Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Missing Indiana Girl Murdered, Buried on Boss's Property: Sheriff

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

No one had seen Valerie Tindall, 17, since June 7. This week, deputies in Rush County, Indiana found her remains buried in a box made of 2x4s on the property of her neighbor and boss, Patrick Scott. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy takes a closer look at what deputies claim Scott told them about the crime on this episode of Crime Fix, a daily show that looks at the top stories in crime.If you’ve used Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome internet browser, you can find out if you have a claim in only a few clicks by visiting www.forthepeople.com/LCGoogle.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. A sad end to the search for a missing teenage girl in Indiana. Sheriff's deputies say they found the body of Valerie Tindall buried in a homemade box in the yard of a neighbor her family trusted. Tindall hadn't been seen alive since June 7th. Now the Rush County Sheriff says Patrick Scott, who was not only Valerie's neighbor but also her boss, has admitted to strangling her with a belt on the last day she was seen alive and then burying her in his yard. Court documents claim Scott said his wife and daughter don't know nothing about his

killing of Valerie. He's quoted as telling detectives he strangled her with a belt that he continued to wear after he used it to kill her. Valerie worked for Scott's landscaping business in the summer months mowing lawns. Detectives and federal agents say they found boxes made of 2x4s in the yard. One agent saw orange fingernails on a body that looked like the fingernails in a photo that Valerie posted on social media back on June 7th. The other box contained VHS tapes and other records. Deputies say Scott told them he didn't dislike Valerie, but he was convinced she was going to try to seduce him or blackmail him into buying her a car, and that killing her just kind of happened. Scott is being held on charges of murder and obstruction of justice.

I'm Antoinette Levy. It's Friday, and this is Crime Fix, law and crimes rundown of the top stories for the day in crime. A 19-year-old man who was babysitting his half-brother in the Bronx is accused of murdering the five-year-old, his father, and his father's girlfriend. And if you think the story couldn't get worse, it does. Jayden Rivera is accused of beating one of the victims with a pot. Police and Rivera's family members are really struggling to figure out what caused Rivera to commit this crime. The NYPD's chief of detectives told Gothamist that Rivera went to his mom's

apartment after he committed the murders and told her he was hearing voices and thought his dad and his dad's girlfriend were going to hurt him. The details of this crime are absolutely horrific. The NYPD told reporters that Jonathan Rivera had been stabbed in the chest once and had defensive wounds. Jaden Rivera's younger half-brother, little five-year-old Caden Rivera, was disemboweled. The girlfriend of Rivera's father, Hanoi Peralta, was stabbed 15 times. An attorney representing Jaden Rivera says his client doesn't have a history of mental illness and is going to be treated at a mental health facility. The attorney told news outlets that doctors are struggling to figure out exactly what is going on with Jaden Rivera,

who had apparently attended the State University of New York, but didn't return for the fall semester. Jaden Rivera faces several charges related to the deaths of his three family members. Football star Von Miller is in a whole lot of trouble, and he is dealing with a different kind of spotlight. He turned himself in to police in Dallas after they issued an arrest warrant for him. It's all in response to what cops are calling a major disturbance call on Wednesday. The initial report is that the 34-year-old Buffalo Bills linebacker

got into an argument with a female victim, then assaulted her. The victim, believed to be Miller's longtime girlfriend, is six weeks pregnant. According to the arrest affidavit, Miller shoved her, stepped on her feet, pulled out her hair, and choked her for several seconds. In Texas, if you assault someone you know is pregnant, it's a third-degree felony. Miller posted a $5,000 bond. This is a Morgan & Morgan legal alert. Evidence shows that Google has allegedly violated the privacy of millions

of Americans via incognito mode. Your personal information and data may have been unfairly collected and used for profit. As America's largest injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan has recovered more than $20 billion in compensation for clients, and they may be able to help you fight for justice. If you've used incognito mode in Google's Chrome internet browser, you can find out if you have a claim in only a few clicks by visiting ForThePeople.com slash LCGoogle. In Florida, two people accused of murdering Microsoft executive Jared Breidigan were in court. One of the two people is actually his ex-wife. Breidigan was driving home from dropping off the twins that he shared with his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, when he was shot in February of last year. Breidigan had stopped after seeing a tire in the road in Jacksonville Beach.

He got out of the car as you would expect he would and that is when he was shot. One of the two children he shared with his second wife was in his car seat in the car at the time. Breitigan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, faces charges of murder, solicitation, and conspiracy. She appeared in court with famed attorney Jose Baez, who you'll recall won an acquittal for Casey Anthony for the death of her daughter. Accused trigger man Fernandez Saldano also appeared in court. Gardner has waived her right to a speedy trial. Attorneys for both are really still in the phase of gathering evidence from prosecutors.

