Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Mom, fiancé speak out on Temple grad Milan Loncar, gunned down

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

Milan Loncar had a routine. He walked his dog in his neighborhood early in the evening. Just before 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 13, the 25-year-old was approached by two men. Surveillance video captures the two men pulling a gun while standing in front of and behind Loncar. Police say you can see them reaching into his pockets, then one shot is fired. Loncar is able to dial for help, then dies.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Amy Lounsberry - Victim's Mother Olivia Gorski - Victim's Fiancé  Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, author “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ, San Diego Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta Ga www.angelaarnoldmd.com Sheryl McCollum - Forensic Expert, Founder: Cold Case Investigative Research Institute in Atlanta, GA, ColdCaseCrimes.org, @ColdCaseTips Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet" featured on "Poisonous Liaisons" on True Crime Network Levi Page - Investigative Reporter, Crime Online Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. He had his whole world in front of him. 25-year-old Milan Longcar just graduated from Temple University, degree in engineering, tech. Set out in the world, great job in construction management, great place, loving mother.

He's the apple of her eye. Gorgeous, gorgeous girlfriend. A wedding was in the air. It was all unfolding right before everyone's eyes. Why did Nealon have to die. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We learn more about the victim, Milan Loncar. We spoke to his uncle today who says his nephew was just doing what he always does, taking the dog out for a walk. He says this is a mild mannered guy.

He would have never put up a fight in this situation. Taking your dog out for a walk and you end up dead? I mean, it was a Chihuahua-Dachshund mix named Roo. And when Milan was found, he was still holding on to Roo by the leash. Even then, still trying to keep his little pet from rushing out into traffic. What happened?

How did this go so horribly wrong with me? To make some sense of what we know now, an all-star panel, Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist, joining us out of Atlanta at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags on Amazon and host of Today with Dr. Wendy on KCBQ at WendyPatrickPhD.com. Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,

and star of a brand new hit series on the True Crime Network, Poisonous Liaisons. Joining me right now, two people that I've thought so much about. That beautiful girlfriend with a wedding in the air, Olivia Gorski and Milan's mother, Miss Amy Lonsbury. First of all, to you, Olivia Gorski, Milan's fiance. Olivia, when did you learn something horrible had happened? It was probably about two hours after he had dropped me off at my apartment that night. He had driven me to pick up my car from the car dealership because I had to have some work done on it. And I got a notification on like a local crime app that there had been a shooting very close to his house.

And so I sent a screenshot of that alert to in a group chat to him, his sister and his sister's roommate, because they all live in the area, just kind of being like, what the heck is going on? This is way too close to you guys. And Yelena and her roommate were both answering, and Mielen wasn't replying in that group chat, even though we had previously been talking in it only maybe half an hour earlier. And that was usual.

Yeah. It happened before. Yeah. That's how you guys handled those kind of alerts. Yeah, just kind of seeing what was going on. And Milan wasn't replying to our texts. And so I was kind of texting him jokingly being like, if you don't answer, you know, in the next five minutes, I'm about to drive to your house and make sure you're okay. And he wasn't answering the text. So I just kept repeatedly

calling him and it, it went to voicemail every single time. And probably after the third time calling him and he didn't answer the pit in my stomach started to form and it wasn't, oh, maybe he's just, you know, playing video games. All of the thoughts started sinking in of maybe what if it is him? What if it is him? And ever since that alert came into my phone, just everything has been the worst case scenario that could have been imagined. I really think it's not going to be true. It's not going to be him.

But it was. Yeah. I mean, even, you know, once we knew it was him, it was, okay, well, you know, maybe he's fine. And it wasn't. You're hearing another voice in addition to Olivia Gorski's. You're hearing Meehan's mother. This is Amy Lonsbury. Amy, what happened that night?

Where were you? My daughter and I were out to dinner, and we had just separated. I wasn't even home. I was still in my car, and my daughter called me and said, Mom, this app had a shooting alert, and we sent our text out, and we can't find Neil. And she said, I'm, I'm, I'm, my roommate, Arshia, is going over to walk over to where the app apparently gives a location. She's going to walk over and check for us. And I said, is that safe?

And she said, yes, she's taking the other dog. My daughter has a big pit bull mix rescue, and so she was going over there. They also had Milan's location location and he was right there. So they, everybody was very worried. So she hung up with me and then about five minutes, well, I turned my car around and started heading into the city. And then about five minutes later, she said, mom, she called us, mom, it's Mielen. And I said, oh my God, I'm still driving.

