MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The Man in Cobb Park

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

Today’s podcast features two separate, unique, stories that are both themed around the same thing, deaths that were completely avoidable. The first story you will hear is called, “The Gap," and it is about a terrible, horrible thing that is, amazingly, NOT illegal. The second story you will hear is called, “The Man in Cobb Park,” and it is about a discovery that was made on a park bench in Texas, in 2001.DISCLAIMER: This podcast is the remastered audio from two popular videos on my "MrBallen" YouTube channel. The first story, "The Gap" is the number one story of a "Top 3" style video called, "The most INSANE man on TV." (Here is the link to that video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj1nh-qnv0E). The second story, "The man in Cobb Park" is from a video called, "She made one of the worst decisions ever." (Link to that video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxjVH0HC1Ws)For 100s more stories like these, check out my YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's podcast features two separate unique stories that are both themed around the same thing. Deaths that were completely avoidable. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from my YouTube channel and has been remastered for this episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called The Gap, and it's about a terrible, horrible thing that is amazingly not illegal. The second story you'll hear is called The Man in Cobb Park, and it is about a discovery that was made on a park bench in Texas in 2001. These stories are both very distressing. As such, listener discretion is advised. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of

the strange, dark, and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please hold the five-star review button at gunpoint and then force them to walk through puddles in their socks. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal.

On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round-the-world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also, tiny little detail, almost didn't mention it.

He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy.

OK, maybe that's a stretch. But if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's stone-cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil.

George is trapped in a lie of his own making with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Gap. In 2010, 18-year-old Renee Marsden was living in Sydney, Australia with her parents and her three siblings. Renee was a very outgoing person who had a big circle of friends, and she was also very close with her family, especially her mom, Teresa. Teresa had given birth to Renee when she was only 19 years old, and so now that Renee was a young woman, because of their closeness in ages, the two had become very close friends instead of mother and daughter.

And so because of that dynamic, Renee found herself always going to her mother to tell her anything going on in her life. She was her confidant. And that year, something major had disrupted Renee's life, and so naturally she went to her mom and she told her about it. It would turn out, Renee's boyfriend of nearly two years, who she was madly in love with, well, she discovered he was cheating on her and didn't actually even care about her. He had sent these text messages that basically said as much. And so she confronted her boyfriend with these text messages and he denied ever sending them. He said, look, I've never cheated on you. I don't know where those came from. I promise I've been faithful to

you this entire time. But Renee just wasn't buying it. And so she had felt forced to break up with him. And so Renee naturally had turned to her mother for comfort and guidance. But Teresa, all she could really offer her daughter was, you know, to remind her that time heals all wounds and that certainly someday you will meet the right person for you. And amazingly, only a couple of weeks after this very painful breakup, Renee came home from work one day and she walked into the house and she was all smiles. And considering how unbelievably depressed she had been over the last couple of weeks, I mean, this really stood out. And so when her mom saw her smiling and radiating happiness, she rushed over to her and said, you know, what's gotten into you? Why are

you in such a good mood? And Renee would tell her that actually I've met another guy. And so Teresa said, who? Who did you meet? Who is this person? And she would tell her mom that his name is Braden Spiteri. He was 23 years old and he was a graduate of the King's School, which is a really prestigious boys school in Sydney. And his father was this really successful business person who owned this big construction company that he was set to inherit later on. And so she was just raving about how amazing this guy was. And Teresa was really happy. If nothing else, this was a very good distraction for her.

And so she asked her daughter at some point, you know, how'd you meet this guy? And Renee would tell her that Camilla had introduced them. Camilla Zidane was Renee's best friend they had met in high school. And Renee would explain to her mother that Brayden was actually Camilla's ex-boyfriend, but they hadn't dated in a really long time, and there was no feelings between them. They were just friends at this point. And apparently, you know, after Renee had this really painful breakup, Camilla had just felt bad for her, and so she had gone out and found the best possible match for Renee,

which in her mind was this guy Brayden. Teresa knew Camilla really well because she was always over the house, and she knew Teresa's intentions must have been good, but she's thinking to herself, this is bad news. You don't want to have best friends, one dating the ex-boyfriend of the other. It's just bad news waiting to happen. And so Teresa couldn't even help herself. And she says to her daughter, do you really think it's a good idea to be dating Camilla's ex-boyfriend? But Renee would tell her mom, look, Camilla was totally upfront with me.

