Morbid - The Crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

On October 13, 1972, a chartered aircraft carrying forty-five passengers, including 19 members of the Old Christians’ Club rugby team, departed from Montevideo, Uruguay bound for Santiago, Chile. About an hour into the flight, the copilot incorrectly believed the plane had gotten off course and requested permission from air traffic control in Santiago to begin his descent and course correct. However, when the plane began descending out of the cloud cover, the copilot realized he’d been wrong about their position and were in fact dangerous close to the Andes mountains. The pilots attempted to pull the plane back up, but they were unsuccessful and the crashed directly into the mountain.Ultimately, sixteen of the forty-five passengers survived the crash of flight 571, spending seventy-two days in an isolated, untraveled part of the Andes. They endured extremely harsh conditions including sub-zero temperatures, exposure to freezing wind, and most significantly, starvation. The survivors were eventually rescued after two passengers hiked three days out of the mountains, using only materials from the wreckage to aid in the trek, where they eventually found help.In the years since the crash, the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 has become one of the most famous tales of survival and human endurance.Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesAssociated Press. 1972. "16 survive 2 months in Andes after crash." Boston Globe, December 23: 2.—. 1972. "Crash survivors resorted to cannibalism." Boston Globe, December 27: 2.—. 1972. "16 Air crash survivors found after 69 days in icy Andes." Los Angeles Times, December 23: 1.Benales, Carlos. 1972. "Andes survivors solved problem of food, shelter." Chicago Tribune, December 31: 9.Campbell, Matthew. 2022. "Fifty years on, 'Alive' team say eating flesh was awful but they got used to it." Sunday Times, October 16.Godfrey, Chris. 2023. "My plane crashed in the Andes. Only the unthinkable kept me and the other starving survivirs alive." The Guardian, December 4.Lilliston, Lynn. 1974. "Andes crash survivors tell their story." Los Angeles Times, May 5: 179.Read, Piers Paul. 1974. Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors. New York, NY: J.B. Lippincott Company. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Alina. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. It is indeed, my friend. It is. We're going to get right into the story today. It's an ash tale today. But before we do, it's an ash-centric tale today, excuse me. But before we do, we just wanted to mention that there's a lot of shit going on right now in the world. And it's pretty rough. And it's got everybody feeling some type of way. including us. And we just wanted to say that we stand with the rights of people with uteruses and anyone else who is infected affected by this entire thing.

100%. It feels like we've all been infected with like hatred. So that's happened. I think the whole country has. Yeah. I think we're definitely going to do something. We're going to take some kind of action. We're going to let you guys know when we have gathered up what we're going to do.

but we really just wanted to say that, you know, like everybody deserves the right to their own body. And that's how we feel. If you don't feel that way, that's your business. But that's how we feel. So we just wanted to say that. And, you know, just everybody, just can everybody be fucking nice to each other? Like, God. We say this all the time.

Yeah. Just is getting worse and worse out there. And I keep seeing, you know, it's been, I will say like my TikTok especially is like just, just this flood of creators that are just supporting each other and like supporting people with uteruses and people who are affected with this. And it's been a very nice thing to see, but I hate that we have to do it. And it's, but you know what? That's what we're going to say about that. Yeah. And keep your eye out because we're going to be announcing something that we want to do to like help in any way that we possibly can. Just to take action.

Take action. Yeah. It feels, it feels, uh, it feels very helpless and hopeless to just sit here and say, Wow, this sucks. Yeah. Well, and with people with uteruses, the two of us, we want to do something. Of course. It feels like we should. It feels like we have to. And obviously, we've been very open about being a very LGBTQIA plus positive podcast.

And we want to make sure that, you know, this doesn't trickle out any further. So. Yeah, because that's getting a little scary as I'm planning my wedding. Exactly. So we just wanted to put that out there. We're going to work hard to do what we can. And I'm sure everybody else is too. We're all in this together.

High fives to all of us. Like, let's be, you know, warriors together. And outside of that, we're going to get right into the episode. We are. We are going to Price, Utah today, Elena. We sure are. Let's go. And we are starting off in Price, Utah in 1970.

All right. So what do you always say, get in your way back machine? Get in the way back machine. There you go. Buckle, up to the time when Ash should have been alive. Oh, God. Maybe not like here, but yeah.

But the 70s. The 70s for sure. I wish. But here we are. Here we are. In the 20s. All right. Well, Price.

Let's talk about Price, Utah. Back then, it was a pretty safe place to live. And it was a great place as far as Loretta Jones was concerned to raise her four-year-old daughter, Heidi. Loretta was a single young mom at just 23 years old. She had so much on her plate. She was taking accounting classes. She was being a full-time mom.

But guess what? She was getting the fucking job done. And her daughter, Heidi, who again was four years old, absolutely adored her mother. They had like this close bond to the two of them. Now she remembered being with her mom, like following her around the house as Loretta would do like ironing or cooking household chores. And she remembered getting ice cream with her mom and how much Loretta loved to listen to music. Like she'd put on the radio and just dance all around the house. I love that.

Core memories. Yes, like beautiful core memories. And all of Heidi's memories of her mother up until the morning of July 21st, 1970, they're precious memories that every kid should have with their mom. Like memories that they can just reminisce on later in life and just like have a good time being like, oh my gosh, mom, do you remember when we used to do this? Yeah. You know?

But unfortunately, that was not the case for Heidi or Loretta. They were robbed of that opportunity. When Heidi woke up at four years old on July 31st, 1970, she remembered that she was scared. And she wasn't so sure what exactly she was scared of, but there was just this feeling in the air that freaked her out. And she was so apprehensive that she actually peaked out of the keyhole of her bedroom door before venturing out into the living room. That's wild. At four, she already had that, like, intuitive sense. Our bodies do.

Yeah. They totally do. We just don't listen to them as adults. That's the thing. But kids do. And that's, well, that's my kids are way more subject to, like, paranormal activity and things like that. Because they're just open.

They are. So, Heidi looks through the keyhole of her room. And so she's, like, in her room, looking out into the living room. And when she peeks through, she sees that somebody's lying on the floor in blood. And when she opens up that door to inspect a bit closer, she realizes that the someone lying on the floor was her mother, 23-year-old Loretta Jones. My God. And she was four?

Four years old. Oh. So she ran out. side to see if she could get any help. And that's when she saw one of her neighbors out in his front yard. He was like a little kid. And in every source, it says that he was looking for bugs and critters just to use as bait to go fishing later that day. And I just feel like that is such a good example of how you can just be so totally oblivious to like what other people might be going through. And like, you know, you might just be having a perfectly great day and this is what's going on next door.

You have no idea what's happening. The perfect example of, again, why we should always treat others with kindness. So when Heidi ran up to the boy, she told him, I think my mommy is dead. Oh my God. Which ruined me reading that. Oh. So the boy runs over to her house with her and they peek into the doorway and he's like, I think you're right.

