't do.

He burned the body. Okay. The fire pit was full of ashes, rock, and potentially pieces of human remains. Police brought in a doctor of anthropology from the University of Florida to help them analyze and collect what they had found. As he started going through the fire pit, he quickly identified the find as human remains. And at this point, he wasn't even using the sifter.

He's just sitting on the ground in the dirt, just going inch by inch, looking for those items and was finding exactly what we needed to confirm that, yes, there was a human in this fire and that only small parts remain. He made even more specific identifications as he worked. I remember checking in during the middle of the day and speaking to the doctor as he's sitting on the ground, sifting through just minute bits of ash and dirt. And he would say, okay, here I found this particular bone. This is the third metacarpal of the left index finger. I mean... Detectives also sent personnel over to the lime quarry. Here's another piece of Kyle Hooper's interview with police.

Do you know where Seth's body is right now? He was talking about somewhere by Gannon Mountain. There's a rock quarry. That's where it possibly could be, over there by Gander Mountain. A lime rock quarry, for those who don't know, is a deep valley created when the rock has been mined from the ground below. So it creates a large cliff, a large valley, and then usually it's deep enough, can be 80 to 100 feet deep.

So typically because it's now that low, there's water in the bottom. It just now becomes a sunken pond, if you will. A team of divers were sent to the quarry to search for remains. At the edge, I don't want to call it a cliff, but it's somewhat of a cliff where this lime rock quarry was. As they had dumped these buckets, some of the remnants had stuck to the grass or got caught on the little ledges of the lime rock quarry. So we collected parts of Seth's remains at the edge of the lime rock quarry and then even more in the lime rock quarry. That wasn't all they found. There was also a sunken bucket filled with ash, dirt, and other remnants. And so as they pulled this bucket from the bottom, on top was water and mud, but beneath there was basically exactly what they had dug out of that fire pit.

So again, yet another piece of evidence to confirm what the suspects told us on how Seth was killed, where he was burned, and then how he was disposed of after that. The remains were collected and taken for testing. Brian was fairly certain what the results would be. It's not a quick process, but we're going to preliminarily say, this is Seth Jackson. With the story we're getting and we're finding human remains here, we're confident this is Seth.

We'll send everything to the lab for confirmation, but we sort of know what we're going to hear eventually. The bones were eventually shown to be a match for 15-year-old Seth Jackson. The forensic evidence painted a brutal picture of the homicide, but Brian had his concerns about the upcoming trials. The extensive interviews with the teens, it had provided much of the information that detectives needed to figure out exactly what had happened. But much of the trial would rest on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of those present during the attack.

And as you know, Anastasia, when it comes to having multiple parties blaming or pointing the fingers at each other, it's all about bringing out credibility to whose story can be most corroborated, how you present that to a jury, even though their prior behaviors or their involvement in the case may paint a bad picture for them. But it really is about bringing out who has the most credible story. And again, remember, and we've talked about this before, you can't use what one defendant says against the other unless they're up there testifying from the stand. It's basically this right of confrontation that everyone has. So you have to almost look at it one by one. And each jury has to assess it just from what that person is saying as to that person's guilt or non-guilt.

So basically, they had to take these statements and couple it with other evidence. It was definitely one that was going to be tricky. It's great information, but it doesn't go very far once you hit a courtroom. Ultimately, if the only people involved in this are either co-defendants or they're dead, there's a great story there, and we believe we put it together, but there's no one to tell the story once it comes to court. But there was one account of that night that didn't come from one of the co-defendants. It came from a neighbor and he had seen everything. After Brian had done the initial search of Charlie Ely's home, he stepped outside.

We also look in the backyard at this fire pit. How extensive is this search going to be? While we were there, we started talking to neighbors, just trying to see if there's any witnesses out there. And there was. We found a witness who lived down the road 50, 60, 70 yards away who actually saw Seth run out the door, actually heard the guys yelling and screaming. They heard the gunshots. They watched the three boys beat Seth while he was on the ground and then drag him back into the house. It was too dark to ID any of the attackers by face, but the neighbor did notice some identifying features.

He actually said based on the way they ran and the way they walked that he thought they were all males. Other neighbors recalled a bonfire in Charlie Ely's backyard, large enough to the point that they were concerned. There were even some neighbors that lived behind them who kind of came out and warned them like, hey, this fire is getting out of control. Y'all need to control this so nothing bad happens. And the kids cursed at them. It was just like, yeah, go mind your own business. Just leave us alone. So why did no one call 911? Why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you call? Their answer was, well, we didn't think it was real. We know how kids play, and we thought maybe they were just filming something for school. Who knows if a 911 call would have saved Seth's life.

But the fact that no one tried to help, well, it certainly stood out. It's possible he would have been in that bathtub and could have been saved. But it's not the first homicide I've worked where a witness saw or heard everything and just decided, you know what, it's not my business. I'm going to let them handle their own. Between neighbors, the forensic evidence, and the teens themselves, prosecutors were able to uncover critical details to reveal the truth of what happened the night Seth was murdered. Justin Soto pled guilty. Each of the other defendants was tried separately. The story played out in the courtroom over and over again,

starting with Amber Wright's text luring Seth to the house, Seth arriving and walking inside. The vivid portrayal was disturbing, to say the least. As to what really happened in the house, here's what the evidence points to. Once he's well into the house, they come out and they start beating him with these sticks. What they didn't plan for is that Seth Jackson's able to run and escape out the door and run into the yard. But as he's running to the yard, Michael Bargo has this gun. Michael Bargo shoots him. With Seth on the ground, Kyle, Justin, and Michael jump on top of him. They beat him up a little bit and they drag him back into the house.

