Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Nurse Sydney Sutherland brutally abducted, raped, and killed while jogging near home

Episode Date: November 12, 2020

Nurse Sydney Sutherland goes for an afternoon jog but doesn't return home. What happened? Then, during an organized search, her mom finds beads from one of her daughter's bracelets, and then the unthinkable happens.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Maggie Sutherland, victim's mother Sam Sutherland, victim's brother Wendy Patrick- California prosecutor, author “Red Flags”, Host of "Live With Dr. Wendy" on KCBQ Radio www.wendypatrickphd.com  Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Beverly Hills, ww.drbethanymarshall.com Greg Smith - Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff's Office (Kansas), Executive Director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation, www.kelseysarmy.com Dr. Kendall Crowns - Deputy Medical Examiner Travis County, Texas (Austin) Mitch McCoy KARK 4 / FOX 16 News Little Rock, Arkansas TIPLINE -Jackson County Sheriff's Office 870-523-5842 Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She is so smart. She is brilliant. She is just 25 years old with the world in front of her. Just think for a moment what you were doing at age 25. All that vim and vigor and energy and the world is still new and bright and shiny. When I was 24, I was already a lawyer and trying to get on at the district attorney's office. I'm talking, of course, about beautiful Sydney Sutherland, just 25 years old. But that was not to be. And I want to know why. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Sydney Sutherland, a 25-year-old registered nurse, works at a medical center in Newport, Arkansas. On the afternoon of August 19th, she goes for a jog, something she does on a regular basis. Sydney even has a regular route that she follows near her home. A UPS driver reports seeing Sydney during her jog between 2.30 and 3 p.m. that afternoon. But that was the last time anyone reports seeing her. Later that evening, a call comes in to authorities. Sydney Sutherland's car keys and other belongings are at her house. But Sydney is gone. Just hearing our friend Dave Mack at CrimeOnline.com saying that just gives me such an overwhelming sense of foreboding.

Because her car, her keys, and other belongings are at her home, but no Sydney. Again, thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Let me introduce to you our all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. First of all, special guest joining us, Mitch McCoy from KARK4. That's Fox 16 News. Dr. Kendall Crowns, the Deputy Medical Examiner, Travis County, Texas, that's Austin. Greg Smith, Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff's Office, Executive Director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation. And you can find him at kelseysarmy.com. We're now psychologists joining us from Manhattan. It is Karen Stark. You can find

her at karenstark.com. That's with a C. California prosecutor, author of Red Flags, host of Live with Dr. Wendy on KCBQ. You can find her at wendypatrickphd.com. And special guest joining me, very dear to my heart, Lindsay's brother, Sam Sutherland, and her mother, Maggie. Ms. Sutherland and Sam, thank you so much for being with us. Maggie, when did you first learn that your beautiful girl, Sydney, was nowhere to be found? It was on that Wednesday, August the 19th at five o'clock. Her boyfriend called and said, have you heard from Sydney? And I said, no, what's going on? He said, well, I'm here at the house because he just got off work. The kids are here. The dogs are here. You know, the last I heard from her was around 240. She was going for a run. And, you

know, he was working. He's a farmer. So he was working. And I haven't seen her. And I've tried to call her and I can't get her to answer any messages. Miss Sutherland, let me ask you a couple of quick questions. The boyfriend, how long have they been together? They've been together around three years. And when you say he's a farmer, I grew up in rural middle Georgia, and all of our neighbors were farmers. Did he farm his own land, may I ask? Yes, yes. So he was in control of his schedule, correct?

Yes, they had working hours that day. So he could control when and if he got off his tractor or went back to the home. He worked for himself. It was his farm. He was farming his own land, correct? No, he farmed for his uncle. Right. It was a family farm.

He farmed with his uncle, but it was right near their house the day he was working. He was just, you know, had worked that morning by the house. And the reason I ask, Ms. Sutherland, is whether we like it or not, statistically, when somebody goes missing, cops look first at the husband, the ex-husband, the boyfriend, the lover, the sweetheart, the guy that wants to date the person but can't. That's where you look first. So the very first thing you do when someone disappears or goes missing is to see who they spoke to last, who reported them missing. And does that person have an alibi?

