Crime Weekly - S3 Ep155: Crime Weekly News: Husband Shoots Wife and Is on the Run!

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

33 Year-old Aaron Pennington is accused of shooting and killing his wife Brianne in their home on Sunday, October 22nd, 2023. At the time of recording this, Aaron has fled the home and is still at large, and police are asking locals to be on the lookout. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

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Valid through 615. While supplies last. Se help. You save. Valid through 615. While supplies last. Selection varies by location. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. So we have a couple of house cleaning things. We're going to get through them quick, but they're actually, one's not that major, but the second thing is really major. So I'll get to the not so major stuff first. Okay. Criminal coffee. I know shipping's crazy. There's not so much that

we can do with USPS. It is what it is. That's the cheapest, most economical way to do it. However, a lot of you have been DMing me, emailing me, emailing criminal coffee saying, hey, can I just come to the warehouse and pick it up? It's not practical to do it that way. We're not here 24 seven. So if you are from Rhode Island or Southern Massachusetts, and you're within a 15 mile radius of the criminal coffee headquarters. When you go to checkout, you will now see an option for local delivery. It's only $3 and we will deliver it to your door within that week that you order it. This is a pilot program, not saying it's going to be perfect. So deal, you know, bear with us here, but we're trying to save money. There's really no advantage to us to doing it.

We are trying to get more local business, which is the second part of this, right? If you're someone from Rhode Island or Massachusetts, and you have a local cafe that you enjoy getting your coffee from, and they're not currently offering their own coffee, right? If you're familiar with someone in there, a lot of these coffee shops, people get really familiar with the owners, et cetera. See if they're open to carrying our coffee there. We'll set up a rack. We'll deliver our coffee when we're out making our deliveries. We'll obviously talk business with them as far as how that works financially for them. But listen, if they're not carrying a coffee that's proprietary to them and they wouldn't

mind setting up a rack in there, we'll deliver the coffee and it'll allow you to pick it up for no shipping fee and also allow all the people in your area to pick it up for no shipping fee. So again, local delivery, if you're someone in Rhode Island or Mass, we're going to try to get it to you that way, save you a couple bucks. And if you're someone who has a cafe near you and you want to not only get the coffee quicker to yourself, but also to the people that live in your area, please consider helping us and we'll grow together. That was the one criminal coffee thing. And the second thing is more important, even though it's also related to criminal coffee. Yes, it is. So as you know, if you buy a bag of criminal coffee or if you buy the K-Cups, a portion of the proceeds goes to fighting crime. So Derek and I choose some sort of cause, whether, you know,

it's, well, in any way we can help because we know that these true crime cases, what they're greatly lacking is funds and resources. And so we actually donated last time to helping identify the body of somebody that was found dead and unidentified. And this is the Preble Penny case out of Ohio. They have made a break in the case with the help of our funding, forensically, which is very, very cool. And they are doing a press conference in Ohio on November 17th to announce this new information. Derek and I were invited to be there.

Unfortunately, it's a busy time with the holidays for both of us, so we are unable to be there. But if they are streaming it live somewhere, we will grab that. We'll hop on a live ourselves and we'll watch it all together and discuss it and discuss the new developments. So that is very exciting. Very, very exciting. It's very exciting. Yeah. And this, I will say without foreshadowing too much, we know what's going to be announced. It's wild. You guys, I promise you, whatever you're thinking it is, it's a major twist. That's all we'll say. It's a major twist. I hope they stream it. I believe they're going to. And if they do, we'll be there. And you guys should be there as well if you're available to, because listen, you helped solve this. If you're someone who purchased a bag of

coffee, right? It may just seem like something, ah, it's insignificant, whatever. There was funds from your purchase that went directly to funding this case. So you are part of this solve. You helped come up with the results that they're going to announce for this case. And like I said, you definitely want to be there. It is a big announcement. We're extremely proud of it because this is the whole reason we decided to start criminal coffee in the first place. And we're just getting started. Once this one's done and in the books, we've already got other cases we're looking at.

So November 17th, we'll remind you again next week. But if you can make it, we would love to have you there as part of the stream. It should be really cool to experience that together. Right? Very cool. Okay. I'm really excited. Yeah, me too. It's going to be

good. And I wish we could be there, but again, it's not about us. It's about the case. So, but it's good to see like something that we put together. And when I say we, I mean, everybody, right. Something we put together, come to fruition and do some good in the world. And that's what's really cool about it at the end of the day. Yeah. We can talk about it, right? We can cover a lot of cases here, but what are we actually doing about it? This is what we're doing. This case did not have the funding to get it to where it is today. It was your contributions that helped push it across the line. So everyone should be extremely proud. And I hope that you tune in to check out the announcement because like I said to you, it's going to be, you're in for a surprise. We'll just say that. We know it's taken a long time.