She just wants me to be happy. She thinks Brayden is a good match for me. They don't have feelings anymore. Not at all. She's totally in support. And so Teresa still very much had her doubts that this was a good idea. But she put those doubts aside and instead she said, okay, well, can you show me a picture of Brayden? Can I see what he looks like? And so Renee pulls out her phone and she finds a picture of Brayden and she shows it to her mom. And right away, her mom is looking at this picture and seeing that Brayden is a very handsome guy, big bright smile. But she sees in this picture, Camilla is very clearly laying on his shoulder like she is his girlfriend. And so again, Teresa's thinking to herself,

this is not good. Someone is going to get hurt. But over the next couple of weeks and months, Renee and Brayden texted each other all the time. I mean, Renee had her phone out basically 24-7 talking to Brayden. The pair had made plans to meet up and see each other in person for the first time on several different occasions, but every single time they were set to go meet, one of them would have a conflict that would make it impossible to have this face-to-face meeting. And so before long, when they just could not get a meeting established, they kind of stopped trying to have face-to-face meetings. It was almost like

they had built this really strong, flourishing relationship all via their phones, and it just was getting more and more awkward to actually go out and see each other in real life. It was just more comfortable doing it all on their phones. And so this digital-only relationship between Renee and Brayden continued for almost a year until January of 2012 when something horrible happened. Brayden was in a horrible motorcycle accident. He survived the accident, but his passenger, his best friend, this guy named Richie, who was riding right on the back of his motorcycle, he didn't survive. He was killed in the accident. And it was determined that Brayden was driving recklessly. And so he was

charged with manslaughter and convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. Even though Renee's mother, Teresa, was totally upset about this accident. I mean, she did understand someone had lost their life and now Brayden was going to jail for two years. She understood the seriousness of this accident. But at the same time, there was a part of her, her motherly protective side of her, that was kind of relieved for her daughter. She figured, with Brayden being out of contact for two years in prison, that their relationship would end and Renee could go pursue somebody else who was not an ex-boyfriend of a close friend and was someone that she could actually see in person and not just have to text with all the time. But surprisingly, after Brayden was transferred to Goulburn Prison, which is where he'd be serving his two-year sentence, it's located about two hours to the

south of Sydney, his family smuggled a phone somehow into this jail and he was able to continue texting with Renee. And so after he was incarcerated, they just picked up their relationship like nothing had changed. Now, Renee's family did not like this development and they told her as much. They thought this was a bad idea, that this was the wrong path for her, but Renee didn't care.

She was totally in love. And in fact, over the first couple of weeks that he was in Goldburn prison, their relationship only intensified. They actually agreed to get married as soon as he was released atoulburn prison, their relationship only intensified. They actually agreed to get married as soon as he was released at the end of 2013. And in fact, Renee had already begun making wedding preparations. She had gone on eBay and found this beautiful tiara she would wear on her wedding day, and she had contracted a wedding photographer, and she had even contacted the

Greek consulate to ask if it would be okay if Brayden were allowed to enter their country because they were planning to have their honeymoon in Greece and Brayden was going to be a convicted felon and so she needed permission for him. But in August of 2013, just two months before Brayden's expected release date, something changed. Renee's mother, Teresa, got a text message from Brayden, something she had never gotten before, and it said, you need to check on your daughter. She's talking about killing herself. And so Teresa is totally taken aback by this message, and she goes right into Renee's bedroom where she is sitting on her bed, and her mother sits down next to her and says, honey, are you okay? You know,

what's going on? And Renee would look up at her mom and say, yeah, you know, I'm fine. What's going on with you? And then Teresa would hold out the phone and show her the text message from Brayden. And as soon as Renee saw it, she kind of sighed and looked at her mom and said, I'm not going to hurt myself. We just broke up. Our relationship is over. Teresa knew this was going to be an extremely hard stretch of time for her daughter with another painful breakup here. But at the same time, Teresa thought to herself, this is probably for the best. That relationship just had bad news written all over it from the start. And so now she can begin to heal and move forward with her life. And so Teresa and Renee would sit in the room for a while just chatting on the bed. And then eventually Renee would tell her mom that her plans that night were to go out with