That is, as we say, airtight. Not to sound cliche he's out farming but he's not punching a clock and he could leave the tractor or the area when he wanted and return when he wanted so that's something cops immediately take into account when he called you which i find um very interesting because he's the one that raised the alarm that she's not there what did you think when he first called you and said Sidney's not home I said well what's going on and he goes I don't know and then he just went over you know that her stuff was there at the house and the last he talked to her was you know around 240 of the last snapchat that they had she never opened it and never answered it and prior to that she had been

answering them and talking but the phone lines at that time during that day from it looks like from 2 40 to 3 or 4 I'm not exactly sure what time just in that area the lines went down so she was not able to communicate if she was able to communicate. So if she could not communicate, how did he know that she was going for a run? Because he had already talked to her earlier. He talked to her about 2, 2 o'clock, between and two thirty and she uh texted me she goes um fixing to um go for a run and then i'll be back home she was a always a real fitness buff i'm looking at a picture of the two of you together and to tell you the truth you know i have to look hard at the picture to

figure out who is sydney and who is her mother. You two look like sisters, almost like twins, as a matter of fact, both with the same big smile, the same hair, the same hairstyle, the same eyes. She is a mini-me of yours. I call my little girl my mini-me, sometimes right to her face, because we like the same things, we do the same things. Is Sydney a lot like you? Yes, ma'am. Sydney and I, I mean, we've been told that many times that we look like sisters.

But Sydney and I were very, very close. Even in the investigation, when they did start doing the investigation, the questions were, you know, who would know the best about Sydney and would know the most about. And her best friend goes, you need to talk to her mom because her mom is her best friend. She's by her side all the time. And if anything needs to be known, her mom knows about Sydney because they are just in close all their life.

And she's the one that Sydney always wanted and relied on was her mom. When you first realized she wasn't where she was supposed to be where did you think she would be at what time did he call you did you say around five? Five o'clock yes ma'am. Where was where should she have been at five o'clock on a Wednesday? Well at that time I did not know. He had to tell me, like, the last time I talked to her was around 2, and she was going for a run because I had not spoke to her since about 12 o'clock that day. Prior to that, we had just got home from a week vacation in Florida.

So we just got home the night before. They got home at 9. And Sam and I and his family got home about 10. So I didn't see her till the next morning. And she came by my house around 12 o'clock. We don't have like a really big local gym or anything. So she drove to Jonesboro, which is about 30 miles away, and she did her workout with a trainer that she goes to because she hadn't been there in a week, and she loved to work out and run.

Is it a male trainer or a female trainer? There's a husband and wife there they're on their train, their gym. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Sam Sutherland, joining us in addition to Mom Maggie. Sam, so you all went together on vacation? Yes, ma'am. Where did you go? We went to Destin, Florida for a week.

Well, you know what? You can't beat that. You can't beat the Gulf Coast. No, we had a wonderful time. And I spent many a happy time on the Gulf Coast coast it's not far from where my dad's from in alabama um sam when did you first realize your are you and your sister close i'm very close with my sister and brother are you yes yes we talked we part well actually that morning the morning we we also farm my family my dad me and my dad and my brother, we all farm together.

And actually the road she's running on is it butts up to our farm. And all these farms butt up together. I know exactly what you're talking about. Sometimes you don't know one piece of land ends and the next one begins, but I guarantee you the farmers that farm it know for sure. So Sam, when were you told Sydney's not where she's supposed to be? Was that a day she was supposed to be at work? No, ma'am. My mom, I just picked up my daughter.

I have two daughters. And that's one thing about Sydney. She wasn't a mom. She was an aunt. So, you learned that day as well. Do you guys know if she was supposed to report to work that day? No, ma'am, she was not. Not supposed to report to work.

