Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Roger "Fred" Farmer

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

As soon as Roger “Fred” Farmer’s family realizes they haven’t seen him in a few weeks, they suspect the worst. Despite all the breadcrumbs leading to one person, it takes time to piece the events of his disappearance together… and even longer to bring him justice. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-roger-fred-farmer Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllcCrime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today, it actually takes place in our own backyard of Indianapolis. And it's about a case that felt really clear-cut right from the get-go, but it took some time to get right. And even after justice was served, there are still some questions about the whole truth of the story. This is the story of Roger Fred Farmer. It's only a couple of days into January 2020 when Detective Larry Krasnoi is contacted

by an old friend. They're not close. This guy's one of those Facebook friends that you don't really talk to IRL, but you kind of just like keep tabs on like through social media. Yeah. But per this guy's message, he's reaching out now because he knows that Detective Krasnoi is a homicide detective with IMPD, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and he wants to pick his brain because this friend explains that he has gotten a few strange text messages from one of his friends, a man named

Roger Farmer, who everyone calls Fred. Now, the content of the messages wasn't all that concerning, but it was actually the way they were written that is throwing up some red flags because Fred is known for pretty much exclusively using talk to text. So all of his messages are usually just like one run on sentence. I know the type. Yes. But the text that he's gotten recently, they're, you know, using punctuation, proper grammar, emojis.

Fred does not use emojis. And to make things more concerning, no one's actually seen Fred since around mid-November, which is out of the ordinary. Now, allegedly, he's on a hunting trip, but no one he's talked to seems to know where he's hunting. Yeah, my spidey senses are tingling. Detective Krasanois are, too. I mean, this guy's been in the game long enough to know that these aren't good signs.

So he decides he's gonna do this friend a solid, and he's gonna look into it. And when he does, he learns that Fred has already been reported missing, and a detective is already on the case. Great, maybe this Facebook friend just didn't know that. But as the helpful guy he is, the detective decides not just to drop it there. He wants to actually help look into this missing person's case. But there are rules. He's not trying to step on any toes.

So he goes to his supervisors, briefs them on the little bit of information he's got, and everyone is pretty much like, okay, yeah, you're right, this isn't good. So he gets permission to speak with and possibly assist the missing person's detective assigned to Fred's case. And within days, he makes contact with that detective, and she is of the opinion that Fred's disappearance probably isn't a disappearance. It is likely a homicide. So she

agrees to let Detective Krasnoi help her out. So he digs in and learns what's already been done to try and find Fred. He was reported missing on December 27th, 2019 by his daughter Christina. Now the date she last saw her dad varies a little bit based on who you talk to because Christina herself told us that it was November 7th, but Detective Crasanoi told us that he later ends up believing it may have actually been November 6th. And even if you look up this case, you're going to find a court document that says November 22nd. So it's a little all over the map, but based on everyone we've spoken to, everything we've seen, I think the 22nd is inaccurate. I really do think we're looking at November 6th or 7th.

Okay. Anyway, Christina says that the last time anyone saw her dad, he was at his house on the west side of Indianapolis, and he was getting ready to go on a hunting trip. Now Thanksgiving was on the 28th that year so they'd expect him to be back around that time or at least call. Except he didn't. Now Christina, her sister Tricia, and other members of their family had gotten some texts but just like the ones that Fred's friend had gotten they weren't convinced the messages were actually coming from Fred and Some of the messages were just about his hunting trip others were talking about how it had rained

Some say that his truck got stuck in the mud and he like couldn't get it out Like was he asking for help in these texts? No, I don't think so I think he was just like letting them know and they didn't think that there could be confusion about that or anything because supposedly he was On this trip with other people. Plus, he's like 58, he can take care of himself. It was just something that happened. Right, and he's been texting after he told them that,

and so they figure like, oh, everything's fine, you get out, no big deal. But you can only say you're fine so many times before people start to worry. And once they were worried is when they started going back and really reading those messages and like scrutinizing them. So by the time Christmas came and he was still MIA and only sending those strange texts, his family at that point is like, oh hell no, like this is not our dad.

