Full Body Chills - The Runaway

Episode Date: October 1, 2020

This is a story about a runaway and the mystery that followed him.The Runawaywritten by: David FlowersYou can read the original story at FullBodyChillsPodcast.com Looking for more chills? Follow Full Body Chills on Instagram @fullbodychillspod. Full Body Chills is an audiochuck production. Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck

Hi listeners, this is Ashley Flowers and Jake Weber. And we have a story we want to tell you. A story about a runaway and a mystery that followed him. So gather round and listen close. Yeah, I got it. Let me just pull it close to me now. You want to make sure you get my voice. Is this good? That's perfect.

Okay, okay. So, great. So, you said this is for a podcast? Yes. I listen to a few of those. I usually get bored halfway through. But sometimes it's not that pretty good um so how how many uh people how many people uh listen to your show so weird this one's w-e-i-r-d weird county mysteries is

our newest show so it's not as big as some of our others but i know the last episode that we did got like 200 000 downloads an episode something like that so with this one we're even doing a big marketing push since we're setting weird County mysteries actually in a town called weird so I have a feeling it's gonna be even more than that Wow well that's good that's really good well well what what what do you want me to say why don't we just start with you introducing yourself maybe say your whole name and tell us a little bit about your history with the police? Oh, sure. Well, my name is David Blair. That's B-L-A-R-E.

And I served on the Weir County Police Department for just about 30 years. That's W-Y-R-D, not like the name of your show. So anyway, so I started in 1996 as a detective. And before that, I was a uniformed officer for about eight years. And that was in 1988. No, no, no, no, 87. In 96, when I became a detective, I worked in narcotics for about six years before transitioning over to homicide after that and I stayed there in homicide until I retired in May 2017 and what else do you want to know? I mean I think honestly we could probably just jump in now and maybe talk about some of your old cases I mean I don't know if there's you know a specific one

that you worked on or maybe that you were close to that you could discuss in length? Or a case I could talk about. Well, you know, I just don't want to get in the way of any ongoing cases. You know, I mean, take it from me when I say we've got a lot of good men and women out there who are working hard to get these things solved. So I really can't let the wrong information get out. But, you know, I can be sensitive, you know, with that stuff. So, sure, sure, sure. What do you want to hear? I mean, it's totally up to you.

Like, I get that there are certain things you can't talk about without compromising a case. So whatever you're comfortable talking about. What I'm comfortable talking about? So it's up to me, huh? Okay. Pressure's on. I hate to bore your fans halfway through no yeah no I got a good one for you yeah I do it was pretty popular back then and I'm pretty sure it would make for a good show so there was this doctor over at st. Augury's who would kill his patients, and later at night he'd sneak the bodies out of the morgue.

I'm so sorry. Could you maybe talk about a case other than Dr. Denver's story? You heard of that one? Yeah, I mean, it's a great story, like tragic and horrible, but a lot of other shows have covered it, almost to the point where I feel like it's over-reported. Oh, over-reported, yeah. Well, okay, that's all right.

That was a pretty simple case anyway. Do you have a case that maybe didn't get a lot of attention or press that would be new to our listeners? Yeah, sure. Let me think here. Yeah. Let me ask you. You ever hear the name Michael Fort Hayes? Michael Fort Hayes? No.

I didn't think so. No. See, this wasn't one of them big cases you podcasters would know. No. And really, if you would look into this case today, you'd find the same report everywhere. Single guy, has a mental breakdown, runs across the country and later dies in a parking lot. Suicide. It was a pretty open and shut case, to be honest. But that doesn't mean we weren't left with questions. Looking at the crime scene, Michael's strange behavior in the handful of curious reports from eyewitnesses,

you'd be dead lying if you weren't scratching your head. And the way he died, as violently as he did. But no, hold on. I'm getting ahead of myself. So it was 2010 and early in the morning, August 21st or 22nd. You want to double check that later. Anyway, so we get a call at the station. The manager of a Benny's Burger, I think it's a dollar store now, he found, excuse me, he found a dead body in their parking lot. But the manager thought it was just one of those homeless folks sleeping. But it was odd to them because, you know, why would you sleep in the middle of a lot? But they got closer, and they saw blood, a lot of blood. So we get on the scene early, about 6, 6.30.