And when you hear where this case went. You'll understand. You'll understand why it took so long. So, all right. That out of the way, let's get into this week's case. This is an unfortunate situation. I actually just covered it on Crime Feed, which is how I became aware of it. Stephanie, were you aware of it before I talked to you about it?

Or did I kind of put in your ear? No, because it was Halloween. So I kind of was not in the current news space. Yeah, you weren't in the zone. Yeah. Yeah. So I actually told her about this case because I found we had Robert Card that had just happened. You also just had Pedro Agate was another one that with something similar that just happened.

And now we have this case involving Aaron Pennington and his wife, Brianne. I'm going to get into it right now. 33-year-old Aaron Pennington is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Breanne, in their home on Sunday, October 22nd, 2023. At the time of this recording, Aaron fled the home and is still at large. And police are asking locals to be on the lookout. I don't know where he is. We're going to get into all of that. I'll save it for the end as far as my speculation on where he currently is and his current condition.

But terrible case. There's a lot of details about it. I had given Stephanie some of the specifics and then she took it to the next level. So, Stephanie, fill everyone in who hasn't heard about this case yet. Yeah, because this is a newly developing case, I am going to be covering it in a Coffee and Crime Time in much more detail. I mean, I went through this dude's social media all the way back to when he first started a Facebook page and found some stuff out about him. But I am waiting for more information because at this point, it's really the same information that's being published. And this man is still at large, which is why I thought it was important to cover it regardless of everything being in,

because he's out there. Law enforcement says they're basically functioning on this as if he is still alive. He has survival training through the military because he was in the Air Force for, I think, I think it was eight years. So they're thinking he does have the ability to survive in the wilderness if he had to. So they're basically looking at this as if he is still alive and letting people know in this area basically to be on the lookout. And this area is Gardner, Mass., which is central Massachusetts. So an arrest warrant has been issued for Aaron Pennington after his wife, Breanne Pennington, was found in their bedroom with a gunshot wound to her face. Three shell casings were found in the bedroom, but no weapon. Apparently, Breanne did have a firearm that she owned for protection, and that is the weapon that is missing. Now, during the investigation, the police learned that the couple had been going through

some hard times. Aaron had been struggling with his mental health. He'd threatened to take his own life before. And ultimately, it became too much for Breanne. From what I could tell, I saw an interview with her best friend. And this best friend said she did everything she could. She tried, she tried, she tried. She tried to get him the help that he needed. And he just wasn't doing it.

And he wasn't getting better. So Brene had been saving money and she planned to take their four young children and move to Texas where is where she was originally from. Her parents, I believe, and siblings still live there. So after Aaron shot Brianne, he took off in his BMW and it was later found abandoned the following day, so Monday, October 23rd, in a wooded area near Gardner at 5 p.m. This wooded area is Camp Collier. Now, depending on what kind of source you look at, it's a different acreage, but it's anywhere between 200 to 350 acres of wilderness that's trusted to the Boy Scouts,

and they can use it, and like church groups and stuff can use it. And the arrest warrant says that Aaron could be armed and dangerous. I mean, I would assume that he is since the gun is missing. And because of his survival training for him from his time in the Air Force, they're kind of considering that he could still be alive. A search warrant also gave law enforcement access to Aaron's cell phone where they discovered a note that he made on Saturday, October 21st at 7.04 p.m. So this is the night, well, the night before Breanne was found dead. And the note says, quote, don't say anything.

Be quiet. If she wakes up, just say you're getting nasal spray. Get on side of bed. Very close proximity to head. Put hole in her head, end quote. As of now, the police have suspended their search for Aaron Pennington. They said they will continue periodic searches of the Gardner area, and they're asking neighbors and people in that area to remain vigilant. Aaron Pennington is a white man. He stands at about six foot two, approximately 175 pounds. He has blonde hair, blue eyes. If you're watching on YouTube,

we're going to put a picture up of him. And state police ask that anyone who has information about the case or knows where Aaron might be, they say do not, if you see him, if you see Aaron or you see someone who you think is Aaron, do not approach him. Just immediately call the police. You can also, how do you pronounce that? Worchester? It's Worcester. Worcester?