I'm coming. And then another 10 minutes, he's going to Temple University Hospital. And so then I started calling them. And I called them a couple of times until they actually had mail in and then they started asking me for identifying marks or whatever. I said a few things but when I got there they still didn't tell me, and I had to wait. And then we went back in, and then I suspected. And then finally the doctor came in and said, what can I tell you? I said, well, is he alive?

And he said, he is not. And those words just rang in my ears for days. And I also think that there is such an app and that the children had a procedure for when that app, I didn't know. I didn't know. And I can't imagine how. And all of the neighbors have that same app, and they all check on each other.

How do people live like that? It's horrible that people live so differently. And I had no concept of living like that. And I... Why? Why? and I, why, why, why? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For those of you just joining us, we are trying to make sense, trying to apply logic to an illogical happening.

The phrase just keeps sticking in my mind, a wedding in the air, a wedding to be planned for this beautiful soul, Nealon Longcarge is 25, to Olivia Gorski. I keep looking at photos of you and Nealon together, and you're so happy. How did that night play out for you? What happened? Well, once we knew it was him. How did you find out it was him, Olivia?

His sister's roommate, after she had gone down to the scene um she just called me and I heard noises in the background and at first I thought it was her laughing and so I you know thought for a second okay you know she went to his house he was there he was just playing video games and that's why he wasn't answering his phone and then I realized that it wasn't her laughing. It was just her sobbing uncontrollably, uncontrollably not breathing. And she just said, it's him. And they took him away and she hung up and I just immediately called his sister. And his sister, like Amy said, was on her way home from dinner. And she just said, you know, I'm picking you up.

We're going to the hospital like just get ready so then um i was just in my apartment you know panicking waiting for her to get there i called my parents um they were obviously panicking they immediately left from north jersey to drive down to the city you know not even knowing exactly what happened, but just knowing that they had to be there also. And just all the, you know, thinking that he has to be okay because that's all I would let myself think, you know. We knew at that point he had been shot, but it was, okay, maybe he was shot in the leg and, you know, I'm going to school for this kind of stuff.

I'll take care of him. I'll be his stay at home, whatever he needs. Like I will, you know, we would have shared it, but just knowing that like, as long as he was alive, like we can make it work and it would be okay. And just, yeah, I mean, even that night at the hospital, um, I wasn't allowed inside. It was only Elena and Amy that could go in. So I was waiting outside with Arshia, his sister's roommate, and just not knowing what was going on. And it just keeps playing back in my mind, too, because I wouldn't let myself think that anything had happened and when Yelena and Amy came out of the hospital they just kind of stared at us and I didn't catch on I was just waiting for them to be like okay so here's what happened you know he's

in surgery or and they just didn't say anything and Arshia just started screaming and at that point that's when it hit me that he wasn't okay and he wasn't here anymore. And I just kept saying no because I couldn't let myself believe it, that he wasn't here. I was really looking kind of past you, hoping that your parents had been there somehow magically had flown in more quickly to hold you at that moment. There's something about the human mind. I am thinking back after hearing Olivia Gorski, Malin's sweetheart, and his mother.

Amy, your mind is immediately rushing past what you're hearing, what you're experiencing, trying to make sense of it. I remember thinking, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Maybe I've got this wrong. Maybe Keith's been in an accident, and if I can get to him, I can fix it. And I had gotten as far as my parents home, left school. And I passed a church and saw a bunch of cars there and went in. My pastor happened to be there and he started making calls. And I saw him right from the other side of his desk.

And I read it upside down. It said Bernstein Funeral Home. And that's, that is when I realized I couldn't fix it. I don't know if I even realized it then, but he hung up and I said, Billy, what happened? Was he in a car crash? And he looked at me and he said he was shot. Oh. And did your mind, I mean, I know to you, Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist joining us, I know the human mind is phenomenal, more powerful than we know. But what is it?

And then, as they were saying earlier, every morning for I don't know how long, I'd wake up for about two seconds maybe and think everything was okay. And then realize. Yeah, definitely the worst. You know, Nancy, it's our brain's way of trying to protect itself. Can you imagine if we were always in a fight or flight mode and we were always fearful that the worst outcome was going to happen? Just like they were talking about with these apps that we have on our phones now that tell us where things are happening. I have that on my phone. Can you

imagine if every time we got that, we were like, oh my God, are they right around the corner? Our minds, we cannot sustain constantly being in a fight or flight mode. And so that is why our minds take us to a more positive place first. I have that on my phone too. My husband has it on his phone. We all have. It's kind of like a neighborhood watch type app. You know, I think I heard Amy with me is, in addition to our wonderful panel, Milan's mom, Amy Lonsberry, and his sweetheart, his true love, Olivia Gorski. I heard one of you, I think it was you, Amy, say the mornings are the worst. I, the mornings and the nighttime, late at night, those are the two worst times. Explain what you were saying, the mornings are the worst? For a moment, you don't remember or it just does, you don't think about it yet.