Believe me when I say I have seen a lot of homicides, but this, this, this was a mess. Of course, we would have to wait for the official autopsy report, but looking at all that blood and seeing that knife, I knew how he died. And I also knew he didn't go quick. This fella was covered head to toe with cuts and stab wounds. Forensic team, they checked it later, and counted Michael being stabbed 22 times. Now, my thought at the time was whoever had done this must have really hated him. So we questioned the manager and anyone who might have been around at the time, and we had the forensic team collect any evidence they could, but there wasn't much there.

No, I see the way you're looking at me. Yeah, I see that. You're suspicious. I get it. It's hard to believe that we could write off a scene like that as a suicide. Well, I'll let you know up front that this case wasn't your average walk in the park, okay? And near the end of it all, all the investigation was handed off to some government agency,

and they made the call. They made that final call, not us. But back then, I believed, or maybe still, well, I believed at the time that this was a homicide and we treated it as one. Now, I feel if I'm going to do any justice in explaining myself, I got to tell you the story, the way it unfolded for us, step by step. In the same sense, it came about in the investigation, maybe in the end. Suicide, well, maybe that won't seem so illogical. Now, right away, we were able to identify this guy as Michael Fort Hayes.

He still had his wallet along with him and an out-of-state ID. And a few feet from his body was a duffel bag with some clothes, shampoo, toothbrush, and even his passport. All of these things tell a suspicious story, but what really got us was the money, because inside that bag was $5,000, stacks and stacks of seemingly brand new cash. At first we thought, now this fellow might have robbed a store or something. Sure would explain why it looked like he had a go bag and was running. So we make some calls to see if there were any recent reports of theft. We checked locally and we even reached out to the departments all the way over in Phoenix.

That's where Michael's personal address was listed. Like Phoenix, Arizona? That's a long way from weird that yeah not exactly next door neighbors to the granite state is it so we check for robberies and we get nothing so now while all of this is going on we run a background check on fort hayes for any criminal history apart from a few small charges of drug possession a couple years before, he comes back clean. I tried getting in contact with his family. Single, no kids. I found out his parents lived in Dallas at the time, and he only had one brother. His name was Jordan, and he lived in Phoenix like Michael. Now, when we made notifications, his parents were

understandably upset, but I guess Michael was like estranged from them for repeatedly stealing money, you know, and his drug offenses. So really only the brother kept in touch, though when we actually got in touch with the brother, well, he was kind of an odd one to talk to. Odd how? Well, it was kind of his demeanor. When I first called him over the phone, he kind of... It's like he was expecting that call. He was upset, no doubt about it, but I don't know.

Something about that call just didn't sit right with me. So I asked him about it, and we had this long talk. He told me Michael would go through these cycles, hang around the wrong people and get caught up in drugs. He'd go to rehab. The brother would pay his bills for a while, but as soon as he was off the hook, he was right back at it. It was like a routine.

And so he said that for a while he'd seen something like this coming. He said Michael was due for a tragedy. Yeah, that's how like this coming. He said Michael was due for a tragedy. Yeah, that's how he said it. He said he was due for a tragedy. But there was this turning point. And from what I gathered, about three months before Michael died, he and his brother came to some sort of ultimatum. Jordan basically said, you quit the drugs or I quit loaning you money. I guess that

was enough incentive because Michael took a turn for the better. And when he got out of rehab the last time, he seemed to be out for good. Later, Jordan said he got a decent job with a construction company and even started to build up savings for himself. But as you can probably guess, this didn't last forever. This was, so this is a little more than two weeks before Michael died. Jordan said Michael just showed up at his door one night. He told me he almost didn't recognize him because Michael had nearly cut off all his hair. And he looked disheveled like he hadn't slept or changed his clothes in days. Now Jordan, his first thought is Michael's