So that makes it even more difficult. Let me go to you, Mitch McCoy, KARK4, Fox 16 News. The first thing you want to do when somebody goes missing is nail down a timeline. And it always helps me to know what their routine is or should be on that day. In my mind, out of all the cases I've ever prosecuted or investigated or covered, when somebody has to report to work, that is a keystone of the investigation. Because if they don't report to work, you know they're missing it. Let's just say, when I was a prosecutor, 8 a.m. If I didn't report

to work, there's something wrong. But on a day when you don't have to report to work, then your schedule is fluid and it's a lot harder to nail down a timeline. Mitch McCoy, when did you, a KARK for Fox 16, learn that Sidney Sutherland was missing? Well, it was that day. And I think that that speaks to just how small of a town that Jackson County is. They knew that when Sidney didn't come home, that something was wrong. They had volunteers out later that night after five o'clock. It continued through the early morning hours. That following day, search picked back up. And at this point, it's every agency you can think of in the state from the Department of Correction, their dogs to horses and helicopters from the state police. They knew that something was wrong here.

With me, Mitch McCoy, KARK4Fox16. Mitch, I want to circle back to something you just said. You said in a town that small. I came from an area that was not even a town. It was unincorporated Bibb County. We have a Macon address, Macon, Georgia, in the very geographical center of the state, but we didn't live anywhere near the city of Macon address, Macon, Georgia, in the very geographical center of the state. But we didn't

live anywhere near the city of Macon. So tell me about this area where Sidney goes missing. It's very important to the investigation. I'll tell you why. But you tell me about the area first. Yeah, the area is incredibly small. The local high school graduates, if memory serves correctly, maybe 50 or so in a class. The sheriff knows Sidney personally. So this is a small town that everyone knows everyone. So when the alarm bell started ringing, they knew that something was very off here. I'm just wondering, Maggie, Ms. Sutherland, what was going through your mind as the hours ticked by and you don't hear from Sydney? What were you thinking? I was very devastated. But like I said, as soon as I got there, Alex was there.

You know, I looked in the house just to see what I could find that maybe was not right or anything. Everything was all okay. She had changed her shoes because everyone's talking about her pink tennis shoes, but they're laying there. She did not use them to run out on the dirt road. I was like, so she changed to her running shoes for running out on the farm. She'd even changed her clothes. They were laying right there where she changed. So everything looked normal. And Allison and I talked. Well, immediately, I just start calling

Sam, my son, Tyler, her older brother, and her dad. I was like, I need y'all here now. Something's wrong. I just know something's wrong. Sydney is not here. I need y'all to get here. And like Sam said, he just picked up the girls. He comes straight there. And Tyler, her other brother, and Dan were there immediately. They immediately start driving down that road where she ran. Right. You know, everybody checking it out.

I stayed at the house. I started calling the sheriff's office. I was calling AT&T, like trying to get them to ping in on her phone. You know, I was already, I mean, in my heart, I knew something was wrong because that Sydney just does not do disappear like that. I want to follow up on what you're saying. Two things to Wendy Patrick about the shoes and to Karen Stark, the feeling the mom, Maggie Sutherland, got. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags, host of Live with Dr. Wendy, KCBQ. Wendy, the mom is just telling us that people got it wrong

about her daughter's shoes. And a lot of people that are not experts would think that's neither here nor there. Who cares what kind of shoes she's got on? It's very significant. It's very significant, as a matter of fact, because it tells me where she most likely was. Her mother knows that she wore a certain pair of shoes to go run on the dirt road. She would not wear her pink tennis shoes, no more than I would wear a pair of shoes to go run on the dirt road. She would not wear her pink tennis shoes, no more than I would wear a pair of high heels I have to use to make appearances

out to go jogging or to play badminton or basketball with the twins. That wouldn't happen. So that kind of clue is very significant. And when moms like Maggie Southern or another person close to a victim says something like that, cops need to listen because it's very, very critical. That's right. And that's one of the reasons, Nancy, that investigative skills are so key when you have cases like this, when somebody goes missing. And I know that is just every parent's nightmare to hear that all of their child's belongings are where they're supposed to be and their child is not but if a certain pair of shoes is also missing then you're absolutely right on a free day where there's no obligation

to be at work or at school or picking up children it is those little details that are so valuable in piecing together where they might have gone where they might be and where police can start. Karen Stark, New York psychologist joining us. Karen, did you hear what Maggie said? She's standing there. She sees the home. She sees everything in place. And she knows right then something is very wrong.