And it's just the normal morning and then it hits you. And it just, it's just all consuming. I can't think about what I have to do that day. I mean, it's just too much. And Olivia's been saying that you're having nightmares or dreams. Yeah, kind of a mix of both. Just, you know, I've been having, he's been in my dreams a lot lately, which I mean, he was while he was here, too, because he was, you know, such a big part of my life. And just like, I had a kind of a nightmare the other night that he and I had gotten in a fight. And I woke up that morning, and just first thought to myself, like, Oh, my gosh, like, thank goodness, you know, we're not in a fight. That was just a dream. And then it hit me that it's so much worse because he's not here.

And I'd rather be in a fight because then he would be here. Wendy Patrick, joining me, California prosecutor, is so painful to hear them speak. But we have to. We cannot turn away from the wonder of his life and how incredible he was, is, and the pain, the acute pain, this senseless shooting has caused. You can't turn away from it, and a jury cannot turn away from it. That's right, Nancy. And, you know, a jury will live this beautiful young man's life through the memories that have been shared by his family. And you are

in all of our prayers. You know, unless someone has been through a trauma like this, Nancy, unfortunately, like you have, it's almost unfathomable to listen to the family members explain, you know, first you wake up and you don't remember right away and then it hits you. That verbiage, I have to say, just resonates, and it will resonate with the jury, who can all relate to some type of loss, but hopefully, certainly, not everybody has experienced something like this, but it is a way to celebrate the beautiful life that was lived, and also allow them to understand the depth of the pain that you're suffering.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For those of you just joining us, we are trying to make sense, if that's even possible, to a wonderful, beautiful life cut short and those left behind in a wake of pain. You heard earlier our friend Maggie Kent at 6ABC. Take a listen to our friends at CBS Philly. There's no reason for this.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He's 25. No money on him. Like. Philly. No reason for this. This wasn't supposed to happen. He's 25. No money on him. Like no weapon. Murdered. For a while I was wondering if he was targeted but like he didn't have anything on him. He couldn't have been. This was intentional just to kill him. Police tell us a launcher called for help then dropped his phone. When they arrived, he was still holding on to his dog's leash. This was just senseless. It was just awful.

You heard the phrase, nothing on him. I remember my fiance Keith's murder. The perp took $35. That was what was in the wallet. And that was it.

I want to go back to Amy Lonsbury, Milan's mom, nothing on him. What did that mean? We found his wallet in his house. So he didn't have that. I think he had just a house key without even car keys or anything. That was his routine when he went out to walk the dog.

Just had his phone and one house key and the dog. And they didn't take either of those anyway either. They didn't take his phone and they didn't take his house keys. No. So all of those anyway either. They didn't take his phone and they didn't take his house keys. No. So all of this for naught. What happened? Take a listen to our friends at NBC10. This is our cut three, Jim Rosenfield.

Milan Longcar was out walking his dog just before 7 last night at 31st and Jefferson. New surveillance images out tonight show him rounding the corner when two guys coming from the other direction on the sidewalk confront him. In a matter of seconds, one pulls out a gun and points it at his chest as the pair begins going through Meehan's pocket. Going through his pocket? For what? There was no wallet. You just heard his mother and his sweetheart say so. Take a listen to Bob Brooks. Six ABC News are cut for. Police say it's all caught on tape as this happened outside of new apartment buildings. They say the victim was walking north on 31st when he turned right onto Jefferson Street.

Two males that were walking west on Jefferson approached the victim. One stood in front of him. One stood behind him. On the security video, detectives say the 25-year-old was trapped. You see the suspects reach into the victim's pockets and then the one in front pulls the trigger. They take off on foot south on 31st. As for the victim Rushed him to Temple Hospital. Doctors worked on him. However, he was pronounced dead at 7.30 p.m. Police also say this had apparently been the victim's routine with his dog for years. We're getting information from witnesses and other individuals in the neighborhood that for the past couple years, they saw this 25-year-old male in the neighborhood,

and he normally walks his dog. Straight out to investigative reporter CrimeOnline.com, Levi Page, on the story from the beginning. Levi, tell me about the area. I mean, I've looked at the surveillance video, and I can see very, it looks like a residential area. Yes, Nancy, this occurred in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Brewery Town. And this is a neighborhood residential, a lot of apartments, a lot of coffee shops, restaurants. And this occurred right before 7pm. It wasn't even that late at night, January 13, when this 25 25-year-old young man lost his life. He was a college graduate, Nancy, got an engineering degree, which means he's extremely intelligent and was working for a construction management company and was walking his chihuahua.