So he runs, he tells his parents they take Heidi in and they call the police. And when the police arrived, there was no doubt that Loretta Jones had died. She had been murdered. She was lying in a pool of her own blood on her own living room floor. My God. So immediately the police was. wondered if this case had anything to do with an incident that they'd actually been called to the night before just a couple blocks away from Loretta and Heidi's home. So a few blocks away,

a 10-year-old girl named Lori Kulo was outside playing with her brother and his friend. And the brother and his friend were out on the front yard playing. And she was in the same area, but she was kind of riding her bike. I think out in the street doesn't sound like it was very busy. It was like later at night. She's doing little loops on her bike. And apparently the two boys didn't realized that she was still outside when they went back inside. And it actually took Lori a few minutes, too, to realize that she was outside alone. And she was like, oh, like, it's dark out. I got to get inside. So she starts to head in for the night. But as she's doing so, she sees a man out of the corner of her eye. And she just thinks for a second, like, registers that. And she

immediately noticed his hat. It was a bright yellow hat. And it had some kind of bold floral print all over it. Hmm. Now, before she knew it, this man came rushing toward her. He grabbed her from behind. She was struggling to get away from him because the way that he grabbed her made it so that both of her arms were behind her back. Oh my God. And he had a hand over her mouth. Now, luckily, she was able to actually get her hand away from her mouth for like a split second. And I read in a couple sources that it was because she was chewing bubble gum and she pushed the bubble gum out of her mouth as she was screaming. Oh my God. So he must have like taken his hand to yeah like not knowing what it was. Mm-hmm. So as he let his hand away for like a split second, she let out like a blood-curling scream.

And the man let go of her instantly and started running away from her. Good. Just as Lori's brother and his friend were coming outside to see why the heck she was screaming. So she quickly tells them she points in the direction. She's like, this man tried to grab me. So the boys run off after him, but it's too late. Oh, but something they noticed, too, was this man's yellow hat because it had fallen off as he was running away. And he actually even took a second to pick it up and like grab it up as he was running away. Which is wild that he chose to wear that hat. To do these horrible things that he definitely did. Yeah.

Yeah. It is. So this man managed to get away that night. But this man would end up serving time for the attempted abduction. Good. And eventually they would get him on murder charges. Oh. man. It might just take 46 years to do the latter. Holy shit. Forty-six years. Forty-six years.

So back at Loretta and Heidi's home, which obviously by now had become a crime scene, the investigators are trying to piece some kind of sequence of events together. So they're looking around the home and they see that there's no sign of forced entry. So right off the bat, they're like, we're pretty sure Loretta must have known the person who had done this to her. Like it seems like somebody must have knocked on the door that night, been invited in. or made their way in once the door was opened for them. So they're like, maybe she knew this person enough to open the door for them, but you don't know, anybody can knock on your door.

And in the 70s, I'm sure, like, people weren't like they are now. People were just opening doors for people. I know. I mean, who knows the door might have even been locked. Yeah. Now you would know, you'd be like, oh, yeah, no. Like, no one answers the door now. Me and Drew look at each other and we're like, no.

Yeah, no, it's not happening. Because nine out of ten times, it's those solar panel people. Always. And I'm like, they don't let you go. No, they don't, you know. But anyways, you know. you know. So in asking around town, they were able to find out that Loretta had been casually dating this man named Thomas Egli. Now, apparently he and Loretta had been set up on a blind date. They went on to see each other for about two months. And Tom had been to Loretta's house during this time and he'd met Heidi, meaning Heidi obviously would have recognized him if she saw him. But the thing, the dating thing didn't work out between them and they broke up. Now, Tom was a little bit of a drifter. And at the time that he was connected to Loretta, he was known to be living at a local hotel called the New House in Helper, Utah. Unlike other programs, Noom Weight

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Drink this juice in the morning. Except you have to have 17 per week. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I can't keep up with all that. And that's why I love Noon. Noon believes that the only place you really need to start with is your mind. And doesn't that sound like so much easier than doing all that other crazy stuff. With Noom weight, you're going to take a path toward better health one lesson at a time. Their psychology-based approach helps you change the way that you think about food and health rather than demanding that you change your entire freaking lifestyle. Me, when I first started with Noom, I was like, whoa, I didn't realize that there was like actual psychological meaning behind all the different choices that I make. Like, I don't know, I always

feel like I have to finish my plate because that's how I grew up as a kid. You had to finish what was on your plate. So over the years, I wouldn't listen to my cues that were coming from my body like, hey, girl, you're full. No, you don't need one more spoonful. No, no, put that down. I wasn't listening. I was following rules for my childhood. But ever since, I've realized that, I've recognized it.

It's become so much easier to listen to my body. And now I know when I'm done. I'm enjoying exercise so much more than I used to because I'm eating cleaner. And I'm fueling my body and looking at exercise as like something that my body is capable of instead of a stupid punishment if I have an extra treat. Noom feels totally catered to my personal experience, and I am so appreciative about that, because Noom doesn't believe in restricting what you can and can't eat. Instead, Noom gives you the knowledge and wisdom that you need to make informed choices

to help you get closer to reaching your goals. Noom understands building long-term positive habits can be hard and filled with ups and downs. That is why Noom believes that it's about progress and not perfection, because everybody's journey looks different. Start building better habits today. sign up for your trial at Noom.com slash morbid. That's N-O-O-O-M-com slash morbid to sign up for your free trial. Now, when the detectives learned that Loretta had been dating a man called either Tom or Thomas,

it raised their eyebrows a little bit. Because Heidi told the police the day they stepped on the scene that a man named Tom had done this to her mother. What? Yep. Holy shit. So after she had to move out, obviously, she moved in with her grandparents. She would tell her grandmother that Tom was responsible. She said, there's a man in our house that there was a man in our house the night that

Mommy died. And she said before she found him, the man was telling Loretta he was going to kill her. Oh, my God. And this poor little girl heard this? She must have heard it. And she swore the man was Tom. I'm thinking that must have been why she was so scared when she woke up the next morning. Yeah.

Or it might have been just a combination of that and like the energy in the air from what had happened. Yeah, I'm sure it was just everything. But she was definitely feeling it from that. I mean, geez, at four years old? Yeah. My goodness. So Heidi tells her grandmother this information on a few different occasions. And her account was always the same.

And it was so convincing to her grandmother that she called the police and told them what Heidi had been saying. Yeah. So now Heidi has said this to them. And then the grandmother has called and said, she's still saying this. It's always Tom. It's always the same thing. So the police are obviously interested in this. Yeah.

And then on top of that, going just beyond a four-year-old's word, they also received an anonymous phone call from somebody saying that a man named Tom Eggly, who lived at the New House Hotel, should be looked into. Yeah. Okay. Let's look at Tom. So wanting to know who the hell this Tom character is. And what he's capable of, they make their way over to New House Hotel.

And they're like, hey, Tom, they track him down. They're like, you want to come down to the station with us and answer, couple of questions. He agrees. He goes with them, but he was not interested in telling them pretty much anything. He said, I was in price that day. Like, yep, I was there the day she was killed. But I had a couple drinks. I went window shopping and I ate a hamburger. Okay. But other than that, he was like, I want a lawyer if you're going to ask me anything else. I literally wrote, ugh. Like, I know, like, that's smart. You're supposed to do that. But like, oh, I know. And that's the thing, like, you want to get mad and be like, well, obviously you're guilty.

But you're supposed to do that. But there's been so many cases where we've been like, they need a lawyer. Like, oh my God, they're innocent. Yeah. The first thing I think of is the beauty queen murder, Nona. Yes. And how her boyfriend there, like, it was like, oh, my God, get him a lawyer. Like, he's innocent.