She starts calling everybody she knows, the dad, the brothers, the this, the that. Everybody get out there and start looking for Sidney. That instinct is much more than a hunch. It's something that is born by literally thousands of years of evolution, and I don't like it when investigators poo-poo it. Well, they're wrong, Nancy, to poo-poo it. You know more than anyone what it's like to, especially a mother's instinct. Mothers know.

I remember once I was in a car accident and my mom called and said, what's wrong? And it was just amazing to me that she picked up and she wasn't there, the sense that something had happened. And it is much more than just something that's a hunch. There's a lot of scientific evidence to show that this is true. When you have an instinctive feeling that something is wrong, pay attention. And this mother knew her daughter. You know what, Karen Stark, it brings to mind Phil Vetrano, the father of the Long Island jogger, Karina Vetrano. He typically jogged with her, but that day she hadn't been gone.

He didn't go. Fifteen minutes after she was gone out the door, he got an overwhelming sense of concern. He actually felt he heard her call his name Daddy. He knew something was wrong, just like Maggie Sutherland is telling us right now. People listen to what Mom is saying. crime stories with nancy grace we're talking about the disappearance of sydney sutherland just 25 years old she's a mama's girl she's mom's mini me and mom knows something is very very wrong joining me special deputy sheriff john Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff's Office, Kansas, Executive Director Kelsey Smith Foundation, Greg Smith. You know, Greg, I was talking about establishing a timeline. And when Kelsey went missing, you guys were expecting her home.

I believe, as you said, she was about eight miles away, eight minutes away or so from home, and she didn't make it home. And you knew almost immediately after half an hour passes, something's not right. Oh, exactly, Nancy. In fact, while I was listening to what you were talking about, there's a couple of things that really came to mind. One is talking about that instinct or that intuition that parents or family or even friends sometimes have about their loved one and investigators paying attention to that. That's something that we teach when we go out

to law enforcement and do different things with the Kelsey Smith Foundation. That's a key thing to pay attention to. It really does. It's an indicator for an investigator because these people know the pattern of life of this person, whether it's on their day off or whether it's on their day that they're supposed to be working. And the other thing that is really critical, I noticed in this case, is the cell phone location data. And that cell phone is a database of pattern of life.

I mean, if an investigator can get his hands on a cell phone and get access to the information that's in there, you can figure out where that person's been, what time they've been there. I mean, it's amazing how much information, even people that say, well, I don't share my data. I don't use this. I don't. It's still there.

That data is still there. Oh, it is so there. You are so right, Greg Smith, joining us from Kansas. And speaking of data, take a listen to our friends at Jackson County. This is Sheriff David Lucas. We have the only thing we know of right now is we have a confirmed sighting of her at around between 2.30 and 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon in the area of Jackson County Road 41, which is just north and kind of west of her residence. She was on foot, out walking and jogging. We received that information from a UPS driver this morning that saw her.