But before Christina made the missing persons report, she went to her dad's house just to be extra sure or maybe to even get confirmation of what she was already believing. And while she's there, she noticed a bank statement. And when she opens it, her heart sinks because she saw that her dad's account was in the negative. And Fred wasn't a rich man by any means, but he was smart with his money. This dude would never have spent so much

that his account was drained or overdrawn. So that's when she goes and she files the report on December 27th, and then on the 28th, a missing persons detective was assigned to the case. Now that detective got access to Fred's financial records and confirmed not only were his accounts overdrawn, but there were also transactions made mid to late November and throughout December that weren't at or for places Fred would normally go, like bars and restaurants all around the west side of Indy or the surrounding suburbs,

nowhere near any of Fred's usual, like, out of town hunting spots where he's supposed to be. And there's one transaction in particular that stood out to the detective. It was a purchase made at a Lowe's for $225.73 on November 18th. Now, thanks be to the hardware gods, Lowe's is apparently the only place on Earth

that keeps security footage for a while. So the detectives were able to actually pull footage of the person using the card for that transaction. And no surprise here, not Fred. It was a younger guy, so they go, they show this image to Fred's daughter, and she recognizes the person instantly. It is her 35-year-old brother, Jeremy. And Christina told us in that moment, she knew that her brother had something to do with her dad's disappearance.

Did she like fall out of her chair shocked? Or like, what's the deal with her brother? I guess like I'm imagining my little brother, baby David, like, I know. No. So I mean, I don't know. In that moment, like what what she was thinking, I don't think anyone suspects their brother's capable of doing something to their own dad. But Jeremy had been kind of the troubled sibling. Like, he didn't have much of a criminal history,

like a few minor things, nothing violent. But he did struggle with substance use disorder. And I know he didn't get along with his other sister, Trisha. Christina's relationship with him had been OK. I mean, she told us that he even lived with her and her daughter for a time. But to go back to their dad, like, his relationship with his dad was pretty rocky, to say the least.

And Jeremy actually was living with their dad at the time, like, all this is happening and he was going missing. Right. And the whole family knew that the two of them living together was pretty much a disaster waiting to happen, from what I gather, the two... I mean, they just didn't get along. They were, like, fighting all the time and has Jeremy been around during this time that Fred's been missing he has and he's been

telling everyone that their dad is probably fine like they don't need to worry about him probably not mentioning that he's been using dad's credit card definitely left that part out so they're able to get a search warrant for Fred's house again where Jeremy is still living. And by this point is when Detective Krasnoi is aware of this case, but not officially on board yet. But he does go along too, to see if he sees anything out of the ordinary.

Again, he's probably looking at it through a homicide detective's eyes. Right. And there is one thing that really stands out. In one of the rooms, the carpet and pad that's usually under the carpet are both gone. It doesn't look like it had been taken up by a professional either. It looks like a rush job, like a hack job.

And for him, this is a huge red flag signaling that something, he doesn't know what, but something probably happened in this room. Now on January 13th, the case is officially transferred to the homicide department and Detective Krasnoi takes the lead. By the 15th, he makes contact with Christina and Tricia and it turns out a lot has happened in the last few weeks,

mostly over text message. Still from Fred, supposedly? Well, no, so actually the text message that Christina shares are from her brother, Jeremy. Oh. By January, it sounds like the messages from Fred's phone have stopped, at least based on everything Detective Crastonoy told us. But she tells Detective Crastonoy that Jeremy texted her, saying that their dad's former roommate, like the guy who was there before Jeremy moved in,

this guy apparently had been threatening Jeremy, saying that he was gonna put a bullet in his head and sending him a photo of a gun and ammunition. And she also tells him about Fred's dog, who she describes as Fred's best friend. Like, we do not have to tell the crime junkies. She says he never went anywhere without that dog. But apparently for this hunting trip, he left the dog behind. And where's the dog now? Well, the dog's at home with Jeremy, which already is weird. But they're like, okay, listen, even if he did leave behind for the first time ever his beloved dog, this is all the more reason not to be gone for two months without saying anything to anyone, like you would come back.

And then finally, Christina also tells him that she had actually talked to Jeremy a few times about where exactly their dad had gone hunting. But she said that her brother's story kept changing. The first story she got is that their dad had gone to Paragon, Indiana. I've never heard of Paragon, Indiana. I was gonna say, I was like, I've lived here my whole life.