Someone get him a freaking lawyer. Like, it was like, now. It's so ironic, though, to look at your two feelings about it. It's an internal bias that you don't even realize you have until you utilize it on both sides. Definitely. So they were able to question him a few more times, but he just would not budge about Loretta. And thinking back to the abduction, the attempted abduction of little Lori Kulo, the investigators still wondered if the two attacks were connected. So they had Tom come stand in a lineup, and they brought Lori and her brother in to see if he could be identified.

So both Lori and her brother identified Tom Egli as the man who had tried to grab her and take her away. There was not a single doubt in their minds. What a piece of shit. A piece of actual shit. Oh, a man who just rushes at a little girl to just pluck her out of a yard. Like, like, what? You're a fucking monster. It'll get even creepier later.

Oh, God. Even worry. Oh, I'm worried. I was going to say, too. I was like, I'm still going to worry. You were like, why would you say that? I'm going to continue to worry. But luckily, Tom is promptly arrested and booked on assault charges on August 6th.

And while the police had him squared away in jail, they continued to try to link him to Loretta's murder with some kind of definity. They're like, they had a feeling, but they had a feeling, but they're they were like, we have to, like, definitively do this. We need some kind of evidence that ties him here. So they spoke to a woman who worked out a local bar, the highway rendezvous club. I would love to go there. Of course you would. Highway rendezvous? Like, let's go. No, thank you. This woman, yeah, I knew that. I'm going to set that one out. I didn't even ask you to come. I was like, I know she won't. You won't come. So the woman said, the bartender said that she had not only seen Tom at the bar that night, but she also noticed the shirt that he was wearing. It was covered in

reddish, pinkish dots. Okay. Yeah. Something else that she was sure to share with the police was that he was very eager to get a ride home from somebody that night, which was weird because the hotel that she knew he lived at was only about three blocks away. So she was like, why aren't you just walking there like you always do? Yeah. But he was so adamant and eventually he did find somebody to bum a ride from. And the bartender said that he and the person left around midnight. Now, I couldn't find anything to say that the investigators were able to track down the person who drove Tom home that night, but the helpful information does not end there. The thought about that yellow hat came back up in the investigator's minds, the one that Tom had been clearly wearing when he was trying to abduct Lori. So a witness came to the police

and told them, Tom had that hat hanging up on a hook right next to his door where he lived at the hotel. Are you shitting me? And I told you it was going to get creepier. Lori's brother told the police that he had actually seen Tom not only wearing that yellow hat as he was running away from them, but he realized that he'd actually seen Tom before Lori was even attacked. Creepiest fucking thing. He was sitting across the street under a streetlight watching them play all while eating a hamburger. Are you fucking kidding me? Now, like, I know a lot of people eat hamburgers.

Like, I'm fully willing to admit that. But he said, he offered up that information. offered up that information and that hat is unique. I don't know why the fuck he chose that hat, but I'm glad he's an idiot. Seriously. I'm glad he's stupid. A bright yellow hat with flowers floral print. And it's not just like a later on we're going to find out that it's a welder's cap. Okay. So it's like a very, because it has like that little flap on the bat. A very distinct. It's a very distinct hat even if it didn't have that print. Somebody might remember it, you know? That's wild. The fact that he's just sitting across the street under a street light, eating a fucking hamburger, watching you

guys play. Oh my God. I would I would like throttle that guy if I saw him staring at my kids and the oh. And the thing is it's like we don't know if he was like staring like you might just like looked over and it's like but he's standing under a street like no man should be standing across from kids doing anything.

No. Walk away. No. But think of that as like a little kid like you're playing there and you just see some guy like sitting eating a hamburger. You're not going to think too much of it. No kid would think that. That's what I mean. Children don't think that but like oh my God. It turns out to be the guy that like later on tries to abduct the little girl.

Right. Oh, so crazy. So Tom was officially arrested on August 31st, just 25 days after he was booked on the assault charges. Bye, Tom. Fur murder. Hell yeah. Fur murder.

But the unfortunate thing, obviously, is that DNA testing was still so new. So pretty much all of the evidence against him was circumstantial. Yeah. They weren't able to get any telling DNA off of the clothes that he provided them with. And there was no way to determine whether the semen that, had been found on Loretta's body was a match to him or not, but they did find semen on her body. Oh, what a fucking pig. So during his arraignment, it was determined that he was indigent, so, like, meaning he didn't have any money to pay for an attorney. So an attorney was appointed

for him. Now, this man turned out to be Thorit Hatch, who actually had been a defense counsel for the Utah House of Representatives. Damn. Yeah, so, like, he knows what he's doing a little bit. What a name, too. Oh, yeah, Thorit Hatch. You have to be a defense attorney. I don't know what else you could be. The unfortunate thing, though, is that he played a pivotal role in Tom getting out of prison. So he was really good at his job is what you're saying. He was saying. Good at his job, yeah. But you see, the day that the preliminary hearing was set to commence on October 8th, the prosecutor, Dan Keller asked the judge Tom Platus, I believe is how you say it.

Could we please postpone this? Because the prosecution had just tracked down some people in Kansas who knew Loretta and Tom. So obviously they want to talk to them and get a statement from them. Yeah. That might be a key piece of information in the trial. For sure. No, in addition to that, the chief of police wasn't going to be able to testify because he was taking some kind of class in New York, like some kind of law enforcement class.

I would think that you would want the chief of police there. You would think. And lastly, some of the FBI reports that they felt could be crucial to the case weren't finished up yet. So the defense attorney hatch, he said, no, you're violating Tom's civil rights. He's been in jail so long, and we haven't even reached a plural. a preliminary hearing yet. Like, you're infringing on his rights.

To, like, a speedy trial. A speedy trial, exactly. So he told the judge that the prosecution had plenty of time to make their case against Tom and said, if the state has not prepared its case by now, my client should be released. Shut up. That's what I say. That's what you say in court. That's what the judge said.

He said. Shut up. Like hesitantly. Shut up, you. Shut up for it. Well, actually, pretty much. The judge let the prosecution have some more time. He was like, all right, Thornt. I got it. Cool. So he was like, shut up, Thorit. Yeah, he was. And he rescheduled this hearing to November 5th, meaning that they would have about a month to get their shit together. He's like, come on. The law enforcement class would be over by then. The chief of police could testify. Hopefully the FBI can finish their reports then. A month is plenty of time to go out to Kansas and talk to some people. Time to light a fire under everyone's boot haze and get them moving. One would think. Yeah. So Tom was kept in jail until then. And then November 5th rolls all around. and the prosecution provides their evidence.

I don't know how much more they had of it. Oh, man. They didn't really do a stellar job in the original investigation. A bang-up job here. Yeah. But that's a good one. That's a good job, right? A bang-up job?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I said they didn't do a bang-up job. Yeah, I was like, no, I said it right. No, you did. I wanted to make sure I had it right because I always get that confused. And I was like, you did a bang-up job. It's like, have I been saying it wrong?

All you have to do is remember and scream too, when Sidney says to Mrs. Luna, he was a good boy, you did a bang up job, Mrs. Loomis. She's being sarcastic. Got it. Because Mrs. Loomis did not, in fact, do a bang-up job with Billy Loomis. I think Sidney might have confused me from the time I was a child. Because she was being sarcastic. I guess I didn't understand sarcasm.

No. Well, now you're fluent in it. 100%. You're my actual sister. So, like, hi. Anyway, so they provide their evidence. They're like, they did not do a bang-up job, like you just said. And they're like, give us a formal charge.