We're kind of concentrating on that general area because with the phone pings that we've been getting from AT&T, plus the information from the people that said they saw her, it's pretty much going to be in that general area. And that's where we're concentrating the most right now. We're not rooming anything out. You're hearing the sheriff speaking and he just divulged something very, very important. And I want you to harken back to the Jennifer Dulo's case, the Connecticut missing mom of five. And you know, all of you legal eagles that the cops in that Connecticut area put together an incredible video montage from home residential, home security cameras from businesses, gas stations, the nail salon, the this, the that,

to see the car, the target car going by. Even when a school bus opened the doors, the video camera in the bus catches a car go by. Even when a school bus opened the doors, the video camera in the bus catches a car go by. That is how critical the surveillance video is. And we're learning that a UPS worker confirmed seeing her the previous day. But now we got to find out, did the UPS worker have surveillance video in the vehicle? And also take a listen to Logan Whaley, KAIT News 8. Plenty of people are still out and about looking for 25-year-old Sydney Sutherland. Here's what we learned from Sheriff David Lucas this morning. Jackson County authorities and volunteers searched late into Wednesday night,

searching for the 25-year-old. Sheriff Lucas says he doesn't have any solid leads on her whereabouts. Other than that, she was seen Wednesday afternoon as a UPS driver saw her near County Road 41. Sheriff Lucas says he's leaving no stone unturned and trying to find her. We're working every aspect that we can think of, from the social media side to the physical side. So we're not really ruling anything. You're hearing Sheriff David Lucas speaking. So right then and there, you know, the cops are already looking at the boyfriend.

Although Mom Maggie Sutherland tells me they weren't having any problems. She went to the home. Nothing seemed amiss. Nothing odd about his demeanor, except he wanted to find Sidney. Then you got the UPS driver that says he saw her. He would immediately come under suspicion just by the fact that he says he saw her. We also know she went to the gym earlier. They're looking for video from the gym.

But the reality is, Mom, Maggie tells me she made it back from the gym because her clothes and her shoes are there in the home. So nobody snatched her at the gym. And then suddenly, a break in the case. The cell phone of Sidney Sutherland is recovered a quarter mile from her home. A quarter mile from her home. Now to you, Mitch McCoy, KARK4Fox16, describe the area for me where her phone was found. Well, the phone was found about a mile or so from her home. This was a very rural area, dirt roads, a lot of farmland. And the sheriff came out and said that they had found the phone and the phone was not damaged, which which was alluding now at that point that there was possibly some kind of abduction. That was the feel from law enforcement, even though they were not saying it.

It was certainly the feel from law enforcement. Even though they were not saying it, it was certainly the feel that you got. And I believe it was in that news conference that they ruled out the boyfriend. They said that the boyfriend is not a suspect, that he has an airtight alibi. They sure did. To Dr. Kendall Crowns, Deputy Medical Examiner, Travis County. That's Austin, Texas. Dr. Kendall Crowns, we know, for instance, in the Karina Vetrano case, DNA, not only her DNA, but her killer's DNA, were both on her cell phone. How does that happen?

Well, anytime you touch an object, the oils in your hands or your skin cells themselves can be transferred to anything. It's cell phones, clothing, cars, anything you touch, you're leaving traces of DNA on. So it's something that most people don't realize that everything you handle, you've covered in your DNA. And then anybody who handles it after you is also covering it in their DNA. You're so right, Dr. Kendall Crowns. It's called touch DNA for a reason. So when you touch things, you're not only leaving behind fingerprints through the naturally occurring oil in your body, that oil is leaving DNA behind.

The cell phone discovery was a major, major breakthrough in the search for Sydney Sutherland. But then fate intervenes. Take a listen to Kate Woodall, KAIT Region 8. Those close to Sydney confirming just a few minutes ago that the body discovered today was hers. This is coming from Sydney's boyfriend's parents. The body discovered was Sidney Sutherland. Straight out to Maggie Sutherland. How did you learn Sidney had been found? I was out on the search that day. You know, we had probably 300 plus people out on the search, but we were all searching.

They put us in areas. Anyway, I was with my best friends, and we were out. We had just found a spot on Father Road where they had found the phone that Thursday. So in that area, we were really searching hard, and we were on our hands and knees. There was probably six to ten of us there. Other people were pulled in there and all of a sudden I found a bead and I was like the beads even lead off of Sydney's bracelet and so we were all just digging and we were finding more and more she

had on several bracelets as we seen in the video we did have a small camera at her brother's house she's at was my at 12, and then she stopped by his house around 1.30 where she was leaving something from the vacation. So we did have a picture of her at that time and probably the last time taking a seat in my brother's car and putting on his torch. But I was on the search on my hands and knees as everyone else come across the beach and all of a sudden, some of my, her best friend came up to me, her dad and her brother and they were like, mom, you gotta go.