I have never heard of this place. But doesn't even matter because then he's like, actually no, you know, it might've been somewhere else, but he wasn't sure where it was. So that was a little fishy to her. And then she was also able to get her hands on some of Fred's financial records that she had kind of been collecting over the last few weeks. And she wanted to show the detective so he can see how unusual the charges to the

account actually are. And sure enough, there is this really noticeable change in the types of charges being made because before early November, Fred did not charge much to his credit cards at all. But after early November, the charges start becoming for those bars, restaurants, places that Fred would never go to. And like he did drink, but I mean, he had a few retired military buddies that he drank with at the VFW. He's not a bar hopper. He had like a place and that's where he would go with his buddies. So Detective Krasnoi has enough now to be very suspicious. He suspects that Fred is no longer alive, and he suspects that his own son is to blame for that.

But he knows he's gonna need more proof. So he decides to pull the phone records for both Jeremy and Fred. And when he gets the results, they tell a very damning story. So it turns out, ever since Fred went missing, his phone has not left the west side of Indianapolis. So he didn't go hunting. Yeah, spoiler alert. His truck was never stuck.

Nobody's hunting on the west side of Indianapolis. Right. And even if you want to say he left his phone behind, I mean, OK. But then his phone shouldn't have been texting the whole time. Exactly. Both things can't be true. But he was texting.

So for sure now, we know he wasn't on the trip. But what really catches the detective's attention is that the whole time Fred was supposed to be on this trip. But what really catches the detective's attention is that the whole time Fred was supposed to be on this trip, you know, the trip we now know didn't happen, Fred and Jeremy's phones were pinging in the same locations, on the same dates, around the same time. They were like, I don't know, moving together, one might say. Exactly.

So it's time to go chat with Jeremy. But not quite yet. I know. I know. So the go get a mentality works well in law and order, like when you're trying to make a case in, you know, 40 minutes, but like that's not how that's not real life. So and I've heard a lot of detectives say this, they want to get their ducks in a row. I mean, the first thing I want to do is be like, let's confront them. You want to only ask questions you know the answers to essentially. Exactly. Like they want to know when he's lying. Even if like he doesn't know they know, you know what I mean?

It's a little bit of a game. It's a cat and mouse. So he decides to go learn everything he can about Fred, Jeremy, the whole family. He learns that Fred's been married and divorced several times, including to Jeremy, Tricia and Christina's mom. And when that split happened, the girls went to live with their mom. Jeremy lived with Fred, which seemed to mark the beginning of their troubled relationship. Detective Krasnoi also chats with Fred's former roommate,

the one that Jeremy told his sister had been, like, threatening him. Now, pretty quickly, the detective becomes confident that this roommate is not suspicious. In fact, the roommate flips the whole story around. He goes on to tell them what he'd experienced firsthand regarding Fred and Jeremy's relationship, which was that Jeremy moved in with Fred about five to six months before,

and the whole time they didn't have a good relationship. And he believes that Jeremy killed his father, not because of the circumstantial evidence that's been piling up against Jeremy, but because according to him, Jeremy confessed as much. What? Now, Jeremy hadn't confessed to him. This is like second, third hand information.

But he says that he had spoken to one of Fred's former step-sons. And he said that Jeremy had been bragging about shooting his dad twice in the head and then placing his body in the freezer. So now it's time to bring in Jeremy. Yeah. So this is not going to be in a dramatic fashion though.

Detective Krasnoi doesn't want to tip his hand. Instead, he just reaches out to him and asks him if he'd be willing to come down to the homicide office for a little chat, not as a suspect, just as the son of a missing person. So Jeremy agrees. They meet on January 21st. And going into this interview, Detective Krasnoi's priorities are figuring out where Jeremy last saw his dad, and then just to get a little bit of background on their relationship. But even trying to have this conversation, Jeremy keeps changing the subject.

He really only seems to want to talk about the problems he's got with his dad's former roommate. Pointing away from himself. You got it. But what's interesting is he also repeats this rumor that his dad was shot and put in a freezer, but obviously he's not saying he did it. He's not confessing. He's saying this former roommate did it.

Okay, so what's with this freezer that everyone's talking about? Like, I would think that you would know if there was a body in your own freezer, right? Yeah, I mean, he's basically talking about the freezer at their house. Right. He's not in there.