her friends and cut loose and kind of just forget about this whole thing. And so Teresa sat in her bedroom on her bed as her daughter stood in front of the mirror and got ready. And then once Renee was ready, she and her mom hugged and kissed. And then Renee told her mom she'd be back soon. And then she left the house. A few hours later, Teresa received a text message from her daughter. And it started with, Mom, I love you so much. And I'm sorry for the pain I'm about to cause you. You can still talk to me, though. Just call out my name, and I'll be there. Teresa read this message and didn't really know what to make of it. She knew her daughter was almost certainly very upset about this breakup,

but she didn't really understand the context of this message, and so she called her daughter. She didn't pick up, so she called her again, didn't pick up so she called her again and after that second time her daughter didn't answer she sent her a text message that just said please call me back but she sat there kind of waiting for her daughter's call but it never came and so Teresa starting to feel a little bit worried about her daughter she called Camilla and she asked her you know hey have you talked to Renee tonight because I can't get in touch with her and Camilla would tell Teresa that actually yeah I just got a very strange text message from her that just said I love you I'm sorry and so at this point the two women understood that there could be something very wrong with

Renee and so they met up and drove all around Sydney going to all the places that Renee was known to go to but after several hours of looking and not hearing back from Renee, they really didn't know what to do. And so the two women drove back to Teresa's house, so Renee's house, and they went inside and they sat down. And at that point, Teresa's husband and the rest of Renee's siblings, they were all there. And everyone's just kind of sitting around wondering what to do next, when around 9, 9.30 at night, they heard a knock on the door. And it was the police coming to inform them that they had found Renee's car parked in an area that it shouldn't have been, but Renee wasn't there. And so they were coming to ask if they knew where she was and why her car might be out there.

And so at this point, the family is totally terrified. They tell the police about these strange text messages. And then before long, the parents just rush outside, they hop in their cars, and they drive out to where their daughter's car is. And where Renee's car was parked was in an area called The Gap. It basically was this sheer cliff overlooking the ocean. The parents got out and they searched their daughter's car, but there was no sign of where she had gone based on the car. And so they began running up and down the cliffs. There was a sidewalk that kind of ran parallel to the edge of the cliff. And they're running up and down, hoping they're going to find

their daughter, but there's no sign of her. And then at some point, Teresa climbed up to one of the highest points of the cliff. And when she got up there, she found her daughter's black flat shoes. And they were placed neatly together on the ground right in front of the fence that was there to prevent people from getting too close to the edge of the cliff. But despite an extensive search that night, they couldn't find any sign of Renee. She was nowhere to be found. However, the police would discover the following day that there was actually a camera that was looking at that section of the cliffs. And so they reviewed this footage and they found Renee. They saw what happened to her. And in this camera footage, you see Renee walking up the trail in the middle of the cliffs. And so they reviewed this footage and they found Renee. They saw what happened to

her. And in this camera footage, you see Renee walking up the trail in the middle of the night and she stops and she takes off her shoes and she puts them down and then she hops over that fence. Now the fence was not right up against the very edge of the cliff. It was set back maybe three or four feet. And so she hops over the fence and then she steps very carefully to the edge of the cliff and she kind of peeks over the edge and then looks visibly terrified and she moves backwards a few steps until her back is pressed up against the fence. And then she pulls out her phone and she sends three text messages. One was to her mother, which is the text about how she loved her and she was sorry for the pain she was going to cause her. And then the other two text messages were to

Camilla and also to Brayden. However, to this day, we don't actually know what either of those text messages said. And then after sending these three text messages, Renee takes her phone and she throws it off the cliff into the water. And then she sat down and began kind of shimmying herself forward towards the edge. Now, the camera did not actually pick her up falling off the cliff, but it's assumed when she went out of frame that she had fallen off the cliff to her death. Her body would never be recovered. Renee's death was ruled a suicide. However, her family,

in addition to being totally devastated by this horrible loss, they felt totally confused. They had no idea why this had happened, but they were certain it had to have something to do with this recent breakup with Brayden Spiteri. And so they tried to get in touch with Brayden, but he wasn't getting back in touch with them. And so the family contacted the police and said, can you reach out to the prison where he is and set up a meeting? And so the police obliged them and they called Goldburn Prison.