And I was like, no, no, I found something. There's something here. These are clothes, I gotta mark them. I was marking them with rocks. And they said, no, you gotta go now um that seemed a little strange to me but i went ahead and i got in the side of side and i went to the house and they told me i need to go on in the house so i phoned so we went in the house i and my best friends and everything and at that time they come in and said, we found her body.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Ms. Sutherland, what went through your mind, first of of all when you found that bead off her bracelet? I knew that at that point that Cindy was there and then it was going through my head. Because someone has taken her because it looks like the way the beads were on, it wasn't all the braces, probably one or two. And I was like, someone has taken her and pulled on her arm or something for the beads to come off like that. And this is just like five yards from where the phone was found. So, I mean, it was packed down.

Everybody had been searching. And it's right by Riceville. So, in my mind, if I go back and think, and I was talking to my friends, I was like, you know, right here, someone's grabbed her arm or something. Someone tried to take her. And it looked like she was headed maybe to try to hit that rice field to run from them because it was right beside a rice field that the phone was and where I found the beats at. When you were told that you had to go, what went through your mind?

I was very upset and angry. I was like, no, I'm not going. I found evidence. I'm staying. You know, I'm not leaving. This is a Sydney chair somewhere. I found something. And I'm very emotional, very emotional.

But, you know, that's my son. Well, did you have an idea about why you had to leave the scene of the beads? They did not, because I kept saying, why do I have to leave? You know, I've got to stay here. We're finding stuff. I can't leave this. You know, about that time, the state police and stuff pulled up in there, and they're like, go ahead.

We've got this. We're looking at it. You go on with them. So then we went to the house. To Sam Sutherland, this is Sidney's brother. Very, very close. Sam, were you on the scene searching as well? Yes, ma'am. I was actually the one who told my mother my mom go to the house,

the sheriff, David Lucas, picked me up, and he took me to the house where my mother was. And so on the way there, he kind of gave me the rundown. Sam, when you were out there and your mom found that bead, what went through your mind? Well, that's why I knew there was some type of struggle there. We knew some kind of struggle went on at that one place. Who found the strength to tell Ms. Sutherland? The sheriff, David Lucas, did. Did you know inside that Sidney was dead before they called you?

Did you sense that? That day I did. I did sense that, yes, ma'am. Maggie, in your heart, did you already believe Sydney had passed on or were you hanging on to the fact you could find her if you could just go fast enough? No, my whole time was I was hanging on

and I was like, no, I'm going to find her. She's here. She's here somewhere because here's her beach. She's somewhere close. But we have been searching since that the day before I would say about 530 when everybody started my boys and their best friends stayed up all night long walking that road we didn't all had

the feeling there was something about that road she was on running and they stayed up but no I never gave up on her you know I was not going to give up on her but no I had no idea and I did not have no idea why they were making me go to the house you know. Take a listen to our friend Journey Taylor aka IT8. Court documents are the first-hand look at disturbing actions. Investigators say Llewellyn took this past summer. Now, one of the newest details, how her search on his phone netted evidence in the murder case. Police say they found that about an hour after Sydney Sutherland disappeared,

he was about 2.3 miles from where her phone was found. But that location Llewellyn was at is actually just yards from where authorities found Sutherland's body on August 21st, three days after her disappearance. In an interview with investigators, Llewellyn admitted to hitting Sutherland with his truck. He said he then loaded her up into his pickup and took her to an area that investigators say was referenced on the phone's location services. Arkansas State Police said he then raped and buried her. He's currently being held without bond. Let me understand to Ms. Sutherland, this person, Quake Llewellyn, hit Sidney with his car? Yes, he did. We don't know all the situations or anything, but we do know that he passed her. The UPS truck was going down the road, and she remembers seeing Sydney because she said,