Like, they've, I mean, I don't think, like, I assume that they checked. If you heard this rumor, wouldn't you check your freezer? Like. Yeah, there's, I mean, I don't think, like I assume that they check. If you heard this rumor, wouldn't you check your freezer? Like. Yeah, and I, Jeremy, like, it is like a wild story. And I don't know what Jeremy's like, oh, if he was in the freezer and then the roommate moved him or whatever.

It's clearly bananas. But I think the whole point is like, okay, you're like saying the same- He's saying this rumor that he's rumored to have confessed to do himself, right. So when he actually does get around to talking about his dad, Jeremy says that the last time he saw him

was around November 8th, between 2.30 and 3.00 p.m. He said Fred was getting ready to go on this hunting trip. He had all of his stuff packed up. He had like this maroon duffel bag, a crossbow, at least one long gun in a case and one handgun. He also provides some interesting information we haven't gotten before. He says that he knows who his dad went hunting with,

these two guys named Brian and Dave. And throughout this whole interview, this conversation, Jeremy is playing every bit the confused son, claiming that this is all he knows. But he's not really acting worried, which strikes Detective Krasnoi as odd. And I'm sure he knows just as well as everyone. People act different ways,

especially when a loved one goes missing or is murdered, whatever. But there is something about Jeremy's behavior that feels really off to him. Well, and you have to assume he's going into this kind of knowing that Jeremy's likely lying to him with every single breath. That has to color everything Jeremy says.

I'm sure. But he still doesn't confront him. He's not ready to do that yet, mostly because he doesn't have an airtight case yet. So he's trying not to spook Jeremy. Instead, he thanks him for his time and he lets him go. Which ends up being kind of a good choice, because it doesn't seem like Jeremy realizes that he is basically suspect number one right now. In fact, after the interview, he even offers up text messages that he allegedly got from his dad on December 9th.

The ones where Fred is supposedly saying that he got his truck stuck in the mud, like that was that whole thing, and there's been lots of rain or whatever. But the weird part is those texts also say he's gonna be leaving soon, which we know he doesn't. Wait, we've talked about the truck a couple times. Where is it? Oh, that's the thing. So Jeremy has been driving the truck that Fred owns. And by the way, Fred doesn't even have a license. So, so like he shouldn't be driving around getting stuck in the mud. owns and by the way, Fred doesn't even have a license. So, I know.

So like he shouldn't be driving around getting stuck in the mud and also it can't be because Jeremy has it? So this is jumping ahead a little bit, but Fred had bought this brand new expensive truck for a landscaping business that he and Jeremy were gonna start together. So this truck gets left behind and he didn't have a license

because of a drunk driving incident. So the truck that got stuck, was that like, Brian or Dave's truck? Here we go! It can't be, because dun dun dun! They never left? They were never gone? Spoiler alert! No, they never existed! What?! These are real people. Detective Krasnoi told our reporter that he ends up spending like a month talking to just

about every single person he can track down in Fred's life and I'll get to that in a second, but no one he talks to knows this Brian or Dave. Well I was also going to say Brian and Dave are going to be the most impossible names to track down like oh yeah in Indiana really like yeah, and of course they they don't I mean This is just lie after lie after lie and just in case there was any Doubt detective Krasnoi cross references the text that Jeremy showed him with the records He has and he sees that Fred's phone never left the West Side when those texts were sent Okay, are we still waiting to arrest Jeremy like I feel like right now could be a really good time. There's no physical evidence

that Jeremy is the one who killed his dad, but there's no evidence that he was even killed. That's what I'm saying. There's no evidence there is a murder. I mean, it seems clear that Fred isn't around anymore, but where he is or what happened to him is this huge mystery. So Detective Krasnoi doesn't want to get tunnel vision.

So throughout the rest of January and February, he keeps just kind of plowing ahead. Like I said, he's speaking to as many of Fred's friends and family members as he can. He's also filing more records requests, even conducting another search of the house. So for ease of understanding, let's talk about what he learns from friends and family first, and then I'm going to go over the search of the house. So for ease of understanding, let's talk about what he learns from friends and family first, and then I'm gonna go over the search of the house that he did. So first up was the former stepson, Bobby. This is supposedly the one who told the former roommate

that Jeremy confessed to him. And Bobby confirms that is what he heard. He explains that he and his girlfriend were out at a bar with Jeremy around November 18th, talking about Fred, and Jeremy said he shot his girlfriend were out at a bar with Jeremy around November 18th talking about Fred. And Jeremy said he shot his dad in the head twice and put him in the freezer. The fuck, Bobby? Where were you back in November?