And when they spoke to the prison, they said, who? Braden who? Yeah, we don't have a Braden Spiteri here. We never have. And the reason was, Braden Spiteri wasn't real. Renee's friend, Camilla, had made him up. He was a fictitious person. That picture of Braden Spiteri where Camilla is laying on his shoulder, that was just some random person she had met in a club. Camilla had always been very possessive of Renee ever since they had met in high school, and at some point she had just decided that she wanted even more control over Renee. And so the first thing she did is she convinced Renee that her earlier boyfriend, the one she'd been dating

for two years before Brayden, she convinced Renee that he had been cheating on her the whole time. He was unfaithful, that he didn't love her. And then she had created those text messages and given them to Renee and convinced Renee that that was something he had said. And before long, Renee totally believed it. She approached her boyfriend. He denied it. But Camilla the whole time is telling Renee, he's lying to you. He's been doing this this whole time. I know he's a bad guy. And so Renee had listened to her best friend, and she had severed that relationship. And then almost immediately after that, Camilla swoops into the rescue and connects Renee with this Brayden guy, Camilla's supposed ex-boyfriend, who really was just Camilla on the other side of

the phone. And for nearly two years, Camilla kept this charade up, and Renee completely believed this was a real person, that Brayden was her boyfriend. She loved him. And eventually, in June of 2013, so two months before Renee died, she confided in Brayden, aka Camilla, that her friend Camilla was toxic and mean and controlling and she didn't want to be her friend anymore. And so Camilla, she's reading this and she's furious. And so she decides the only way to get revenge on Renee and regain control of her is to have Brayden break up with her. And so two months later on August 5th, 2013, so on the day that Renee died, she was out to lunch at around 1pm with a co-worker when

she gets a text message from Brayden that just kind of comes out of the blue and it says, I need a break from you. Now this is around the time that they're planning their wedding and so Renee is totally heartbroken and she's trying to get in touch with him and call him. He's not picking up and then fast forward to about 2 45 p.m. that afternoon, we know Renee called Goldburn prison. It was the first time she had done that. Now, we don't know who she spoke to or what they actually talked about, but it's nearly guaranteed that she learned Brayden Spiteri was not being held there. And so, almost certainly, she would have realized that Brayden is either not real or Brayden had been lying to her in such a huge way that the

relationship could never work. And so no matter what, this chapter of her life was totally over. And so later that day, when she was sitting on her bed in her bedroom and her mom came in and she asked her how she was doing, it's very likely that Renee was devastated. She was crushed and probably kind of embarrassed about how badly she had just been duped by this Braden person, whoever that was. And so even though normally Renee would tell her mother everything, her mother was her confidant. She loved her mother. It was like she just couldn't bring herself to discuss what was happening to her. It was just so enormous. It was so overwhelming that she hid it from her mother.

And instead, she just got dressed up, said goodbye to her mom, and then she headed out to the cliffs. No charges were ever brought against Camilla because catfishing, which is exactly what she was doing, which is using a fictitious online persona to lure people into relationships, well, that's not considered a crime in Australia. And Camilla, despite being pressed by the police and Renee's family, has never taken responsibility for this and has never apologised. I'm Peter Frankopan. And I'm Afua Hirsch.