I've seen her running, so I slowed down because of the dust drought. It was a very dusty day, no rain around here, so it was really dry. So she delivers her package, comes back by, I see Sydney again still running, and she slows down again to dust her off as Sydney, you know, stays on the side. And she said, I just glanced back, I have seen Sydney still running, you know. So it was a lady UPS, and they do have times like when she turns off on the main road to that dirt road and everything. So she had her time on there and everything. And she said, I remember passing one vehicle in there, but I can tell you now, I just,

I couldn't even tell you color or make or anything, but I did pass someone. To Mitch McCoy, KARK4. Who is this Quake Llewellyn? Well, Quake Llewellyn is a 28-year-old. He is a farmer just north of Newport, which is the city hub of Jackson County. We know that he is apparently graduated with Sydney from the high school. And according to some court affidavits, they were at some point friends on Facebook, but it alludes to them not being friends on Facebook, I guess, when this August 19th day came.

To Greg Smith joining me, Special Deputy Sheriff Johnson County, who lost his daughter, Kelsey, to violent crime. When you look back, do you ever wonder why Kelsey? Why did it have to be Kelsey? Here we're seeing Quake Llewellyn kind of knew Sidney through school. We don't know the extent of what he felt for her. She did not have any romantic intentions toward him whatsoever. But when you look back, it's hard to unravel it. Why? How was this person targeted? It just doesn't make sense. Well, that's the hardest part about having a family member that's a victim of violent crime. Chances are you will never find out the why.'ll know the who the what the when the where but the why uh never comes out and um i mean that that's the hardest part why was it kelsey i mean her killer they had no contact at all it was just a random encounter um and you know where he picked her out for whatever reason it was. Even when he allocuted, he never really got specific on why Kelsey was the victim that he chose.

So my heart goes out to the family. I know what you're feeling. It's a tough thing to go through, and you have my prayers. Sam Sutherland, I don't know if you and your mom can comment on this, but did she know Quake Llewellyn? I mean, if they went to school together and they had been Facebook friends, do you think she slowed down when she saw him? She wouldn't be scared of him by no means.

For instance, if he would have stopped the truck, I think she would have talked to him. But they went out and ate together, like, with a group of friends from what we hear years ago. And so they knew each other, but they never talked to each other. So if he pulled up beside her, she would probably have slowed down or maybe even stopped if he stopped to talk. I wonder, to this day, I wonder if he said, hey, you want to get in the truck? And she said no and started running, so he ran

over her. To our understanding, right on the county road, there's an overpass crossing the interstate there. And to our understanding, as he went to the other side there's overpass crossing uh the interstate there and to our understanding is he went to the other side of the overpass turned around and came back we don't know if he attempted to talk to her we don't know no details like that we don't know if he stopped and talked and she

didn't you know wouldn't respond to him or felt threatened. We don't know. We don't have no idea on that. But Nancy, can I jump in here? Yes. Just to kind of piggyback off the family, you know, I was talking a little bit about Sidney being known around town, the sheriff, the prosecutor, the sheriff and the prosecutor also know Quake Llewellyn and his family. I mean, that's how small of a town this is everyone knows each other

i would like to add something on the wednesday night the night she went missing uh the ups driver wasn't the only one that seen her uh we i've got a call we're close we was close friends with the family every year after we got done with harvest we'd always go help them finish their harvest up. And on Wednesday night, about roughly 7.30, 8, I got a phone call from Michael Llewellyn, which is Quake's father. And he told me that Quake seen her around 3.30 that day jogging. And he passed her and went on to check his wells and came back and she was no longer there so so we did know the sheriff's office knew uh so we knew the ups driver seen her and that quite well and seen her the same day nancy this is wendy this

is a great example of how when someone goes missing regarding a timeline, the police look at who's close to her both relationally and geographically, especially in a small town where those that saw her last and those that were in that immediate vicinity immediately become either witnesses or suspects. And this case appears to be a perfect illustration of how that happened. So let me understand something, Maggie. Ms. Sutherland, Quate Llewellyn actually jumped on the bandwagon and tried to act normal and told his dad, oh, yeah, I saw her at 3.30? Yes. Yes, ma'am. He did.