Worcester. Worcester? Worcester. Worcester? Yeah, it's not Worchester. Worcester. Okay, Worcester makes more sense, too? It's Worcester.

Worcester, Massachusetts. Okay, so you can call the Worcester County more sense to me. It's Worcester. Worcester, Massachusetts. Okay. So you can call the Worcester County DA's office. The number for them is 508-832-9124. Or you can call the Gardner police at 978-632-5600. And if you're in the area, I assume you can just pick up your phone and call 9-1-1 too. And if Aaron is in that area. But I guess if you're like outside of that, like Gardner, Central Mass area, and you see him, like if he took off and made it to another state, don't call 911 because that'll take forever to kind of reroute you to where you need to be.

Call one of those numbers that I just said. But he is allegedly still out there. Now, Derek does not believe that he is still alive. Derek believes he pulled a Brian Laundrie, like the kind of guy he is. I think law enforcement believes that as well. That's why you think they suspended the search? 100%. Yeah.

100%. So there's a couple of things. Yes, even me, I'm telling you guys right now, if you're in that area, everything Stephanie said, I'm not just saying it because it's the correct thing to say. You want to be vigilant because I have nothing definitive or that tangible that I can say he's dead. But if I were a betting man, I would put a large sum of money on it that he is deceased in the woods somewhere and that's why they haven't found him. He probably went somewhere to not be found knowing that he wouldn't have to come back

out of that location. So he could be really deep in the woods somewhere in a cave or whatever where he took his own life and he's hoping that he's never found. That's honestly what I think. And we've seen the historical data behind it with these cowards. This is what they do. They kill someone for whatever reason, none of it's justified. And then they go and kill themselves. Like we just had Robert Card, he killed himself in the back of a tractor trailer. The Pedro Agate case, if you're not familiar with it, he killed the circuit court judge. Then he drove into the wooded area, killed himself there. This is just what they do.

And that was also in regards to some sort of marital dispute. Yeah. And we talked more about this when we were talking about the case. For the most part, Aaron, based on what you're going to cover on Coffee and Crime, I don't want to take too much of it here, but he really was lost before Breanne and the marital issues were there. I really felt like his identity was Breanne. And when he started to feel that she was going to leave him, there was nothing else for him. So I feel like this is a classic case of if I can't have you, nobody can. So he kills her.

What am I without you? Right. And it doesn't hurt Derek that, that these, that, that the Penningtons were LDS. So they were Mormons. Right. And what is with you in the LDS cases, man? You just, I mean, it's, is it me, is it my fault or is it that these LDS guys keep doing this shit? Right. Yeah. We could ask that question. And, and we, we do have to start asking that question because I've, I've really defended Mormons before in the, in the way of like, Yeah. now of men from the LDS church doing this to their wives. And I think we have to start asking the question of what kind of values and ethics are being programmed into them? What are they being sort of taught throughout their time in the LDS church that is making them feel this is acceptable, right?

Because is it one of those things? Because you know that Mormons believe when you're married in a temple that you are together in the afterlife, right? So maybe he's thinking, well, if we can't be together in this life- Yeah, let's just speed up the process. We'll be together in the kingdom of heaven,

you know, but then- Interesting. Yeah. Flawed theory, but sure. I mean, yeah, it's not no it's it's uh it's a terrible situation again just to reiterate don't go out there saying oh derrick said he's dead we're fine you obviously want to be out there and be cautious of your surroundings and if you're someone who's a hunter or something like that and you have trail cams set up you know

take a look at them take a look at them if're in that area, see if you see anybody passing by. But my, my guess is that he's out there deep in the woods and you could have a situation where you have animal activity, some type of predation where there might not be much left of him. He also could have, I don't know what, if there's cliffs or whatever, I don't know what's out there. I don't know the geography. I'm sure it's not too vast, but he could get lost pretty easily out there if he doesn't want to be found. And it's a needle in a haystack for these law enforcement officials because they don't know where he is. So every single square foot is a possible location and there's only so much they can

do. And we're talking a lot of acreage to cover. But the fact that they're suspending their search when he could still be armed and dangerous doesn't look good optically because you're thinking, wow, why would they leave him out there? He's a potential murderer. It's because of what I'm saying. That's my interpretation of it. So we may never get answers to this one because they may never find him. But I do think what could end up happening is a hunter or someone of that nature who's out in the woods, Boyce, whoever is out there and unfortunately if he's in the open comes up on this and that's

how he's eventually found i almost feel like there's a chance he's still alive you know because he see this was premeditated enough where he's like making these notes in his phone that he could have set something up he could have had another car waiting there. All right, pause. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. Because this is what I've been hearing from other people too. What is the end goal here?