Yes. Detective Krasnoi says that he thinks he just didn't know what to do with this information. He didn't really, I guess this stepson didn't know if he could even believe Jeremy. I mean, like, something that I think you've seen here, something that they've learned about Jeremy over the years is that, you know, he rarely, if ever, tells the truth.

He is very manipulative. He's attention seeking. He embellishes everything. Detective Krasnoi described it to us saying that it could be raining outside, and Jeremy could convince you it was 75 and sunny. Or at least I think he could convince himself. Right, so I think Bobby was thinking, I mean it's just such an outland. Is he saying this because he wants to,

they got in a fight and he's like at this like hiding place, you're just like. Showboating, I mean it's. Bullshitting, yeah. Yeah, that probably does feel so wild. Like A, it's hard to believe someone you know does that. And then if they did that, why would you be telling me at a bar?

You know what I mean? Yeah, it all seems so ridiculous. And this is like, I don't even know where to add this. And I maybe here's a good point to do it, because to go into like these like stories that he's been like telling, Detective Crasnoe learns that at some point, Jeremy makes the claim that he was abused as a child.

Apparently, he didn't get into the details with us, but apparently the stuff Jeremy said was pretty awful. But this is like, you know, I don't know what to believe. Like, I can't talk to Jeremy, I can't talk to Fred. His sisters believe that, well, I think that what they said was that they don't believe the abuse was ever as bad as Jeremy claims. But that it did or possibly did exist.

Yeah. So Detective Krasnoi said that Fred had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, that he may have been quote unquote rough with Jeremy, which to me implies that there was some kind of physical abuse. But the extent of that abuse seems very unclear. And when taken in context with everything else, it's his sister's belief, it's the police's belief that Jeremy is likely a pathological liar.

So, I mean, they don't believe that all of the claims he's making are true. Which makes things so, so complicated. I know, and then I don't even know how to like put this into context when, you know, I don't even know how to like put this into context when you know I don't even have all of Jeremy's story like I have you know someone telling me he's telling an awful story but I don't know what it is. Fred's not here to defend himself or tell any story on his side. I didn't want to just like not bring it up but I don't

know where it fits in the context of all. And maybe there is there's probably a lot more context or maybe there isn't and Jeremy is just a liar. This is the messiness of real life investigations, and this is exactly the spot that Detective Krasnoit was in. What he does feel like he knows for certain is that before he went missing, Fred was trying to repair his relationship with Jeremy, even trying to start that business together. So are they thinking that the abuse could have been part of Jeremy's motive, like killing his dad

with some sort of retribution for this alleged abuse? Maybe, but actually Detective Krasnoi has a different theory. Detective Krasnoi learns from a friend of Fred's that Jeremy had stolen money from his dad in the past, and if he tried to do it again, Fred planned to file charges against him. Detective Krasnoi confirms this. In the months before Fred vanished, Jeremy had stolen his dad's credit cards.

And not only that, he'd also opened some accounts in his dad's name, put charges on them, and then never paid the bills. And then there was this other friend who tells this story. Like they had gotten a bad feeling about the business that father and son were trying to start together. Cause this friend, back when Fred had asked her to help him with the finances, she's like, yes, happy to help you out under one condition.

That I am the only one with access to the business accounts. And she explained that it would be easier if just one person was in charge of the finances so that there aren't a bunch of cooks in the kitchen. But I kind of wonder if it was because she knew that there had been issues. And she needed to keep him out. Right, she knew Jeremy had been stealing.

She didn't want it to happen again. And it turns out, this is like the wild part, so she's telling him this, like just me, she's on speaker when she says that, and Jeremy was in the room with Fred, and upon hearing this, he says, quote, that bitch, we don't need her. Sir.

Yeah. What? She wasn't too happy with that, and she was like, okay, actually changed my mind, no longer willing to help you're on your own. And this was when? This is like September of 2019. So September 2019, there's this whole confrontation. She's like, I don't want to help.