And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time. Somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle,

that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away so he could get treatment. While Dorothy's

friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott. From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

The next and final story of today's episode is called The Man in Cobb Park. In 2001, Greg Biggs was a 37-year-old self-employed bricklayer who was living in a homeless shelter in Fort Worth, Texas. He was also the father of one child. He had an 18-year-old son named Brandon who lived with Greg's ex-wife. Despite not living with his son while his son grew up, Greg had always made a point of spending lots of time with Brandon, and so over the years they had become quite close. But besides his son, Greg really struggled to build meaningful long-term relationships with other people. It was

like no matter how friendly and outgoing he was, people would just come into Greg's life and would leave very, very quickly. This made Greg, who always had struggled with his mental health, feel very isolated and lonely and desperate for human interaction. And so on the rare occasion where people did come into Greg's life, a new friend or a new love interest, he was always so excited to try to please them and keep them around that he would often go overboard with his generosity and his willingness to do things for these people to the point where he really set himself up for being taken advantage

of. Case in point, two years earlier, a woman had kind of suddenly come into Greg's life, and Greg very quickly fell in love with her. And early on in their relationship, this woman tells Greg that she's struggling financially. And without any hesitation, Greg started giving her all of his money. Now, Greg was not a wealthy man, not by a long shot. And so before long, he had literally given this woman all of his money to the point where Greg could no longer make truck payments, he couldn't make house payments. And so his vehicle and his home were repossessed. And then after he's suddenly homeless and destitute, this woman who he's given all his money to, she also disappears. But despite being in this horrible situation of sudden homelessness,

Greg made the best of it. Anytime Greg was not working, he would be trying to make plans with his son Brandon to go walk around the mall downtown or go see a cheap afternoon movie. Times were definitely tough for Greg, but Greg stayed positive. He was a forever optimist, and he did this by focusing on the future. He was certain if he could just land a few more good-paying gigs, he could make that extra cash

and finally buy a home again and buy a vehicle again and finally kind of get his life back together. But unfortunately, he would never get that chance. On the morning of october 27 2001 two men called the fort worth police department to report having seen something suspicious on a park bench inside of cobb park cobb park is this big public park with playgrounds and walking trails and fields and at the time cobb park was not considered a very safe place to be

especially after hours. There was lots of shady people in the park. So when the Fort Worth Police Department gets a call about something shady happening in Cobb Park, they aren't surprised. And so they dispatch a single detective to go over to the park and meet these two guys and see whatever suspicious thing is on this park bench. And so this detective, he goes over to the gates of Cobb Park. He meets these two guys and they kind of explain what they saw. They give him directions to this bench and then he thanks them. He hops back in his cruiser. He drives through the gates and he starts driving down the trail and then he pulls off and parks his cruiser knowing that the bench in question is right around the corner, maybe two or three hundred feet away.

And so he parks his cruiser, he gets out and he starts walking on the cement path. And as he's walking, he can't see the bench yet, but as he's walking, he sees there are deep tire tracks in the grass and mud off to the right side of the walking path. So he's mentally kind of taking note that somebody had been driving inside the park fairly recently off the trail. And so he keeps on walking, and he begins to make that turn, and he sees up ahead the bench in question and he can clearly see these deep tire tracks go right up to the bench. And then as he begins to make that turn and he's maybe 30 or 40 feet away, he can actually see what's on this bench and he can see this big lump that's kind of wrapped up in what looks like a rug or

a blanket. And then as he gets closer and closer closer he can finally see that very clearly there is a person inside of this blanket that's kind of laying out on this bench and when he's about 10 or 15 feet away he can see it's a man and this man is clearly deceased so this detective he walks right over to the bench and he's looking down at this body and he can see the right arm on this guy is very badly broken and his right leg is also very badly broken. And then his left leg is not only broken, but it's been partially amputated. In fact, the left leg is barely hanging on. And so this detective, he's looking at this guy thinking,

okay, this person must have gotten wrapped up in these shady criminal dealings that are known to take place in Cobb Park, and somebody beat him to death, or theyb Park and somebody beat him to death or they beat him and then shot him to death. But as he's looking at the body despite these extensive injuries the bruising on his body was not consistent with someone who had been beaten to death. And in terms of potentially being shot to death he began looking at the body and from where he was standing he could not see an entrance or an exit wound of a bullet and so stumped the detective steps back and is just kind of pondering what he's looking at when he realizes there's very little blood anywhere near the bench or on the body and considering the left