Like, let's proceed with this. murder charge, let's go. And the judge said, no, you don't have enough evidence at all to go forth with a murder trial. You would be wasting everybody's time. No, Lynn, we're releasing Tom from jail today. You've had plenty of time. Oh, man. So Tom spent just 90 days in jail for that assault on Lori Kruill. Are you kidding me? But just walked away from the courthouse having avoided an entire fucking murder charge. So he just walked away after trying to kidnap a little girl. Yeah. spent after leering at them for how long. Spent three months in jail for that.

Yeah. Wow. And he probably wouldn't even have even spent that long in jail. He just got extra time because the prosecution was trying to get the case together. Wow. What a system. Yeah, we love it. Yeah, it's really killing it.

It's so great from the start. Yeah. So I know this might shock you, but Tom pretty much skipped town after spending a very short amount of time in Helper, Utah. You don't say. Yeah. He spent some time in helper with his girlfriend. who now lived with him at the hotel and who did live at him. Girl.

He did live with him at the hotel originally, too. What are you doing? Who knows? Well, at this point, she was expecting her first child with Tom. Oh, no. So she didn't have, I don't think she had a place to go. Oh, no. And, you know, like, she probably didn't believe it right away.

Like, she's probably like, no, it couldn't be him. Oh, those are always, it's always a very, it's always a different situation that you can't really speak for. Yeah. But fuck. What a situation. So you'll be happy to hear that things would actually not work out between the two of them. I'm happy for her. I'm very happy for her and that child.

Yes, me too. But Tom would actually have the opportunity to go on to have more failed relationships, more children, and, you know, make more memories with his family. That's great. But I'm sure they weren't great ones because he was a piece of shite. But it's just the fact that he got to go and live out the rest of his life, however he fucking wanted to, while he'd clearly taken somebody else's life and affected so many people's lives around him, would love or known Loretta. And traumatized this little girl. Precisely. That he tried to literally like aggressively and violently kidnap in the fucking middle of the, ah, yeah. It just makes me so. And then he gets to go on and be an asshole to

his family that he gets to create. And his own children. Cool. I hope he treated them well. I couldn't find anything to say he had or had not. He's piece of shit. Either way, he sucks. So Loretta's parents and Heidi, of course, were obviously affected the most. Loretta's parents had to become a safe space for Heidi. They took her in and they actually eventually ended up adopting her. And Heidi has said that all of her aunts and uncles became like siblings to her. And it was so weird hearing this because like you guys became my siblings when my grandparents took me in and she said her grandmother always introduced her and she would say, this is my youngest. Oh my God. And that's what Ma does. That's exactly what Ma does for me.

And I was like obviously very different situations. But I was like, I relate to you on that. Oh, and I'm really glad that she had that too. Me too. Unfortunately though, her grandfather passed away from a heart attack just four years after Loretta had been killed. And the doctor said it was from stress, like the stress of the whole situation. Yeah, I'm sure. I don't know how you get through that. Yeah, I don't either. And Heidi said things changed when her grandfather died. She said, quote, once my grandpa died, it was too much for my grandma to even pursue. She was mourning the loss of her daughter than her husband. It was easier to tuck those memories away in her head. Yeah. Or excuse me, in her heart. I get it. It was like she really wanted to find justice, but it was like,

she's just torn apart. Well, and that's compounded grief. It's like, yeah, that's really hard to break out of sometimes. And it's like nobody's responsibility to have to break out of it. No. That must be unbelievably hard. And not only is that like compounded grief, I've never heard of that. That's a beautiful way to put that.

Thank you. You're welcome. But it's like two of the people you love the most in your life. That's your husband, your partner and your child. Those are the two people that you love the most. That's it. Yeah. That's all it is.

That's like some people's work. Oh, absolutely. I can't imagine. So, but as Heidi grew up, she became more and more determined to keep her mom's memory alive, but at the same time, she was suffering from like horrible night terrors. Of course she was. Which was clearly a direct result from all the trauma she'd seen at such a young age. But she was strong and she was resilient. And over the years, she put together her own little case file. Any newspaper that she could get her hands on that featured her mom's case, she'd cut up and she would put it alongside the other ones that she'd found. Wow.

She would go to the authorities with any clues or things that she'd realized through her own investigative work. And over the year, she'd try to get the case reopened. She would just say, like, I found out this or try to get any information. And she just kept hitting dead ends. Damn, but good for her for just, like, continuing to do it. Yeah. And as a young woman, like.

And somebody who went through that, it's like, you have every right in the world to just shut down. That's a lot. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, I think we mentioned, it's funny because I don't know why, but the like back-to-back episodes, I think we've mentioned Sarah Turney, but it just makes me think of Sarah Turney. Yeah, it does. Like, you go through all that trauma and then you end up turning around and using it like

that. Seriously. It's always amazing to me when people can do that. And it speaks astounded. To who those people are. And Heather Bish. Inside of their souls. Heather Bish and her parents, it makes me think of these.

I'm like, and talking to her, we were like, you're a fucking hero. Like, this is insane that you're able to take this kind of. of grief and this kind of trauma and turn it and work that hard to get justice. That's a strong, strong person right there. Snaps to those people. Now, eventually, Heidi was ready to go off to college. She'd grown up at this point. And she did go off to college.

She studied business and accounting just like Loretta had wanted to do. Hell yeah. So I'm sure that was in her mother's memory. She then moved out to San Jose in 1986 and she actually ended up also getting a real estate license. and she spent most of the next 20 years in California kind of doing her thing, you know? But the nightmares never stopped. The flashbacks never went away. And it was too much.

So toward the end of that 20 years that she spent in California, the nightmares and the flashbacks were getting worse and worse. And they were occurring more frequently. And to me, she didn't like come out and say this. But to me, it almost felt like it was like someone calling to her. Like, I feel like she felt that way. Yeah. So unfortunately, their comeback. also coincided with Heidi's grandmother becoming more ill.

And so one day she said, I need to move back to Utah. She not only wanted to be close to her family and specifically her grandmother, but she also told her friends as she was leaving California that it was finally time for her to be the one to solve her mother's murder. Fuck yeah, Heidi. And with that, she moved back to Utah. Hell yeah, Heidi. Now a word from our sponsor, better help.

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chatting with your best friend, like that's awesome, but you're actually talking to a professional who's going to give you some tools that you need to get through the stuff you're going through. And BetterHelp is online therapy that offers phone, video, and even live chat-only set therapy sessions. So you don't have to see anybody on camera if you don't want to. It is much more affordable than in person therapy, and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash morbid. That is betterhelp.com slash morbid. So once she was back on Utah soil, it became her absolute mission, obviously, to take care of her grandmother,

but also to get to work identifying her mother's killer once and for all, getting justice to be served. So when she first got back, she was scrolling through Facebook one day. And she realized actually that one of her friends from high school, David Brewer, was now working for the Carbon County Sheriff's Office. Oh, damn, that's a nice little connection. That's a great little connection. So they reconnected when they both ended up at the same arts festival. I think she, like, ended up there on purpose. Good for her, man.

And Heidi said that's when she, quote, unquote, spilled her guts to him. She told him everything that he would need to know about Loretta's murder, who she was as a person, what had happened to her, the aftermath of the whole ordeal, everything. And she said, I needed to convince him that this case was worth reopening. And she promised him that not only would she be forever grateful to him if he was able to solve this now 39-year-old murder. Wow. But that she would also get a tattoo of his favorite sports team if he was able to get justice served. I'm obsessed with that. I love her.