A third person, Henry Tienen, has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Saldana and Gardner. Another high-profile story we're following, the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. We now know a woman who claims she was the shooter's girlfriend has been indicted for making serious threats against basically anyone you can think of. Parents, teachers, students, school officials, you name it. Victoria Gabriela Rodriguez Morales is 19 now, but the threats actually started when she was a juvenile before the shooting in Uvalde. As far back as 2018, Rodriguez Morales has been allegedly threatening to kill people. Her family moved from Uvalde to Puerto Rico in 2020, but the threats continued. After the shooting in 2022 at Robb Elementary,

which killed 19 students and two teachers, the FBI discovered that Rodriguez Morales was sending threats over the phone, in emails, on social media, and more. In one post, she said she and the shooter had wanted to commit the massacre together. In another, she said the children deserved to die. A grand jury indicted Rodriguez Morales on 13 counts of making interstate threats. For now, authorities want to keep her jailed before trial because they consider her a flight risk. Check this out. That's doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow arriving in Phoenix, Arizona to face trial for the murder of her estranged husband, Charles Vallow. The sheriff of Maricopa County released this video of Vallow arriving at his office early

Thursday morning. Sheriff Paul Penzone described how his deputies picked up Vallow from the prison in Idaho, where she's serving three life sentences for the murders of her children, Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow, and her husband's late wife, Tammy Daybell. We sent four deputies there by car. Normally we would fly, our extradition team would fly to pick it up, but because of weather conditions, we felt that it was more predictable and more within our control that if we were going to transport her,

that we wouldn't have to deal with any kind of weather conditions or air travel challenges. In the video, you probably noticed Lori doesn't look that unhappy to be there. And it sounded like the ride from Idaho to Arizona was fairly pleasant. I just, I understand that she was very sociable the entire trip. Wouldn't you have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that ride?

But the sheriff isn't talking about what Vallow said along the way. She made her first court appearance for Charles Vallow's murder in the middle of the night, 2 a.m. Phoenix time on Thursday morning. She had a lot to say there. She's also accused of conspiring to kill her niece's ex-husband, Brandon Boudreau, who survived the shooting. Are those cases going to be combined or are they going to be done separately? Well, they are two separate cases, but they're going to be combined or are they going to be done separately? Well, they are two separate cases, but they're going to be handled at the same hearing. Okay. Now you'll recall that Charles

Vallow actually tried to sound the alarm to law enforcement months before he was murdered about Lori Vallow's mental state. I've tried to support her as much as I could, but it's gotten really, really bad. I think she's had a break. She says, I'm Nick Schneider. I've tried to support her as much as I could, but it's gotten really, really bad. She's had a break. She says, I'm Nick Schneider. I've taken over Charles' body. And Charles has been killed. I'm going to kill you. You're going to be murdered today or tomorrow.

It's really so sad to watch that video knowing that months later, Lori's brother Alex Cox would shoot Charles to death. Alex Cox died later that year of natural causes. Lori Vallow is in the Maricopa County Jail. Another mother accused of assaulting her own child, 47-year-old Pamela Ganzel, was apparently caught on surveillance video ripping her six-year-old son from the backseat of a car, throwing a car seat at him, and repeatedly slapping him. Her other young children, ages 7 and 3, were also reportedly in the car. When a neighbor saw what happened on their home security camera, they called police. On the video, the child can reportedly be heard screaming for his mother to stop. Genzel reportedly told police she was just disciplining her son after he unhooked

the strap of his car seat. Sunrise Florida police are charging her with one count of child abuse. She posted a $5,000 bond and was released. Remember Susan Smith, the South Carolina mom who told anyone who would listen that a black man carjacked her and kidnapped her kids back in the 1990s? When in reality, she drove those little boys into a pond and watched them drown? I would like to say to whoever has my children, 1990s, when in reality she drove those little boys into a pond and watched them drown? I would like to say to whoever has my children that they please, I mean please bring them home to us where they belong. Well guess what? Susan Smith is going to be up for parole soon,

and she's apparently told men who are interested in her that she thinks that she would make a good stepmom. Yes, seriously. This is coming from transcripts of prison phone calls obtained by the messenger. Smith is quoted as telling one man, I could be a good stepmom. I could see myself around kids. The man responded, you'd be great, babe. The messenger reports that several men are vying for Smith's attention. She's up for parole in November of 2024. Now, we told you last week that since Smith has been in prison, she hasn't obtained any educational credits in the nearly 30 years she's served, and she's been in trouble for doing drugs and having sex with a corrections officer. But it appears since 2010, she's cleaned up her act

and has not been disciplined. A New York police chief says it's the worst case he's ever seen in his 20 years in law enforcement. A woman and her boyfriend are under arrest for brutally killing the woman's three-year-old son. Caitlin Cyrus and Giovanni Vega are charged with assault, manslaughter, and reckless endangerment. Messina police responded to a 911 call at the home not far from the Canadian border. They found three-year-old Caden with severe injuries. He had to be airlifted to a hospital in Vermont. Police say two days before the 911 call, Vega picked up the little boy and threw him against a wall, then repeatedly slammed his body into the floor. Authorities say his own

mom did nothing to stop it. Caden had a broken arm, a broken leg, lacerated liver, and severe swelling and bleeding in his brain, which led to a complete loss of brain function. He died on Thursday. Both Vega and Cyrus have pleaded not guilty and are being held without bond. More charges are expected. Well, it doesn't get any weirder than this. A criminal defense attorney in Ohio has been suspended from practicing law for now because he defecated into a Pringles can, then threw them out of his car window. You heard that right. Jack Blakeslee admitted he did it at least 10 times and said during his disciplinary hearing this week,

it was just a prank. One of the parking lots where a Pringles can was found was the Haven of Hope Victim Advocacy Center. Blakeslee denies picking that location on purpose. He just says he liked to imagine someone's face when they found it. But he was seen on surveillance cameras driving slowly by the advocacy center parking lot multiple times before throwing the cans. He'll be suspended for one year with six months stayed. One of the Ohio Supreme Court judges wanted him suspended longer but was outvoted. And I think we can finish up right there. That's enough for this week. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks for joining us for Crime Fix on this Friday, December 1st, 2023. Have a great weekend. I'll see you back here next week.