I think he said whatever. She didn't say that, but that's the implication. And no one sees Fred by November. Yeah, poof, he's gone. And corroborating this theory are records of Fred calling the bank on November 5th and 6th to report a fraudulent account and to report fraudulent activity on his account. And they find out he also made a 911 call on November 6th to report that Jeremy had stolen one of his credit cards. He was making good on his thread. He was. So Detective Krasnoi contacts the bank.

He finds out that Jeremy had called the bank on December 7th, pretending to be his dad, trying to transfer $200 to the card. He didn't get it. The account was frozen. So it's not looking good. I mean, it's like, it's like almost like proving everything everyone's thinking. But it is all still circumstantial. Right.

They don't have a body. They don't have a murder weapon, like zero physical evidence whatsoever. Okay, you told me you would give me a lot of background, but then get to the search. Can we get to the search now? We can get to the search. So that happens early February and Detective Krasnoi is hoping that it'll give them something to work with. So when he walks in, he notices that the carpet is still gone. February, and Detective Krasnoi is hoping that it'll give them something to work with. So when he walks in, he notices that the carpet is still gone. He actually learns that this room that the carpet is missing in used to be Jeremy's bedroom, at least based on a few personal items that are in there, though now it seems

like Jeremy is staying in a different one. For some reason, it doesn't want to be in that room. But in that room, he finds a receipt. The receipt, actually, from Lowe's, the one that the first detective saw that led to the surveillance footage. Now, why was that still in the house? So, no, sorry, she just saw the charge before.

She actually- Oh, like on like a statement or something. I think so. Not the actual receipt. But now they have the actual physical thing. Which like has an itemized list of everything that was bought. Exactly. Now, unfortunately, it doesn't say right there.

I think it's just like item numbers. It's a hardware store, right? Yeah, so we have to like look this up later. But what he ends up finding out is what was purchased was a 96 gallon two wheel trash can, heavy duty cleaning wipes, bleach, plastic drop cloth. You can just say murder kit. Exactly, latex gloves, flashlight,

air freshener, detergent pods. And I think Detective Krasnois said it best in our interview with him. He said, quote, any crime junkies listening to this should see that receipt and know exactly what that means. What did I just say? I know.

A murder kit. But let me tell you the other things he finds in the house because they're important too. In the bathroom he finds a pair of Fred's dentures and at first he's like okay maybe Fred had two pairs you know one being here isn't that significant. Okay no he finds out Fred only had one pair. And he's not going anywhere without them. No and then the icing on the cake is walking into the garage Detective Crasnoi finds almost everything Jeremy said that Fred had taken hunting with him. The maroon duffel bag, the camping gear, it is all there.

Everything except for the crossbow that he mentioned. But Detective Krasnoi does have a good idea where to start looking for that. Pawn shops. Indiana law states that if you pawn something, you have to present your ID for tracking purposes. And sure enough, guess who pawned a crossbow? Jeremy. Yeah, and thankfully it had not been sold, so it gets collected by the police department.

Because they have to make sure it actually is Fred's. And he's in luck because one of the friends that he had spoken to says that he'd done some work on that specific crossbow of Fred's. I guess Fred had this bad shoulder due to prior injuries. So this friend had installed a crank so that he could draw it back easier. And he says that if you take off the crank and look inside, Detective Crassanois should see

this shiny circular metal piece. All cranks would have something like it in there, but this friend says that he made that piece himself. And it's- Like, custom. Yes, and if it came from the manufacturer, it would have a dull black color, but the one he made was bright silver.

So, Detective Crassonoy goes, he takes off the crank, and there sitting inside is the shiny circular metal piece. So I know this is important, but is this the murder weapon? No. So they don't think he used it to kill his dad. He just pawned it to get the cash. Probably.

Not to get rid of it. I think it's just more proof that Jeremy lied. I mean, if all they're ever going to have is a circumstantial case, they need as much as possible. Exactly. I think what they're thinking as far as the murder weapon goes is, I mean, if you go back to this confession or even the rumors that were going around, I think that they think Fred was shot and Fred had several guns. There are a few that Detective Krasnoid can't locate.