I'm so obsessed with that. It's funny. Heidi has Boston energy. She does. I watched on the case with Paula Zon, like this, that episode on this case, in addition to like reading so many things. But I saw her and I was like, you have Boston energy. Like, you are, like, you're my friend's mom. I know this. I was going to say, I just like feel like, I'm like, yeah, I get you. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, your energy is just like, let's go. It's a New England

energy. It is. So guess what? David Brewer agreed. And with that, he started investigating his first cold case. Hell yeah. The first cold case he ever worked on. I also, in the episode, they point out that Heidi went through Loretta's jewelry box. And I think it was like a little leprechaun necklace. And she gave it to him and said to David. And she said, like, look at this and have this serve as your reminder of my mom while you're working on the case. This whole thing is giving me chills. By the way, he still has it.

Or at least still had it up until the point where I saw it on the case with that. I have chills. Yeah. Same. Chills. Now, the problem was, though, it was incredibly hard in the beginning because everything had been lost from the original case file. That's the tough part. There was literally nothing except for an autopsy report and a very chilling crime scene photograph

with Heidi standing in a doorway right in front of where her mother had been discovered, like just standing in front of the outline of her mother's body that had been like shocked on the floor. Jesus. Yep. That photo was actually tucked in. That wasn't like a law enforcement photograph. That was like a photograph that the family had. And it was tucked into an old photo album that Heidi had at her grandparents' house.

And she asked her grandma, day to take it out of the album. She was like, kind of makes me sad. Yeah. And luckily her grandmother, like, took it out, but was able to find it when Detective Brewer needed it. It was an odd photo, to say the least, but it would become a crucial piece of evidence down the road. Ooh. Remember that. I'm going to remember it. The autopsy that they also had, which is, like, the only official thing that they had. Yeah. That picture was the family's picture. They, like, as a record keeping thing here, like big failure. Yeah, not a bang-up job. No, thank you. Not. No. So the autopsy report showed that Loretta had been stabbed more than 17 times.

My God. Her throat had been cut. And trigger warning, she had been raped. Oh, all while her four-year-old daughter was sleeping in her bedroom. In the next room. Like, from the looks of it, this was a one-story home. My God. Now, there was a vaginal swab done and it, like I said, did come back with semen present. But like any other evidence in this case, that vaginal swab was also lost. Oh, come on. Which is incredibly frustrating for everybody involved. Like, we could have just taken that. That's it right there.

Boom, you know. And it was incredibly frustrating for Heidi because she said, over the year she felt like her mom's case had been looked past or barely paid attention to. Yeah. Because of the fact that Loretta was a young single mother in a very conservative community that looked down on her for being unmarried and having a child. And that's bullshit. And it's like, you don't know her situation.

She's a human being. Yeah, it doesn't matter. So luckily, now it's. was 2009 and people like detective brewer was not somebody that was going to overlook a case because it involved an unwed single bar like detective brewer is on the case yes motherfucker so like i said because he didn't have much to go off of he just really tried to track down people who had somehow been connected to loretta or the case he even actually put an ad in the local paper asking that if anybody have information on the case to contact him now that turned out to be pretty difficult

because a lot of the people had died by this point. Or they were older, they were aging, and they were kind of not willing to talk because they were like, I don't want to remember some kind of important detail the wrong way. Well, that's the thing, because we always say it. We've said it before. You're always like, how do you not remember what you were doing on that day

that that was happening? But then I think about it. I'm like, I don't remember what I did Monday. I'm like, I don't even know what day it is today. Thank you. I was literally just going to say, like, you could tell me it was like zoo day today. And I'd be like, yeah, I don't know.

It's like, so I couldn't tell you. No, Elaine and I have to write every last thing down at this point in our lives. Like, we've become geriatric. Oh, yeah. We have scheduled out every last second of our day because otherwise I just have no idea what's going on. And we at any given time in like five different places it feels like I like put it on my door as I'm walking out. Yeah. So I get it that like people, especially like 40 years plus, you know, past a case.

You're like, yeah, I can't say for sure what I was doing on that day or what I saw or how I saw it. Like, I can understand that. They're also like, brother, it was the 70s. You think my memory outstood that? I was, uh, on a space level. Smoking and token. On a space level. If you don't get that, you don't get it. If you know, you know. That I always read that as ikyik. If you know, you know. I do too, actually. Every time that I see it, I, for a second, I was like, what? Then I was like, yep. Awesome. All right. Back to the story. So nobody really wanted to say too much because they were like, we don't remember, it's been so long, or they died. Tom attorneys, Tom's attorney, excuse me, Hatch had passed away. And so had the prosecuting attorney Keller. So both of the lawyers

involved in this are also now deceased. This is tough. But one person that Brewer was able to get in touch with was that girlfriend of Tom's who was pregnant and living with him at the Newhouse Hotel right as the murder had happened. Oh, damn. Now at first, she really didn't want to talk too much. She said she really didn't remember much from the night. And just like everybody else, she really didn't want to remember something incorrectly. But with a little pressing, she did start to become more and more willing. I think Detective Brewer sensed that she knew something. Yeah.

Willing to kind of push a little bit. Makes sense. And it worked. She ended up having a pretty helpful memory of the night. She said that the night that Loretta had been killed, Tom actually came home very late, technically the morning after, because it was somewhere between three and four when he returned. Oh, wow. Which is weird because. remember, he left that bar around midnight. Yep. Strange. So where was he? I don't know. Now, he

immediately took off all of his clothing, but not before his girlfriend noticed that there was red and pink spots all over his shirt. He bagged all of it up, tossed it by the front door and told his girlfriend that if she needed any laundry to be done, gather it up and leave it by the door because I'm going to be heading to the laundromat later today. Whoa, what a nice guy. Well, no. She said, that is something that he literally never offered to do. I'm pretty sure she was like, he knows how to do laundry. Like, that's crazy. Now, once he bagged up his clothing, he got straight into the bathtub and soaked in there for a bit. Some sources will tell you that he got into the bath with all of his clothes on and then bagged them up later to take them to the laundromat, just to share

both points of view. I did see it more often that he bagged his clothes up before taking a bath, which to me makes more sense. But, you know, just giving you all few points here. Well, and also, nothing he does make sense. So it would be, I'd be like, yeah, he probably did. I'd get in the bath with all his clothes on. Yeah. Well, either way, who knows. But he did go to the laundromat later that morning, and he was actually spotted by somebody who worked across the street at another business.

The person who saw him said that he was standing next to a smoking trash barrel. Oh. And I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that when he got home later that day, his girlfriend said he was missing some of the clothing items that he had gone to the laundromat with. Oh, weird. And when she said, hey, why are you missing that clothing that you went to the laundromat with? He said, oh, I threw it out because there were some holes in it. Yeah.

It got holes in it on the way to the laundromat. Yeah. That happens. Now, something that might be striking you right now is that earlier, I told you, Tom, handed some clothes over to the police so that they could test them. He said, these are the clothes I was wearing that night. Here you go. Yeah.