If that's the plan, right? You're trying to get to the border. You're pulling a Caitlin Armstrong, right? You're trying to get out of the country. If you're driving your car into the woods, you could make the argument that he drove it into the woods as a decoy and then he was on foot the entire time going the opposite direction to throw off police. But if he actually entered the woods, you could make the argument that he drove it into the woods as a decoy. And then he was on foot the entire time going the opposite direction to throw off police. But if he actually entered those woods, what is the end game to sit out in the woods, to basically shit in a hole and cover it up and eat off the land for the rest of your life? Like,

what is the plan? No, I think if he went in those woods, he left his car there. He's no longer there. Like I said, he could have had what do you mean like he goes into the woods to make it look like he's going in there to hunker down in there but in fact he's just using that to get maybe he started in there but he's he's detouring set up where he parked his car and he just left his car took that car took off right we don't we don't know he could have taken money out i mean that's what I'm saying. There's not enough. The police know. The police have looked at his bank accounts. The police have looked at his internet activity and credit cards. Yeah. But he wouldn't be using credit cards. If anything, he would have been spending months or weeks taking out small amounts of cash so that

he had cash on him when he fled. And so fled when he fled and so he wouldn't have to use credit cards he wouldn't have to wonder if his phone was on him it doesn't look like it because remember they got the search warrant for his phone they can get the search do it through if he had an iphone they could look at his yeah the icloud his icloud but like i have my icloud turned off i don't want everything freaking backing up to my icCloud. That's weird. So he and if he left his phone behind, that's another reason why I think he might still be out there and he planned this. Now, once again, they'll be able to see that if he took out small amounts of cash, they're going to know what that means. And he did that repeatedly. But that still wouldn't help them find him, you know, because now

he's on the run. He's got a car with, you know, that we have no idea. Law enforcement doesn't know about. He's got cash and maybe fake identification. According to his LinkedIn page, he worked for Raytheon, which is the weapons defense company, like a missiles weapons defense company. He was in the Air Force. He could have been a janitor for all we know. No, he was not a janitor. He was a senior supervisor or something. He's got experience with the Air Force. He's got experience with the Air Force. And it says he has special security clearance. That's what it says on his LinkedIn. So, I mean, he may have some knowledge or some connections where he can get like a fake passport where he can be be out of there.

We just don't know. Now, in my opinion, based on what I know from his social media, he's not a Brian Laundrie. But I also don't think he's the kind of person who would kill his wife and then be on the run. He seemed to be like like we had discussed earlier. He's not right mentally. He left the military in February of 2023. He left the Air Force altogether. And Raytheon says he hasn't worked there since March of 2023.

And then in October of 2023, he's killing his wife. The job with Raytheon is the reason why they moved to Massachusetts to begin with, because they just moved there in June of 2023. So there's a lot of life changes happening. He's got some mental health issues. He seemed to be very, very, very codependent on his wife, Brianne. And I think you're probably right. There's still a possibility that he's out there and he's more nefarious and more calculating than he appears to be.

I'm not going gonna put anything past him the man shot his wife in the face and wrote a freaking note about it beforehand yeah no i i agree like these are not a lot of steps to remember you know and there's no there's nothing wrong isn't that a weird note to write dude like yeah no he's just he's got some problems why would you have to write that down? I don't think you mentioned, but the whole way this came up lost a mother and a father and their life is forever changed by this and that's honestly even on the crime feed what really strikes me because they're just so innocent and they have no say in all this and to think that they were downstairs and their mom was in the room with the door closed and she's deceased and it sounds on the surface

like they never went in there i hope not which man Which, man, I pray that's the case. But maybe they did. I mean, maybe he locked the door. I don't know. I'm praying that's the case. They're young, too. I think the youngest is two. I believe the oldest is nine.

They're very young. I'm praying that they listened to him and they didn't go in the room or, like you said, the door was locked. It's just a horrible case. It's a horrible case. I guess I don't understand because I'm not in the shoes of these individuals and clearly they're, they're disturbed, but man, if you're feeling that down and I, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not condoning this at all, but if you're feeling that out of it, where you're not going to go seek professional help and you're not going to go see

a doctor, you're not going to do all these things. And you think the only way out is to end your life, right? Well, that's really the choice you come to end your life don't end anybody else's i just i'm not understanding how we get to that point like all these cowards that are taking their own lives after causing a mass shooting or killing their significant other or killing a judge dude just take out yourself we'll mourn you just take out yourself. We'll mourn you. Just take out yourself. Why are you having to put this on other people? And I'm not trying to- It's anger.