So he's pretty sure Fred was shot. And then Jeremy either sold the gun he used or traded it or something. So with a lot more now under his belt, now is the time that he brings Jeremy in for a proper, not interview, but interrogation. And he decides to be a bit risky and just kind of lay everything he has on the table. Nothing they have so far is gonna get them a solid conviction, at least not here in Marion County, apparently. So if Jeremy doesn't confess, he's walking out of there a free man. But Detective Crasonoid decides to take the gamble anyway,

and he starts laying everything out. But one by one, excuses start flying out of Jeremy's mouth. The cell phone record showing both his and his dad's phone in the same place at the same time after he went missing. So wild, he has no idea how that happened, but he deaf doesn't have his phone. The spending of his dad's money, well that is just a misunderstanding his dad gave him permission to use the cards.

The Lowe's receipt, well that one stops him in his tracks. According to Detective Crasnoi, the next words out of Jeremy's mouth are, I need an attorney. Uh, yeah, you do. Jeremy walks out of the interview and basically refuses to cooperate anymore. Walks out? Is this not enough to arrest him already?

Dude, I told you, you have to like, I don't know how it works, other play, in Marion County, you have to have it locked. And this is the case everywhere, right? Like you have one shot and one shot only at a prosecution. But don't worry because just because it's not now doesn't mean it's never. Over the summer of 2020, Detective Krasnoi

executes several search warrants in areas where Fred was known to hunt, even brings out cadaver dogs, just in case. There's still no sign of Fred anywhere. By the end of 2020, he's feeling like this might be all he ever has. And in a move I fully appreciate, he is willing to at least give it a go.

And luckily, so is the prosecutor that he reaches out to. And by early 2021, they start putting together everything they need to charge Jeremy with murder. And that's right about the time that Detective Krasnoi gets an unexpected call. Now, crime donkeys, I know you don't always love hearing sound bites in these episodes. That's what the deck is for, I know.

But this one is just too good. So we start that process of preparing the filing of charges and things. And I got a call one night from Jeremy. I was at a BW3's restaurant. I was off that night. I got a call from Jeremy. This is before charges are filed. It's actually just days before, really.

And he calls me and says, hey, I just wanted to see if there's an update on my dad. I said, Jeremy, are you serious? He goes, yeah. He goes, I just want to see what the update is. And I said, you killed your dad. You want to come down and tell me about it? I said, that's what the update is.

And he goes, I can't believe you still think that. And then hangs up. Just a few days later, on February 10th, Jeremy is arrested for the murder of his dad. He's held without bond, all while proclaiming his innocence and saying that he has no idea where his dad is. But guess what? We know exactly where Fred is now. Because on May 13th, Detective Krasnoi gets this call. I was off that day. I am preparing to go to my daughter's

lacrosse game. And I get a call from my lieutenant. He's like, hey, what are you doing? I said, I'm getting ready to go to La Crosse. He said, what's happening? You want to go get Fred? Earlier that day, the owner of a storage facility in Brownsburg, Indiana called 911 after noticing a foul smell coming from one of the units. And it was a unit they'd actually repossessed because the owner had missed the last few payments.

And so after smelling something, the owner of this place called the police to come and see what it was. But before they got there, she decided to Google the name of the person who had been renting the unit. Jeremy Farmer. Jeremy Farmer.

And she saw that Jeremy Farmer had recently been arrested for murder. Right. Did this unit not pop up on any of the record searches before? No. No. Krasnoi told us that Jeremy had first rented the unit on one of his credit cards, one that they didn't know he had, but then he'd made most of the payments in cash.

So there really had been no trace of it. Yeah. Inside, they find a 96 gallon trash can wrapped in tarps and plastic drop cloths, all the items they recognize from that Lowe's receipt. And if there was any doubt, Detective Crastonoy pulls out a copy of the Lowe's receipt that he found in Jeremy's old room,

and there is a price tag still attached to the trash can, and when he compares the UPC codes, they match. And slowly, they begin unwrapping this thing piece by piece. Underneath, they find that the lid secured with the zip ties. Those are painstakingly cut off and bagged one by one, and then they finally open the trash can. And there is a mound of trash on top that they meticulously remove, and down at the very bottom is Fred. Despite having been deceased for over a year,

by this point, by the way, Detective Crastonoy told us that Fred was in amazing condition. He had been kept in a cool, dark place, free of moisture. So there was actually pretty little decom. It's not anywhere near as bad as if Jeremy had left him outside, for instance. And it took a year to start smelling? So this is what's so wild.