on drugs again, but there was something that just felt off. He said he didn't see Michael's car anywhere on the street and he asked him where it was and Michael said he parked away where no one would notice. Before he could ask anything more, Michael held out a few hundred dollars. He said he needed a place to stay for a few days, someplace to sleep. You know, something was definitely wrong, and Jordan knew it. And he didn't take the money, but he invited Michael inside, and Michael was jittery, according to Jordan. The slightest sound in the house would spark his attention, and he'd ask a dozen times if they were alone.

Well, they were, but Jordan said Michael didn't believe it. He insisted they make sure every door and window was locked. At this point, Jordan's had enough and demanded some answers. He was sure Michael had relapsed. And so Jordan pressured him. Michael only, you know, gives vague responses. And Jordan says what he remembers from the conversation is it was mostly ramblings, just nonstop. Michael would say he needed to leave town and drive away.

Then he'd go quiet, tell Jordan not to worry, that everything would be fine. It's just things like that. But one thing was clear to Jordan, the only thing he could understand for sure. And you've got to make sure your listeners hear this. Michael believed, with everything in him, that he was going to die. And I don't mean the same way we might think. I mean, sure, we all know we won't live forever, but what I mean is he believed in the short time coming

death was right behind him. But I guess I don't understand, like, why do you say that? Well, we learned through Jordan, others, and even some of the evidence, we found that Michael had a, how do you say this? He had a dramatic belief in fate. I don't even know what that means. What does that mean?

I mean, you and I, okay, we might believe in the idea of fate. Things happen for a reason. Maybe it's destiny, whatever. But to Michael, it was more than that. Fate was almost like a living thing to him. So where was I? Oh, yeah, so, yeah, okay. So, yeah, his duffel bag.

In his duffel bag, the one that was found next to him when he died, in that bag was a crumpled business card for a Miss Airy medium. The only thing listed on it was a non-existent website domain, and any search for her pulls up nothing. From what we could guess, it was some independent psychic business. So, now, I'm not saying there was anything supernatural involved. You know, it was weird, yeah, but nothing came of it. But it supports the idea that Michael was influenced by some kind of unrealistic ideas.

Now, this became pretty clear to Jordan when Michael's tone took a darker turn. Michael leaned into his brother and told him, I'm going to kill me. As in, like, he was contemplating suicide? Maybe. But Michael wasn't saying like he was making a decision. It was more like he was dreading a decision being made for him. Anyway, so after hearing this, Jordan figures he's not in his right mind.

He needs some rest. They could sort things out in the morning. Well, come that morning, Michael's gone. He got out and left. Like, gone for good? That's the last time he saw Michael? Yeah. Jordan tried calling him over and over, but Michael never answered.

We were never able to find that phone, so I think he may have gotten rid of it, thinking maybe someone was tracking him. Now, Jordan says he tried his apartment a few times, but Michael wasn't there either. So, after a week of not hearing back, he reports Michael as a missing person. But there was nothing outright to suggest foul play. So the police over in Phoenix were, you know, they're a little slow to jump on the case. So not long afterwards, Michael, well, that's when Michael died. So anyway, that's a long way of me saying the family didn't know much. They didn't know where he was going, why he was running, how he got that $5,000. Now, that last question we'd find out ourselves.