No, if what his girlfriend and the person who had seen him seemingly burning his clothes next to the laundromat said was true, then that clothing that he gave to pull, police probably didn't have anything on it. Probably, excuse me, definitely wasn't even the clothing that he was wearing that night. Of course. Not shocking that there was nothing found on it. It wasn't what he was wearing. Yeah, of course.

So irritating. Now, a huge, huge, massive break in the case came when Detective Brewer was not only able to track down one of the court reporters on the original case, but also one of the responding officers who was on scene the day that Loretta was discovered. Detective Brewer getting shit done. Like him and Heidi. Dream team.

Actual dream team. So the court reporter first thought that she actually didn't have any of the transcripts left from the original case. But she did say that she remembered it because it was the first case that she had reported on. Oh, wow. So later she ended up finding the transcripts tucked away, but she saved them because it was a special case to her. But it took her years to find them. Oh, wow. Now, all while, this was all while.

Detective Brewer was chasing down other leads. And he was just sitting in his office one day and this co-worker of his poked his head in and was like, hey, like some lady just dropped some stuff off for you. And at that point, he's like, I have no idea what you're talking about. But it was a freaking jackpot because obviously it ended up being the court transcripts. And he was able to look through them once he got them. And he noticed right away that there were certain pieces of information that had been looked over in the original investigation. That's so frustrating. And one of the main things that he thought was strange was that Heidi was never considered a witness because she was so young. Like, obviously she was very young, but she found the body and was there the night that her mother had

been killed and remembered things that she had heard. And it was freely talking about it. Yeah, exactly. You would think they'd at least take some of that down and be like, all right? Now, something to note is that the original investigators actually asked around town hearing if anybody heard screams that night. And they asked Heidi, too. They said, like, did you hear your mom yelling or screaming or saying anything, nobody had heard anything, not even Heidi. So they believed that Loretta was trying to say as quiet as she could so that Heidi wouldn't come running out into harm's way. Oh, that hurts my heart even more.

Mom, dude. Like, that is a mom. To keep her safe. As she's, I mean, she was stabbed 17 times and her throat was slashed. And unfortunately, she was also raped, like to stay quiet enough through all of that that her daughter didn't hear anything except for Tom saying he was going to kill her. Just to try to save her daughter's life. Like, I want her to stay in a room.

I don't want this monster to find her. Seriously. Oh, seriously. Oh, my God. That's like chilling. It is. Now, Detective Brewer going through this, going through these transcripts, was also able to determine that the attempted abduction of Lori Kulo happened sometime around

p.m. and found out that the murder actually occurred sometime around 10. So since the Kulos lived like mere blocks. away from the Joneses, the timeline worked out. But the weirdest thing to me, though, is like, okay, like if the murder happened around 10, that makes sense because Tom was a couple blocks away. Why didn't he return home until three or four that morning? He left that highway rendezvous bar around 12. He must have gone somewhere else that we just don't know. Where did he go? I don't know. Now, the biggest discovery, though, of all came when Detective Brewer was finally able to speak to that first responding officer, Barry Briner. Barry Briner told Brewer,

that he and at least one other person noticed that Loretta's hand was lying in a pool of her own blood and that right next to that pool of blood, they could make out the letters T and O, written in blood, like she was trying to spell out the name of her attacker after he had left. Oh my God. So they blow this photo up, the one that I mentioned where Heidi's standing in front of the crime scene. It was undeniable. And I saw it with my own eyes. You can see, I was going to say, grab your phone.

Yeah. You can see that she clearly had written T and O. Oh my God. As she's laying there bleeding out, she had the wherewithal to spell out her attacker's name. That's unbelievable today. And it was missed in the original investigation. How did they miss that? Come on.

I have no idea. And it's also of note that in some sources, it will say that a woman who lived with Heidi and Loretta, like during that time knew. that she had spelled out Tom's name. It's like written in some sources, but the whole story doesn't make a lot of sense. So in my opinion, it was that Brewer got this information from Briner. And I think it's gotten a little bit mixed up over the years. But if you read more about this case, I do want to let you to know to look out for that. I'm not sure how true that is.

Yeah. This explanation makes a lot more sense. I'm just like astounded. Do you see the photo? No, I haven't found the photo yet. If I can't find the actual photo of you, I'll show you the clip where they show it on the on the case. It's insane.

That's wild. Like, how do you miss that? How? How? So it was now time to track down Mr. Tom Eggley. Yeah, let's get him. So they were able to find him. He was living out in Rocky Ford, Colorado.

Now in his late 70s, by the way. Oh, let's fuck his world up. Let's go. Oh, honey. I'm ready. Oh, honey. You got a big storm coming. Yeah, you do.

It was a big fucking storm. So Detective Brewer goes out to Rock. Ford, Colorado to talk to him. And it is clear that Tom is nervous as fuck, but trying to remain nonchalant, as nonchalant as he can. Now, when Detective Brewer got there, he said, he goes, do you remember all those years ago, a woman you dated ended up murdered?

And Tom said, yeah, I remember that I was like dating a woman who got murdered. I don't, what was her name though? Oh my gosh. You don't know her fucking name. You're an actual piece of shit, dude. And he said, you know, I really can't recall too many details about that case. But I do know, yeah, I did date a woman who was brutally murdered. Yeah, it's tough to remember people you date who get murdered. Yeah. Yeah, I could see why that would slip your mind.

Totally. He says that and he doesn't remember too much about that. Um, but he did say, I do know the day she was killed. I did go window shopping and have a couple drinks and I also ate a hamburger. Oh, you do remember that. Okay, cool. You can't remember this woman's name, but you recall everything else about a day that is now nearing over 40 years later. You remember you went window shopping. You remember my guy, your fucking alibi. Yeah, exactly. Because it's been repeated in your head now for 40 years. Exactly. You fucking piece of shit. Wow. So Detective Brewer asks a couple more questions, just trying to get this guy to fucking tick. So he said, you know, Tom, like, what do you think should happen if, like, we're getting

pretty close to finding this guy? Like, what do you think, what do you think we should do with him when we find him? And Tom said, it kind of depends. Like, it depends on if that guy has killed anybody else. Okay. What? Yeah. Like, you get a pass with one. One free murder. Yeah, just one free murder.

Are you kidding me right now? Are you shitting me? If he hasn't killed anyone else, then you know? Let me go. What do we splitting hairs about here? It's like, are you kidding me? For real. My dude?

The answer was telling. Yeah. So with that, Detective Brewer reiterated how determined he and Loretta's daughter Heidi were to get this case solved and they were getting close. And he said, bye, Tom. Have a good day. So apparently, Brewer's visit, shook Tom up so badly. Good.

Later that same day, or that week, he was sitting with his neighbor, Lisa Carter, and he said, would you be able to take care of my dogs if I have to go away for a while? Oh my God. Tom. Stop. Fucking Tom. Stop it. So back in Utah, Detective Brewer was actually heading to this big conference or a summit,

where he was going to be presenting Lorena's case and kind of just seeing like what other detectives suggested the next steps could be. Yeah. Just, you know, getting more eyes on it. Yeah. And at the conference, a conference. people suggested it might be smart to as awful as it could be to have her body exhumed and see if you can test for any kind of lingering evidence. Yeah, I mean, it seems like when you're hitting all these

dead ends, that really is unfortunately kind of the only door to go. To go through. So this thought absolutely horrified Loretta's mother. And she was like, absolutely not. Like, I do not want that to happen. That goes against my wishes. Okay. And so they put it off for a while. And unfortunately, Loretta's mother died in May of 2015. Now, about a year later, in July of 2016, Brewer kind of floated the idea past Heidi again and said, like, you know, like, I think it could help if we exhumed the body. Her response was, get me a shovel. I'll help dig.