Air fresheners had been kind of masking the smell for a long time. Jeremy had been getting those that release like a puff every like 15 minutes or so. And based on receipts found in the unit, it looks like he had repeatedly gone back and replaced those over and over again. But now he's been arrested and he couldn't. He couldn't pay for the unit and he couldn't replace

the air fresheners. Exactly. And is the merger weapon in the storage unit? No, that is the one thing that is not handed to them on a silver platter. Now, at his autopsy, Fred's cause of death is determined to be a single gunshot wound to the head, straight through his left eye. There aren't any defensive wounds or other wounds for that matter, and testing on the trash can reveals Jeremy's fingerprints and DNA just like straight up all over it. Of course.

So Jeremy went to trial in April of 2023 claiming that he shot his dad in self-defense. You know, brand new story this time. His story goes that his dad had come home drunk, he was armed with a gun, there's some kind of confrontation and some subsequent struggle in his bedroom, the one with the carpet out of it. And he claims that the gun accidentally went off while they were grappling with their hands over their head, which like isn't possible because the trajectory of the bullet was just like straight on. So as you can imagine, like the jury could read through it, and eventually he's found guilty and sentenced to 57 years. And despite this being justice, it's not a win.

There's no handshaking, no weight lifted off anyone's shoulders, because not only have Christina and Tricia lost their dad, now they've also lost their brother. Their mom has lost a son, and like he's alive, but their relationship is never going to be the same with him I mean in fact Christina told us that she tried to keep up with him once he went to prison

But they don't even talk anymore after the trial Jeremy appealed his conviction on the grounds of self-defense He also disputes some of the evidence sticking to his story about the shot being an accident But his appeal is quickly denied. So what does Detective Krasnoi really think happened? Well, based on everything he knows, he told us that he believes Jeremy knew the jig was up, like Fred was going to report him to the police for stealing. I mean, right? We know he called 911, kind of did. And he'd likely gone into Jeremy's room the evening of the 6th to confront him,

probably to kick him out of the house. Like, everything was coming down on Jeremy. So he was gonna, you know, get reported to the police. He's gonna get kicked out, have no place to live. He's probably going to lose this brand new truck that he just got. And he wasn't gonna let that happen. Detective Crasonoia thinks that there was probably

a physical altercation, and the grappling that Jeremy described didn't happen in the way that he said it did. But somehow Jeremy got a gun, possibly one of Fred's, but he's not sure, and then he shot him just face to face. But that is just a theory. Jeremy won't tell anyone the truth about what happened, which is kind of leaving Christina and Tricia

with a lot of questions. But those questions aren't just for Jeremy though, because they don't think that he was acting alone. So if not in the murder itself, they think he at least had help in the cover up. And a small part of them also believes that another family member may have been involved too. So this is for several reasons. So for one, this person that they have in mind

spent a lot of time with Jeremy after Fred's murder. They would go out drinking with him, using Fred's credit cards, debit cards. This person also tried to take possession of Fred's belongings during the trial, which like really pissed off his daughters, understandably. So they just think this other family member knew about it but didn't tell anyone?

Well, like I said, they think maybe they were involved in like the cover-up of it all. I mean, like, when you think about it, Fred was a grown man. Could Jeremy have gotten him into the trash can himself and then transported him to that storage facility alone? Maybe, but I think it's also very possible he had help. And Fred's daughters believe that this other person may have provided that help.

And, you know, when we talk to Detective Crasnois about this, he agrees that, you know, this person is a sketchy character, but he says none of the physical evidence implies that there was another person there. All of the prints on the trash can are Jeremy's. The carpet and gun have never been recovered either, so we don't know, you know, if there's evidence there. So everyone's kind of just left wondering

if they'll ever get the full true story of how Fred Farmer died and who all was really involved. But even if they never get those answers, Christina and Tricia want everyone to remember their dad the way they do, as a man who grew watermelons and sunflowers with his granddaughter, someone who camped in his front yard with his grandkids, who would offer his garage as a dry warm place for kids in the neighborhood to wait for the school bus. And yeah, he had his flaws, they're

not denying or erasing that. But this was not the end he deserved. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. episode. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production.

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