How innocent is that? Certainly without a wallet. he certainly was unarmed. I mean, Justice Scott Morgan, you're the crime scene expert. Where did the cops start first? The beauty part of this from a forensic standpoint, Nancy, is that there is a wealth of CCTV footage. I've watched this footage over and over again to try to make sense of this. And I think that I've kind of pieced things together. And that's where the investigators would have started. Other than obviously looking at this poor man's remains at the hospital initially, particularly with his clothing. They had

very close contact with him, Nancy. The shooter in particular, when you watch the CCTV footage, he is close to within a foot, I would say, of this young man when he discharged this weapon. So there's going to be a tremendous amount of forensic evidence there. But the great thing about the CC, you know, we've covered so many of these cases with really poor coverage from these camera views. There are multiple angles from multiple buildings. And the beauty of this is that you can actually track them, their movement as they're in retreat. And not just that, but you can appreciate the way they approached him. My suspicion is, looking at this, they waited on him like prey. They were probably sequestered somewhere back.

They saw him coming out. And this was planned. This is not their first time out because as they approached him, just like I mentioned the perpetrator with the gun, the other gentleman, the other person, walked behind him, and they surrounded him like a couple of jackals. They encroached on his person. They began to rifle through his pockets.

You can see this happen. And then this person discharged this weapon into this young man. Everything I've heard about him to Mellon's mom, Amy Lonsbury, is he's never had a fight in his life. Everyone universally says easygoing, laid back, agreeable, happy. He would not have been one to start an argument, Amy. No, he would not have. No.

I've never seen him get disturbed unless somebody was hurting his sister or Olivia. I mean, he was like any young man is. He loved his people and protected them fiercely. But in normal course of life, he, everybody knows he was just kind and you could talk to him about things. He always wanted to support others and be helpful. He was tremendously helpful to me in recent years. We had other family things. And he's just a good boy.

Loved his mom, loved his sister, loved his girlfriend, and was starting a wonderful life. Take a listen to our friend Jim Rosenfeld, NBC 10 cut nine. Tonight, Temple University released a statement saying our college grieves for a life cut short in a senseless manner. I think these were kids. These were kids with guns. How did they get guns? How? How? Police are hoping a $20,000 reward and details in these images will help find the pair, noting a patch on the left shoulder of the gunman's black jacket, his multicolored sneakers, and these black shoes with white soles on the other suspect's feet,

light spots on his denim jeans. I would really like to know why, what were they doing? Did they really need money or they were angry and wanted to commit violence? I don't have those answers and I really would like to understand why. Or was it very simply that it wasn't a desire for money, it wasn't anger, it was nothing. Neither remorse or anger, just a heart of ice. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Who would kill this beautiful, wonderful young man with a loving family, a wedding in the works?

Take a listen to our cut 13. Police say they've arrested and charged one of the people seen on that surveillance video, identified as 20-year-old Davis Josephus, who lives just a few blocks from the scene of the crime in Brewery Town. Police say Josephus was arrested just two hours after the murder, driving a car reported stolen in a separate carjacking. While four others ran off, Josephus was taken into custody. His clothing and description, police say, matching up with the surveillance in Longcar's murder. Straight out to Joseph Scott Morgan, death investigator.

This is by far a young kid. This is a guy with a felony rap sheet as long as my arm. At just age 20, Josephus Davis had only been out of jail two weeks after a judge lowered his bond from around $300,000 to $20,000 on an armed robbery and kidnapping where he kidnapped an Uber driver at gunpoint and there had been other robberies on his rap sheet. This is the guy, this Josephus Davis.