And why would you do that to your kids? That's what I'm saying. Think about it. Think about it. And I'm not trying to diminish mental health or anything like that. It's a real thing. It's a serious thing. And I think it's the core of a lot of issues we have.

But I'm just not understanding the need need to, to kill others before immediately to burn it all down before you leave it. Yeah. Come on. I just got no, I got no place for it. I just no tolerance for it. And that's, it's a major issue. And we will keep you guys updated either way.

If they find Aaron, if they don't find them, then, you know, I guess we'll all assume what it is. He could be on the run, I guess. But, um, if there is an update in the case, we will let you know, I guess we'll all assume what it is. He could be on the run, I guess. But if there is an update in the case, we will let you know. And just remember, final, the positive note, November 17th, if you're not going to watch Crime Weekly this week, November 17th, press conference, Preble Penny. We will be there streaming it. If it's live on something, I'm going to confirm that. If there's a time for it, I'll make sure we say it in next week's episode and we post it on social media. And if you want to get your criminal coffee and you're from Rhode Island or Mass, you got local delivery now. We're going to deliver it

to your door. I'm going to be there in a Ken costume like I was on Halloween in 37 degree weather. Just kidding. Put the disclaimer at the bottom, Shannon. That will not happen. That will not happen. But whatever it takes. That's all I got. Any final words from you? We can dive into this crime weekly. No, I mean, I'm just I'm sad. It's sad. And it happens too often. It happens too often. That's the problem. Yeah. One time is one too many. Yeah. Obviously, there's yes, there's women out there who kill their husbands. Yep. The rate of husbands killing their wives and or killing their children and then taking themselves out seems to be on the rise. It's a concern and we need to address it.

I'll even say it. Just men in general. It's predominantly men that are doing this. And it's just crazy. It's just not getting the guys. Come on. Let's not go this route. Let's go.

Number one, let's get the help we need. Let's seek the professional help we need. Don't be too big for it. Nobody's too man to go speak to a professional. But if you've exercised every possible angle, medication, professional help, all these different things, block out the voices that are saying to kill other people,

do what you got to do to yourself and let everyone else mourn you after the fact. Don't become a villain in your last moments. Like it doesn't make any sense. Or just get the help. Well, that's what I just said. If you done all that like and you've come to this conclusion this is and again this might not be the popular opinion here but if you've come to that conclusion that there's no other recourse there's no other alternative i i wish you wouldn't but if you're going to do do it yourself leave everybody else out of it because you also have

worst cases where they're taking out the kids and stuff as well. So it's just, it's not right. It's definitely not like what real men do. Hey, you said it. I mean, just, I think a real man, what we can do, even if you're having a mental, if you're having some mental distress, go speak to a professional.

Most of the time, if you develop the courage to go do that, they will be able to help you. And I think that's the big takeaway here. Go seek the professional help. Nobody is above needing to speak to someone. I've done it. You've done it. We've all done it. It doesn't mean you're weak. It just means that you're self-aware and that you're willing to try to get better. That's all. And I know that it feels lonely right now, too. Like everyone, I think, is feeling more lonely than ever now. The post-pandemic world is a very strange one. I know you feel sometimes like you need this person to be happy or you're just not going to be happy and you're very like enmeshed and you're very codependent and you feel like, oh, if I lose them, I lose everything. That is absolutely not true, obviously. And I know sometimes it takes a while to feel that and get there. But it's better to go through a year of like depression and sadness and loss and missing a person than it is to go through a lifetime of, you know, not being around because you took yourself out and you took your wife out in the process. You will get over it.

You will find happiness again. Get comfortable with being alone because we can't really rely on anybody sticking around and nobody is entitled when we feel that we're going to lose that person. And then we get afraid and stuff. So just, you know, everybody has to sort of like buckle up a little bit and just get used to being alone. You don't always want to be alone, but you can be and you'll be all right. Okay. There you go. That was said.

Peaks and valleys. Guys, we appreciate you being here. We will see you Friday or you'll hear us on Friday on audio. YouTube will be out on Sunday. It's going to be Crystal Rogers part two. It's the final part. It's a good part.

So make sure you tune in, check it out. So if you're not already subscribed to the channel, make sure that you are. Turn your notifications on. If you're listening on audio, leave a review. You know the deal. We'll see you soon. Stay safe out there. have a good night bye