See, up till then, we assumed Michael stole the money. Well, pulling his bank statements, we learned every single dollar belonged to him. He had completely emptied his entire savings account. We had to consider maybe Michael was planning to start a new life. But that didn't explain how he ended up stabbed to death in the middle of a parking lot. We were running short on leads. The lot where Michael died had no surveillance cameras and witnesses were basically none. So we pushed out a picture of Michael to the media and asked anyone with

information to come forward. And we were able to eventually piece together his movements before he died. Up at a gas station just out of state, one cashier said he remembered serving Michael. Now, this is about a week before he's found dead. They remembered him specifically because he paid for his gas with a $100 bill and left the change. Allegedly, he was in such a rush, he was practically sprinting between the store and the fuel pump. And then a few days later, two women say that they saw someone who vaguely matched his description with a second person at Costello's Diner, maybe that's about 100 miles outside of Weir. Now, I hear this in my ears perk up because not only do we have a possible sighting of Michael,

but we have Michael with another person. So I want to talk to these women right away. So we bring them in, and they're real nice. They're cooperative. And so I speak to the first witness because you've got to talk to them alone. And you understand why, right? Yeah, absolutely. So in case they get their stories lined up.

Anyway, so I get them each on their own, and I'm very surprised at what I hear. So witness one says she was at the diner and saw Michael by himself sitting at a booth. She remembers him because he was wearing a jacket with a hood up. And she said he just gave off bad vibes. And every so often she's checking on him. and she felt uneasy with him around. So anyway, about half an hour goes by, and this guy, he has his food, and she notices somebody else sitting across from him. So this new guy must have come in because she didn't notice him before, and she gets a bad feeling because of the way the guy in the hood was acting,

like suddenly he was really nervous. And this new guy, who she describes as clean-shaven with long hair, is saying something to the hooded guy, but it's too quiet to hear. The whole time he's talking, the hooded guy has his head down, doesn't eat a bite of his food, and eventually the clean-shaven guy, he gets up and leaves. The hooded guy just watches him like he's making sure he was actually gone. He waits around just looking out the window and he doesn't touch his plate once after that. He was still there when the two witnesses left.

Now, I hear this. I hear this story and I'm thinking, well, hell, this is great. This testimony puts our victim in contact with this other guy just days before the crime. Clean guy shaping up to be a real person of interest when before we had none. There was only one problem, though. When we speak with witness two, the reports, they don't match. Witness one said that they thought the guy in the hoodie was Michael. But this other witness says, no, the hooded guy definitely wasn't Michael.

But Michael might have been the second person who had left early. So really, as much as we want to use it, the lead lost a lot of value. I mean, but it's not like totally worthless though, right? Like if there's any chance that the hooded a lot of value. I mean, but it's not, like, totally worthless, though, right? Like, if there's any chance that the hooded guy was Michael, I mean, that's still a big deal. Yeah, no, don't get me wrong. We followed the tip. But having two witnesses identify two different people, that's shaky.

And even if we were able to find this guy, we found out he had something to do with Michael's death, there's no way this witness testimony would be usable in court. But I mean, was there nobody else in the restaurant that could like back them up or say what they saw? Well, we tracked down as many people as we could, but there wasn't anyone who could supply a stronger statement, even though the waiter said they were called serving someone wearing a hood hood but couldn't remember their face. So basically, basically, you know, we crept out. Now, I don't believe in keeping all my eggs in one basket. While we were following this tip, I'm also tracking down maybe three, four others at the time.

Most don't pan out, but some push the case forward. Through one of these tips, we were able to track Michael back to the Holiday Inn on the way between Phoenix and here. The tip came from one of the hotel staff working at the front desk. She says she's working a late shift when, around 11.15, she sees Michael walk up to the door. But he just pauses there. He doesn't come in. Just sort of looks around and leaves. Then, maybe a minute later, he comes back and does it again. Waits outside, looks around, leaves. Now the clerk who saw this said Michael did this four separate times before finally stepping inside the hotel. And when he does,