leg has been nearly amputated you would think there would be lots and lots of blood but there wasn't and so that indicated to the detective that his injuries had to have been sustained elsewhere. And so this detective, he calls in backup and more detectives show up and they're all kind of looking at the scene and the working theory became, okay, this guy got killed outside of the park. We don't know how he got killed. It looks like some sort of blunt force trauma, but somehow he gets killed outside of the park, and then his killers, they drive him into Cobb Park, which is why you have those deep tire tracks on the right side of the path, and they dump him on this bench. Later that day, the medical examiner would come out and positively identify the body as belonging to Greg Biggs. The same day that Greg was found, the police

went out and began their investigation, and they started by interviewing people that had been in Cobb Park either that day or in recent days, and they also interviewed known criminals that they knew went into Cobb Park, and they reviewed CCTV footage both in the park and outside of the park. But no one knew anything about what happened to Greg, and the footage didn't show them anything interesting. And so very quickly, Greg's case began to languish, and no one knew what to make of it. Then, in February of 2002, so roughly four months after Greg was found, the Fort Worth Police Department received a phone call. It was from this young woman named Miranda Daniel, and she said,

I know what happened to the man in Cobb Park. And the story she would tell them at first was so hard to believe that the Fort Worth Police Department weren't sure if this was a prank or not. But when they followed up on her lead and they went to a very specific address that she had mentioned, they realized she was telling the truth. This is the unbelievable true story of what happened to Greg Biggs. This is the unbelievable true story of what happened to Greg Biggs. On the evening of October 25th, 2001, so 36 hours before Greg was found in Cobb Park,

25-year-old nurse's assistant, Shante Mallard, arrived at her friend's apartment in Fort Worth, Texas. Her friend was named Titilisi Rice. She went by T-Fry. Shante was from a very loving and stable household in Fort Worth, Texas. Her parents had raised her to be kind to other people and to always work hard and to stay out of trouble, and by and large, Shantae acted accordingly. But in her late teens and early twenties, Shantae began to secretly rebel against her parents. On the surface, when she was around her parents and her family, she was the goody two-shoes that always followed the rules. But when she was away from her family, specifically when she was with T-Fry, she would let her wild rebellious side out. The two friends had met in 1999 at a nursing home where they both worked as nursing assistants.

T-Fry had just gotten out of this very toxic marriage and so when she met Shantae she was actively looking for someone to go out and party with and go be free and meet other new people and Shantae when she's meeting T-fry she didn't necessarily know she wanted to do those things but being around T-fry it was like this whole other side of life was opened up to her and suddenly all she wanted was to go cut loose with T-Fry. And so very quickly, these two women really connected over their mutual desire to go have fun at any cost. And before long, they were not only drinking and doing drugs and partying on the weekends, but they were also getting high before work, which meant they were treating patients high. So with that in mind,

fast forward back to October 25th, and Shantae has just arrived at T-Fry's apartment. And so that in mind, fast forward back to October 25th and Shantae has just arrived at T-Fry's apartment. And so Shantae, she goes up to T-Fry's apartment and the two start drinking some alcohol and they start smoking some weed and they split an ecstasy pill. Ecstasy is a big party drug. It's kind of like a cross between being a stimulant and a psychedelic. And so after these two women are fairly buzzed on these different substances and they're feeling ready to go, they leave T-Fry's apartment, they go down and they climb into Shantae's car. And Shantae drives the two of them to a local club called Joe's Big Bamboo. And so the plan was they were going to meet this guy named Cleet Jackson, who was Shantae's love interest. And the plan was they would hang out at the club with Cleet and then at the end of the

night they would all leave and Shantae and Cleet were going to spend the night together. And so Shantae and T-Fry, they arrive in the parking lot of Joe's Big Bamboo, they park their car, they get out and they meet up with Cleet who was outside of the club and the trio kind of sneak off from the rest of the people trying to get into the club and they smoke some more marijuana and then the trio, they go into the club and they start having drinks and they're partying and they're dancing they're having this great time and then at some point

in the night cleat kind of abandons shantae and tea fry and he goes off with another woman he met that night in the club and he would actually leave the club with this other woman and he would vanish for the night and so around 2 a.m when the club is getting ready to close shanta realizes that Cleet, the guy she was going to go home with, he's gone now. And so she's very frustrated, but she doesn't really have any recourse. And so she instead just goes and finds T-Fry and says, hey, let's just leave. And T-Fry, she's ready to leave too. And so the two women, they leave the club and they get out to Shantae's car. And both women are clearly under the influence.