Oh, my God, Heidi. I love Heidi. She literally said she was like, I'm willing to do. I don't care what I have to do. I'm finding out who did this. Like, they respected the mother. Yeah. And that was a good thing to do.

And it's like, now it's up to Heidi. Now it's up to Heidi, definitely. And I said to find the guy who did this, they know who did this. Yeah. To get this motherfucker in jail. Yeah. So before exhuming the body, they had the idea to make the exhumation incredibly public. So that word would make its way over to an already nervous Tom.

Oh my God. Yes. They publicized the shit out of this. They made sure that it would hopefully get him to confess. But unfortunately, when Loretta's body was exhumed, they weren't able to get any DNA because because there was water damaged to her coffin. Oh, no. That basically destroyed any evidence they could have gotten.

There probably was evidence there, but water destroyed it. It didn't matter, though, because Tom Egli was sinking his own ship some 500 miles away. Of course he was. Yeah. Detective Brewer had visited him twice by at this point, once to ask those few questions that we just talked about, and a second time to let him know that there were plans to exhume the body. Like, just letting you know. I know you dated her.

Just letting you know. You know? So just letting an old friend in on some investigative work. Of course. Now, after Tom heard that Loretta's body was going to be exhumed, he went over to his neighbor Lisa again, making sure that she'd be able to take care of his dogs if he again had to go away for a while. But this time, he had another question for her. He said, how long do you think that DNA lasts on a body? And she was like, I don't really know, Tom. Like, why are you asking you that? She's like, wow, I was just going to ask you, like, what the weather report is for tomorrow morning? Because I want to go fishing. What's going on? What are your plans this weekend? What are your plans? Right. Jesus. And not only did he say, like, how long do you think DNA can last on a body? He specifically inquired how long semen would stay present. Like, you are not being innocuous, Tom. What kind of fucking neighbor is this? Like, if my neighbor started asking me, like, how long do you think semen can last on a dead body? I'd be like, I'm moving. Like, I'd be like, I need to leave, like, whoa. Well, like, I'm calling someone. Lisa, Lisa did call somebody. Good job, Lisa, because I'd be like, I'm calling someone.

media. I don't know who I'm calling, but I've called someone. The authorities. Lisa called him. She said hello, authorities. I'm pretty sure you have your guy. Like, who just asks that thinks no one's going to think that's weird as fuck? Like, that's the thing. I'm like, Tom. I guess he really trusted Lisa. They must have been like really good friends. Because this, this does happen, like, kind of frequently, I guess. Yeah, that's real weird. It's weird. Good job Lisa, though, for calling the authorities. Fuck yeah. Lisa, don't sit on that shit. She did not. She said 911. I have hello. And she even offered to record their next conversation. She was like, fucking Lisa. She was like, he's coming over here a lot saying weird shit. You want me to get some of

this on on tape? Look at these badass women here. I know. Heidi is killing it. Lisa's like, I'll go under a wire if you want. Like, fuck yeah. Like, maybe I picked this case for a reason. Like, this is like so, I'm like, hell yeah, I want them all to win this. Yeah, because Loretta was such a fucking badass shoe. Yeah, she was. You know? That's the thing. And like, we got, We got Brewer here. Yeah, we got a good man. We got a good man here. I love it.

We have a lucky lepercon as well. Like Irish as fuck. I love it. I love all. This is going to end well. I feel it. Maybe. I feel it.

I hope. I hope so too. Please give it to me. So the investigators agree. They say that would be highly beneficial to the investigation because at this point, we know he's our guy. But it's not looking like we're going to get anything definitive to prove it like yeah. Like we're definitely not.

And we don't know what to do, but we fucking know that this is our guy. Oh, absolutely. So they were like, okay, if you're willing. to do that, what we'd like to do is we'd like to prepare a script of questions to kind of guide Tom into this conversation about Loretta, about the murder, what happened? Oh man, this would be scary. I know, I know. So one day Tom comes over and Lisa has already, like, she knows he's coming over. So she has her cell phone set up on the voice memo thing, I'm pretty sure. Like, she recorded it on herself. Hell yeah. In conspicuously, I'm sure. Yeah. And they got to talking. And the scriptive question,

oh my God, sorry, I was swallowing at the same time that I said that. The scriptive, questions was evidently very helpful because Tom cracked like a fucking sunny side up egg. And he just made a full confession to Lisa and said, I don't remember stabbing her, but I did cut her throat. Holy shit. You just like, and imagine Lisa, I don't know how long she had lived next to Tom or however long they lived in the neighborhood near each other. A murderer has been hanging out with you for.

the past, God knows how long. Just shooting the shit. And you're sitting in your safe space home right now. And this man just says, I don't remember stabbing her, but I did cut her throat. Like, how do you react? How do you not react? Like, how do you not be like, huh? Like, I'd be like, oh my God. I'd be like standing in front of any possible weapon that he could be access to. That's so horrifying. It must be so scary. He also, he went on. There was more for him to tell her. He said to Lisa that he didn't rape Loretta, that they had consent. sensual sex. I don't believe you. That story would later change. Yeah, I was going to say, I don't believe you, you fucking monster. Piece of shit. He said that after he killed Loretta, with his pocket knife, by the way, that was the weapon, that he quickly left and he tossed the knife

into the Price River nearby. And then he went to have a bite to eat. Why do they always do that? You just took somebody's mother, took somebody's daughter, took somebody's sister, and that made you hungry? That gave you an appetite? You hear about this? You hear about the way too often that after these horrible things they're like and then I just went and had something to eat at like a fast food place and it's like yeah what it's like the brenda sue schaefer case that he went to some restaurant that like everybody loves it's like a chili place oh there's several it's like what yeah what i can't i hate it now down the road he would later say that the reason he killed loretta and i'm sure you already know was because she refused to have sex with him yeah

because she has a right to have sex with whoever the fuck she wants to and has a right to not have sex with who she doesn't want to. But you don't think she does. So when she said no, she got up to do something in the kitchen, probably being extremely uncomfortable and kind of trying to give her message like, yeah, this night's over. And that left Tom sitting on the living room couch, obviously stewing. And when she came back, he attacked her and said that he then, quote unquote, had sex with her, which you raped her.

You raped her. But he wasn't sure whether she was dead or not, he said. He literally said that. I have no words. Yeah. So Tom Eggley was arrested by U.S. Marshals on August 18th, 2016, 46 years, and 20 days after he had killed Loretta Jones. I can't believe he got away with it for that long. He got to live his life.

He got to make memories with his children, maybe if he was present in their lives. He got to make his own fucking memories for 46 years and 20 days. While this family had to sit there knowing full well that this guy did. did this. Oh, yeah. But not being able to get any kind of justice. And while Loretta is laying in a box in the ground. Yeah. And Heidi is having to spend her entire life dedicated to this. Yeah, exactly. So he was arrested, thank goodness. And he was extradited back to Carbon County on August 26th. And that November, he was convicted on charges of unfortunately second degree murder. And he unfortunately also took a plea deal that took the rape charge off the table.

which this is going to infuriate you. He was ultimately sentenced to 10 years to life in prison. 10 years to life. Like luckily there's a life part of it all, but I'm like, and luckily he's old as fuck. Why are we even doing the 10 year thing though? Like, come on. It's just.