Michael goes up to the clerk and pays for the room with cash. She says Michael acted impatiently, like he was really rushing to get his room key. When she hands him it, though, he suddenly gets very serious. He says something to the clerk that really confused her, and it hit me, scratching my head. He tells her, don't give me another room key, even if I've lost this one. But I don't even know what that means. Why would he say that? Exactly. I don't think I have a good answer to that. But it seemed like Michael was, he's suffering from some sort of mental breakdown. He didn't seem to be thinking rationally. Well, I mean, what did the clerk do? Or did they just not even question it? Well, I think she was a little confused,

just like you and me. But Michael left, and she didn't say anything to him. And Michael never did ask for a second room key. He never actually showed up and said, you know, can I get a second room key? It was all just, it was so strange. Sorry, like, I feel like I'm jumping ahead a little bit, so I don't mean to, but have you gotten

any kind of confirmation yet that Michael had actually relapsed? Like, was he taking drugs? Like, that was the only thing I would explain, if he was taking drugs right before he died. Well, like I said before, I'm telling you the story the way it unfolded for us. So up until that point, we hadn't gotten the full autopsy report or toxicology. So, you know, I had no idea what was in his or was not in his system. But you're starting to see Michael's behavior isn't anything normal. And given his history of drug abuse and what Michael's brother had to say,

a familiar story was starting to come together. Well, exactly what story is that? Well, for one, it reminds me of something I was told a long time ago. Do you know Ashley Bright? The criminal psychologist. She solved the three-town murders in like 24 hours. Did she actually work this case with you? Ah, no. No, nothing like that. No, I met Ashley a few years back. She consulted with us on a separate case. Our perp wasn't an addict like Michael, but was a pedophile. And Ashley told us something

interesting. She said recidivism for this kind of behavior is most likely to happen at the 90-day mark. There's something biological about it. Now, Michael wasn't a pedophile, but Ashley told us that this pattern of behavior is applicable to many kinds of things, including addiction. And wouldn't you know,

Michael's been clean for... Three months. Exactly. Now, another thing. I saw it all the time when I worked in narcotics. An addict steals some money to pay for their addiction, or they borrow from their dealer. In any case, they usually end up on the run. Michael used to hang around rough people, you know, as his brother said. And it's pretty clear that Michael's running away from something or more likely someone. But that doesn't even make sense to me because like if Michael stole something, I guess, what was it? Because you said all the money in the duffel bag was his. Like, did you find

drugs in there too or something else? No, no, it's possible. there was some at some time, but we didn't find them. So if he did, then the assumption is whoever was after Michael took it after they killed him. But then why not take the money, too? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it wasn't what they were after. Maybe all they wanted was to punish Michael

for stealing, you know, kill him to set an example. But you're right. I don't even understand. Wait, hang on. We started this case as a suicide. Right. I guess I'm having trouble even understanding how this could be classified as anything other than a homicide.

Right, because that's because I haven't gotten to the evidence. Now we're getting to the evidence. So at the scene of Michael's death, there were two pieces of evidence that we thought without a doubt were the key to solving this case. One item, as you might have guessed, was the knife that was used to kill Michael. The other, hair samples. So results from the knife came back. The only set of prints found on it matched Michael. Now, remember, at the time, we're still looking

at all possibilities in this case, including homicide. So we look at that and we think, well, it's possible there was a struggle and the killer wore gloves. Then we get the autopsy report. And what I saw on the scene matched up with what was on paper. Michael died due to blood loss from the numerous cuts and puncture wounds, though only a few of those were actually fatal. We got the toxicology report at the same time, and that's when we started to have some doubts. You see, Michael's blood tested clean for most common drugs,

meaning he had been clean for a while, definitely clean when he died. Then what explains him acting so weird? Well, who knows, Matt? It could have been a lack of sleep, or maybe Michael's fear of dying was just that intense, but as far as the department was concerned, it was a psychological episode, which means we come down to the last bit of evidence, the hair. We get the hair samples, and we're confident they pointed to our killer.