Once they get him into the house, they put him in the bathtub where Michael Bargo shoots him more. And they basically hold him there until he's dead. After the murder, the group decided to get rid of Seth's body. Michael Bargo and Kyle Hooper placed his body in a sleeping bag and dragged him to the fire pit. Hooper tended to the fire until about 2.30 a.m. But the body didn't completely burn. So Michael, and this is hard to say, removed Seth's teeth from his skull

in an attempt to make him unidentifiable. The group then used five-gallon buckets to collect his remains. They added weights to the buckets and sunk them into the nearby quarry, with also the help of James. At Amber Wright's trial, prosecutors explained that it was her breakup with Seth that became a catalyst for the murder, and just how little regard she seemed to have for what she had done. When it came to Amber Wright, she was just annoyed by the whole process. Like, can I get my phone back? And when can I go home? And okay, so Seth is dead, but I mean, I barely had anything to do with it. I mean, just so dismissive of the whole incident and almost as if it's annoying her that she has to come down here to this office.

After the evidence was presented and the jury deliberated, Amber Wright was convicted of first degree murder. Over? Well, not quite. When Amber appealed her conviction, an initial mistake almost derailed that conviction. When we had our pre-briefing before the suspects even got to the office, we agreed every single one of them was going to be Red Miranda. And every single one of them was Red Miranda on a first day of the interview, Amber Wright was brought back in, read her Miranda rights, and then asked if she would speak again.

And she did give another statement. The initial trial, those statements are found to be admissible. She appealed and basically argued that, well, I had already said these statements once. Of course, why wouldn't I say them again? How can that harm me? But based on her age and based on her immaturity, the judge ruled, no, if that statement wasn't good from the beginning, then even if you read Miranda after that and reobtained the statement that it's no good. But in Amber's retrial, her text messages to Seth also took center stage. So there was other evidence that was presented and ultimately she's convicted again.

So that was a nervous time for us because we knew she was 100% involved, but we made a mistake and good thing it didn't come back to bite us. Charlie Ely also was convicted of first-degree murder. Ultimately, Charlie went to trial and was convicted and was sentenced, but later appealed and basically argued ineffective counsel. Charlie Ely won her appeal, but rather than go to trial again, she pled guilty and was released from prison after serving nine years. Kyle Hooper was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Kyle's stepfather received a 30-year sentence for being an accessory to murder, but that sentence was later deferred. And then Michael Bargo, the ringleader of the group? Bargo's strong enough, and his actions were heinous enough

that they went ahead and took him back for another sentencing and ultimately got the jury voted unanimously for death, and then so he's been re-sentenced to the death penalty. As Brian looks back on this case, several things stand out to him. There's the extreme brutality, the beating and the burning of a human body. But who committed the crime and how many were involved may be the thing that stays with Brian the most. For five kids, almost all teenagers to think, hey, let's just kill this kid and everything's going to be fine, I mean, is crazy to me. I can't believe there was not one of those kids saying,

no, I'm not doing that. That's crazy. Y'all are going to get caught. You know, we're not talking about stealing a video game from a friend's house. I mean, that's probably what baffled me as we were investigating this was how did not a single person out of these five think to themselves, this is a bad idea? They took Seth's life and destroyed the lives of so many that knew and loved him.

They also destroyed their own lives. It's kind of heartbreaking because those kids were so young. They have so much, you know, so much life ahead of them. And I'm sure their parents were devastated. Seth's mom spoke at Charlie's sentencing. And I'm sure their parents were devastated. Seth's mom spoke at Charlie's sentencing. And I'm quoting, I have no sympathy for the tears you shed. They have not been for Seth, but rather for what's happening to you, she said. Some say your life is over, but you will still see and talk to your family. You will still get letters and birthday cards. You will still laugh and cry. Seth Jackson was only 15 years old when he was brutally murdered. Teenage years can be filled with

angst for many. And yes, sometimes rivalries over friendships or love interests can be part of that. But to go from bad feelings, bad words, and maybe even fists to murder, that is a jump that is just so hard to understand. And that it was at the hands of not one or two, but an entire group, part and parcel of this devious plan, that to me actually shocks the conscience. So many lives lost and forever changed. The killers will be in jail. Their families in many ways have lost them too, but it is Seth Jackson and his family that have obviously lost the most dearly. The town came together after the murder and erected a memorial to Seth with candles,

pictures, and posters. People cried and mourned the loss of this life lost so gruesomely and many, many years before what should have been his time. Seth was just a teenager, full of hopes and dreams, navigating the complex emotions of young love. As Seth walked into the house that night, he had no idea that his former friends lie in wait, ready to strike. The scene was set, the players were in position, and all that remained was for Seth to step into the web of deceit that they had woven. This wasn't a spontaneous act of violence. It was cold-blooded murder orchestrated with chilling precision. The Jackson's family heartbreak began the moment Seth was missing.

The agonizing search for answers, the sleepless nights, and the gut-wrenching fear of the unknown were just the beginning of their nightmare. When the truth finally emerged that Seth had been lured to his death by those he trusted, their grief was compounded by the sheer horror and brutality of the crime. Seth, we hope you rest in peace. Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder Anatomy of Murder is an AudioChuck original Produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frasetti Media Ashley Flowers is executive producer This episode was written and produced by Walker Lamond

Researched by Kate Cooper Edited by Ali Sirwa, Megan Hayward, and Philjean Grande. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?