He brutally raped and murdered a young mother in her home. Exactly. So I can answer why that was the charge. It was because they had to go by what the laws were back in 1970 when this took place. Oh, I didn't even think of that. I didn't actually realize that you had to do that. Wow. I don't think we've covered a case where that's happened that we knew of.

That's wild. I didn't know that was a thing. I honestly didn't either. You could go by today's standards. That's really wild. It is. And I mean, that dude tried to abduct a little girl right before this. Like, gee, what would he have done to that little girl?

Well, and what did he do for the rest of his life that we just don't know about? Yeah, it's like, there's no way this guy's just stopped and lived a normal, like, wholesome existence. That's not what happened. And that's the thing. because what were you going to do to this little girl? Knowing what he did to Loretta, what were you going to do to a little girl? Like, he, I am horrified to think about what his plans were for that little girl. Yeah.

For Lori, and it's like I, for us not to even take that into account, right, even the first time around. Right. Is insane to me. Like the fact that he just got out of there in like three months. It's after like, it's like, you guys literally don't know what his plans were. He probably had this. horrific. She wasn't going to get out of that. It's just like, it's very similar to like attempted murder.

It's just like you didn't get away with it. You failed. You still be charged as though you were going to murder someone. Exactly. That was your plan. It just didn't work. It just somehow didn't work. Thankfully. But if you'd gone the way you wanted it to, it would have worked. Right. That's what your mind was thinking. So that's what the charge should be. It makes me very hard.

But obviously, like, we can't prove what somebody's mind was thinking. It's just really fucking irritating. And what else is really irritating too is that he got the chance to address the judge, which I feel like they shouldn't even be able to do in cases like this. Like nobody cares what you fucking have to say. No one cares about your apologies. No one cares about your excuses. No one cares about any of it. I don't want to tell you feel like this one.

I don't want to hear anything coming out of your face. And nothing you say is going to bring my loved one back. So shut your fucking pipe hole. Yeah. Is that what? Pipe hole? Pie hole. Pie hole.

Thank you. Peahole. Wow. Gosh. All right. Anyways. Oh gosh. So he got to address the judge, Judge George Harmon.

And he said, I don't understand why they're going back to something that happened in 1970, 46 years ago. Oh my God. Probably because the something you're referring to was a brutal crime that not only took a woman's life, but took a mother away from her young child, a daughter and sister away from her family, and you just got to live out the rest of your fucking life like nothing ever happened. Tom, you killed a woman.

Like, you don't understand why we're going back to the murder that you completed 46 years ago? You raped and murdered a... woman. And I want to know, Tom. I want to know if somebody raped and murdered somebody in your family, if you would like them to get away with it. Because why are we going back? I wonder if you would feel that same way if the rules were reversed. You piece of fucking cow dung. God, like, what is this thing? I can't. What is this thing? Oh, and then to add insult to injury, he fucking told the judge that he was not satisfied with having to serve his time in Utah and thought that he actually deserve to be held in a facility closer to his home so that he could see visitors easily and more frequently.

Get fucked, Tom. Like, yeah, dude, how does it feel being taken away from your family, too? You don't like that so much, huh? I'm sure your family doesn't want to see your dumbass anyways, so, like, get out of here. It's not fair. It's not fair. No one gives a shit. Yeah. No one gives a shit.

It's not fair that you did what you did to an entire group of people. It's like, you know what, Tom, die mad, okay? For real. For real. Bye. Now, obviously, like we were just saying, 10 years does not seem like a very long time for a fucking murder sentence. But luckily, almost everybody involved in this case is pretty sure that he's going to die and spend his last days in jail because he was 76 years old when he was convicted. Damn. So here's to hoping. Yeah. Now, Heidi was able to make a victim impact statement and she stared Tom Eggley down in this courtroom. He wouldn't even look at her. He wouldn't even raise his head to look at her. Coward. Which I think they should be made to. Yeah. She said to him, my mom was my hero that terrible night. She never screamed nor made a sound. She did everything she had to prevent me from coming out of my room. How does that make you feel, Tom, ugly? Knowing that you left a four-year-old's little girl all alone in the next room to find her mother's bloody and lifeless body.

Wouldn't even fucking look at her. Piece of shit. And she said that if he is ever up for parole, she will be there. She specifically said, if Tom is ever eligible for parole, I will be at the parole hearing to make sure he's he never walks as a free man again. I want to be in his face as much as possible to remind him of what he did to my mom and why he's sitting where he's sitting. It's to remind him. I was a four-year-old's little girl when he did what he did to my mom. My mom was a human being.

Yes, of course. I got such huge chill bumps reading that. Heidi is a badass. And you know what? If this fucker ever gets up for parole, I'll be there. I was going to say, I want to be there. I will clear my fucking schedule and I will be there. I'll start a damn petition.

to make sure that guy stays in jail. He deserves to rot. I will be right behind Heidi if that happens. Absolutely. Now, on a lighter note, luckily now that Tom is away in prison, bye. Heidi did end up getting that tattoo that she promised her old palathectic brewer. Yes. She ended up getting like something on her leg to represent the Oakland Raiders his favorite sports team. What a badass she is. And obviously having Tom behind bars and knowing that justice has finally been served is absolutely everything to Heidi. Yeah. She said it's like a dream come true. After 46 years and telling my story over and over and over again, finally, not only is he caught, he confesses. I've known it all my life. I've always known it.

My story has never changed. No. And she still visits Loretta's grave in Elmo, Utah, quite frequently. But at the time that Detective Brewer took on Loretta's case, it was the longest running cold case in Utah state history. Holy shit, I believe it. Yeah. And like I think I mentioned before, It was his first cold case. I know. And he solved it. Like, what a case to work on. Damn.

And obviously, we know a very small percentage of cold cases end up getting solved. Yeah. But this one just goes to prove one of Heidi's most important mottoes the entire way through. As long as there's hope, there's a chance. Yep. There's never a case where it's, this is never going to be solved. No. I don't think this is ever going to be solved.

Never. Look at that. As long as there's hope, there's a chance. And I think that's so beautiful. and like just a good motto for everything in life. Yeah, of course. Not just true crime and getting justice served, but everything. Yeah, and it's like with these cases, you just, it's true.

It doesn't matter that things have deteriorated or evidence has been lost. There's always a fucking thread to pull. There is. Somewhere. You just kind of find the right people to pull the right threads and to not give up on it. Exactly. And this is a perfect example of it. It really is.

Wow. What a case. That is the case of Loretta Jones and her absolute rock star of a dolly. Yeah, absolutely. Like, damn. Wow. Heidi, you're a badass. This case like moved me.

And I hope you're thriving. She, you know, she is. She's Heidi. Yeah. And I think, did I already say that Detective Brewer still has that leprechaun thing? Oh, yeah. I love that. Which was like what Heidi gave him in the beginning.

I love it. That's so cool. Wow. Such a wild case from start to finish. That was a truly harrowing case. It was. And with that, guys, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it.

Weird. Weird. You're brought out somewhere that you go on the run for 46 years and then when you finally got caught, you say, I don't even understand why I'm here. Why should I have to serve justice for a woman's life that I took? Fuck you, Tom, you piece of shit. Die mad, Tom. Bye.