He asked him because they had a rice well back there. He was supposed to go be checking. And so he told his dad that was around the time he had been back there and he did see her. He even told me he'd seen her. I spoke with him on Thursday. He came up to the headquarters where we were set up um at the house um he just walked up standing up against a tree and i was sitting there with some friends and i like i'm gonna walk over there and they're like no don't do that and i was like yes y'all can go with me or whatever but i'm

walking over there i want to know where he's seeing her exactly and what she was doing so i walk over to him he's standing up against just calm, like searching the area around, just looking, doing nothing. And I said, Quake, what can you tell me about Sydney yesterday? I know you've seen her. I mean, where was she running at? Could you give me any details? Where exactly on the road did you see her running? He goes, yeah, I seen her running.

That's all. And she was just running. That's all. He was as calm as could be and everything. And then he hugged me. And I was like, if you can think of anything. He hugged you? Please, please.

He hugged you? Yes, ma'am. Reminds me of Judas and the kiss at the Last Supper. He hugged you? Yes. I was very upset. So, you know, I probably was crying a little bit because it's real easy for me to

be upset. You know, Karen Stark, New York psychologist, you remember how Scott Peterson would go back and back and back and look out over San Francisco Bay? Here you got this guy, 28 years old, Quake Llewellyn, goes to the search headquarters, lies to Sidney Sutherland's mother, and hugs her, acting cool and calm as a cucumber. Well, that doesn't surprise either one of us, does it, Nancy?

Because very often, the person who's the killer goes back to the scene of the crime and they're doing that because they want to relive it, not because they're feeling emotional or remorse or any kind of regret. I think he was trying to find out what was going on with the search and the investigation, Karen Stark. Well, probably that's a part of it. But I think also, Nancy, that he enjoyed the fact that he knew something that other people didn't know. And I also wondered, they went to school together. They were Facebook friends, then not Facebook friends. And I suspect that he had a feeling about her that he wanted her from the time they were in school.

Do you think that could be true, Sam Sutherland? I'm unsure of that. Like I say, I don't know how he felt toward her or nothing. I don't know anything. I just know that we had friends say that they hung out in the same group at least once.

And also on the third party, he also Sidney's boyfriend, Alex. He also walked up to Alex and told Alex if there's anything he needed at all, anything he could do to let him know. And he give Alex a hug, too. So, I mean, he was going around, you know, hugging, doing a lot of hugging, a lot of hugging. Mitch McCoy, K.R.K. for is the prosecutor going to seek the death penalty? It's on the table. That's what the prosecutor told us on the table. Well, that you know what? I know you're reporting correctly, Mitch McCoy. You have an excellent reputation.

K.A.R.K. It's not you. You're just the messenger. But on the table? What does that mean? That means nothing to me. On the table. That's like putting a fork in a napkin. On the table. You can take it off whenever you feel like it. So what's happening, Maggie Sutherland?

Is there going to be a death penalty case? Sydney, like y'all kind of questioning if she was friends with him. She knew him. But just in passing, no communication with him probably in years since been out of school and everything. And we grew up, her dad and I grew up in Grubbs with a Quakes dad. I mean, all of our life we grew up in Grubbs. So we knew them very well um but right now um we just want what i want justice for sydney and i will not stop nor will my family stop um until we get it you know yes capital he you know capital it is either life or death. So, you know, whatever it takes to get justice for Sidney, that's what we're going to take.

And hopefully we get that for her. We won't. Let's put it this way. We're not going to stop until we get justice for Sidney for what he's done. Miss Sutherland, please know, neither will we. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.