What kind of moron what kind of moron lets someone who has been accused of a violent kidnapping free? Who cuts somebody loose like this on society and doesn't apparently even care about it? Because if they had done their due diligence and dug in deep, they would have seen that there is a thread that runs through this, Nancy. This young man would still be with us today, living his life, loving everybody in his

life and making the world a better place. But no, he cut this guy loose and he is the shooter. This guy they cut loose. Well, I can tell you who. Judge Charles Hayden reduced the bond. And I'm just curious why the other perp has not been named. Is it because the other perp is, in fact, a juvenile? Is it because the other perp is expected to turn state's evidence. What, if anything, out to Olivia Gorski, are you learning about these two killers? I mean, honestly, I'm trying not to learn too much right now just because it's a lot to take in on top of everything that's already happened. And I think just everything that we find out what hurts the most is probably just how avoidable it was. I mean, you know,

obviously I'm struggling with the, what if, you know, what if I, what if I didn't have him pick up my car, you know, would he have walked the dog at a different time? And obviously those, what if I didn't have him pick up my car? You know, would he have walked the dog at a different time? And obviously those, what if, you know, we all have them and those are painful enough. But the fact that this situation truly was avoidable, I mean, this guy shouldn't have been on the streets. It just shouldn't have happened. There's so much that could have prevented this from happening. And I think that that's, you know, one of the hardest parts,

just that, you know, first of all, Meehan is gone because of someone else's choice, meaning the shooter. And also just so many other people kind of played into this. And that's really just what is probably the hardest part to deal with is just that it could have been avoided, and he could still be here. To Amy Lonsbury, this is Milan's mother. You know, I just heard Olivia, his sweetheart, say, I don't want to know. You know, I understand that because all that mattered to me

after Keith's murder was he was gone. I mean, so what if they caught the guy, didn't catch the guy, the guy has a rap sheet, the guy doesn't have a rap sheet. It just at that time did not matter. All that mattered was he's gone. I remember when I first gave interviews about Keith's death, I actually had facts all bass-outwards. I just dates, details, because to revisit it was just so painful. I heard the district attorney's office the other day say that balls were dropped, and that's why Josephus Davis was out on the street. Did you hear that?

I did hear that. I don't know anything about it. I really don't know anything about it. I really don't. And I've been watching some snippets, and I think that I need to get up to speed. I just trusted that Alt was going to be, I guess I'm so naive. And why shouldn't you be, Amy? Why shouldn't you believe that everybody's doing their job? That's what our tax dollars are paying for. They should be, and I assume are doing their job.

And it just hits like a wrecking ball. These kids were living just a block from each other. They literally had a little park with a basketball court and a baseball field in between them. And you could stand on Nealon's porch and stand on Yelena's back porch and they could literally wave to each other. And they were having friends over. They had Sunday dinners. They cooked together. With COVID, I think they had Thanksgiving together, as a matter of fact. Olivia, tell me about the Thanksgiving.

Yeah. Usually Thanksgiving is at my parents' house, and Milan had been coming to that in the past, but this year with COVID and everything, and Milan's grandma was sick, so he couldn't go home. My parents had canceled Thanksgiving, and so it just ended up being me, Milan, Jelena, and Jelena's roommate, Arshia,, it was honestly one of the best days. We usually all cook dinner together every Sunday night anyway, and we called them our Sunday dinners, but we, you know, went shopping together, and we made, I don't even know, we made a chicken that we made like a turkey because it was smaller for us, and we couldn't find any frozen, any turkeys that weren't frozen, and we made mac and cheese, and we all just kind of made like our own dishes and just

kind of had a little potluck together at Yelena's house and just, just spend it together. And I remember us even saying, you know, it was one of the best Thanksgiving's that we'd had because it was just, we were just together and just, it was really one of the best. I mean, same with Christmas this year. Things were different, but just, you know, being able to spend it together was really all that mattered. Olivia, what were your plans with Malin? Everything. I had been in the process of moving into his house. My apartment lease is up at the

end of February. So I had already pretty much packed up most of my stuff and the boxes were at his house. We had been fixing up his house a little bit. So we redid the bathroom together. Just, I mean, we worked so well as a team with stuff like that um so i think it was this past weekend we had planned to pick up his mom's truck and you know start bringing over my furniture um kind of move my cats into his house um i was supposed to graduate well i hopefully will graduate in june from grad school. So we were just supposed to be, you know, becoming adults together and living together. And we obviously had the plan to, you know, buy a house in the suburbs at some point and get, you know, get married and have kids and get more dogs. And just even, I mean, everything.

We had retirement plans together. We had summer plans. We had just plans for everything. I mean, I wanted to do it all with him, and I was supposed to. Amy, if you would share with us right now, what is your most vivid memory of your boy Milan right now

the most vivid memory is gold metal and soft flesh and I can't I can't get that out of my mind. And I try to remember the good things

and that just makes me cry. And I hope that that changes and I can remember only what it was. I pray to God that your suffering eases and that you find

comfort. Please know our prayers are with you and all of your family and our desire is justice Nancy Grace signing off goodbye friend you're listening to an iHeart podcast