For one, Michael's hair was short when he died, and these samples were long, shoulder length at least. And the other thing, they weren't just found a few feet from the scene. We found numerous strands in Michael's left hand, which gives us the impression he was fighting with his killer. Right. Right. So we sent him off to the lab, and we get a DNA profile,

and we do a little test and comparison. Almost immediately, we get a hit. The DNA for the long strand of hair, that was a match for Michael Forte's. That doesn't even make sense. How is that possible? Yeah, that's what I want to know. Things weren't right with this case, and I swear I keep digging into it, but the hole only gets bigger, and I keep running over the facts and evidence, and what I always

come back to is that interview, that one with the two women at the diner. When I did that interview, I brought along an older picture of Michael for reference. When I showed it to woman one, she said, without a doubt, that face matched the hooded guy. But when I showed it to woman two, she said, that's not possible, because only the second guy had that long, curly black hair. So things are well past strange. About this time, I start poking my nose around. I want to know who Michael ran with back in Phoenix.

I want to know his extended family, where and when he pissed, ate, shat. Excuse my language. Are you allowed to say that? I hope my mother doesn't hear this. So I want to know everything about him, right? Every single thing leading up to his death. And I took, and I look at his rehab records, or I guess the lack thereof. The only thing that existed is a certificate of rehabilitation from some company called Real Life. Now, there's no record of Real Life, and they sure as hell weren't in Phoenix anymore, packed up and moved to God knows where. So I did some deep digging on this company, and it was pretty clear that Real life was nothing more than a front.

Following a line of fabricated parent companies is like chasing a ghost, but eventually I ended at a name, OVAC. And before you get excited, I'll let you know you won't find a word about them. Trust me when I say you'd have better luck winning the lottery tossing coins into a wishing well than getting a lead on that name. And given the lengths I had to go to find it, I suspect they meant it that way. Now, as if the hole I've been digging couldn't get any bigger, right about this time, the feds get involved. They say they're taking over the investigation. Now, I don't know why, but they seemed awfully interested in this OVAC group.

When I gave them my report, they soaked up the details like a sponge. Of course, there wasn't much there to soak up, and I got the distinct impression none of the stuff that I was telling them was new information. Like, they already, they already knew all, they already knew all about that. So anyway, no sooner do I, do I hand over my report to them, the case is closed. Cause of death, suicide. What? I guess I don't understand, like, because even the evidence, like, even the hair doesn't, like, point to suicide to me. Nothing does. You want the easy answer? Well, Michael had long hair once before, and hair gets stuck to your clothes all the time.

Maybe at the exact moment he died, some of those strands just happened to come off into his hand. Maybe Michael ran away because of a mental breakdown. Maybe those two girls who saw him at the diner, that wasn't actually Michael. Maybe Michael decided to take his own life. See, like I said, you can put a dozen pretty bows on this case and call it wrapped up, but it sure doesn't answer all the questions.

It doesn't answer any of the questions because, I mean, even if you want to say this, like, who takes their own life like that? You know, they had one of their forensic scientists look at the state of Michael's body and they claimed that every one of his 22 wounds could have potentially been self-inflicted. Only a few were fatal. You hit those places last and it would look like you were in a fight for a long time now when you got a dead man with a recently unstable behavior no witnesses to his death no surveillance and no evidence to suggest somebody killed him well i guess suicide makes for an easy answer but I don't know don't give me a key

the two versions of Michael Ovec and why were the feds asking about tapes wait what tapes do you know what tapes they're talking about what tapes no no I don't know anything

about tapes I'm just saying it was an odd case. It was very, very odd. But it's officially closed. Well, I mean, I know it's officially closed, but like, I mean, you worked it. You clearly have some thoughts on it. So what do you think really happened?

How do I turn this off? Here, if you just give me the mic right there, and then if you just press... This series was produced by Ashley Flowers and David Flowers. This episode was written by David Flowers and read by Jake Weber and Ashley Flowers This story was modified slightly for audio retelling but you can find the original in full on our website Full Body Chills is an Audiochuck production So what do you think, Chuck?

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