They're both definitely inebriated. But T-Fry believed she was less inebriated than Shantae was and so she should drive. And so she told Shantae, get in the passenger seat. I'm gonna drive. Shantae gets into the passenger seat. T-Fry gets in the driver's seat and she leaves the club

and she drives all the way back to her apartment. When she parks at her apartment, she gets out and says to Shantae, hey, I don't mind getting in my car and kind of trailing you as you drive back to your home to make sure you get home safe, kind of like an escort. And Shantae, she just gets out of the passenger side and walks right around and confidently sits in the driver's seat of her car and tells T-Fry, nope, I'm fine, I'm going to drive myself, I'll see you later.

And then Shantae drove away. About an hour later, at 3.30 in the morning, T-Fry is in bed in her apartment when she gets this very frantic phone call from Shantae, who's totally hysterical. She's beside herself and she's not really making any sense, but she's trying to get T-Fry to come over to her house. Now, T-Fry did attempt to figure out what was going on, but she just could not cut through the hysteria on the other side of the phone. And so eventually, T-Fry just thought, you know what? Clearly, it's something serious. I'm going to go see what's going on. And so T-Fry, she leaves her apartment, she gets in her car, and she drives over to Shantae's house. And when

she gets there, she goes up to the front door, she opens it up, she walks inside, and she finds Shantae in the kitchen straight ahead. She's totally hysterical. She's crying and she's telling T-Fry that she didn't mean to do it. She's so sorry. And T-Fry is telling her, hey, calm down. What's going on? And Shantae says, look in the garage. And so T-Fry, she walks straight ahead through the kitchen to the door in the kitchen that leads into Shantae's garage, and she opens the door up, she turns the light on, and in the middle of the garage is Shantae's car. It had been parked nose in and lodged headfirst in the windshield on the passenger side of this car was Greg Biggs. When Shantae had left T-Fry's house an hour earlier saying she was fine to drive,

on her drive home, she had barreled into Greg who was on the sidewalk of some street and the impact was so hard that Greg went flying through the windshield and got lodged halfway inside of her car. But the impact didn't kill him. It did almost cut his left leg off and break several bones in his body, but it didn't kill him. In fact, there was blood spatter inside of the car on the passenger side that indicated Greg was totally conscious and was trying to pull himself back into the car. There were these handprints on the inside of the passenger side door indicating Greg had been pulling on them. There was also these very small droplets of blood all over the seat indicating that Greg had been spitting up blood as he was trying to talk to Shantae or as he was trying to plead for

help. But Shantae, instead of stopping her car and getting this guy help, she just kept on driving home with Greg lodged in her front windshield. Now, keep in mind, where she hit him, she was less than a half mile from the fire station where her brother, her older brother, was currently on duty as a fireman. He was medically trained. He could have saved Greg's life. Also, the other firemen at the firehouse that she knew, that Shantae knew, they could have saved Greg's life.

Also, less than six miles away from the point of impact was the local hospital, where of course they could have saved Craig's life. And then on her drive all the way back to her house with Greg halfway in her windshield, she would have passed by nine payphones, where if you don't know anything about payphones, you can dial 911, so emergency services, and it doesn't charge you anything. So Shantae at any one of these payphones could have called medical personnel who could have saved Greg. Also, let's not forget, Shantae was medically trained. She was a nurse's assistant and understood basic life-saving, but she did not use any of those resources.

Instead, she just drove home, and when she got to her home, she drove her car with Greg in it into her garage. She shut the garage door. She gets out. And as Greg is literally moaning and probably pleading for help at this point, she just says, I'm sorry. And then walks up to the door that leads into the kitchen of her home. She turns off the light in the garage, walks into her kitchen and shuts the door behind her, trapping Greg in the garage in total darkness by himself. Then, after an hour of Shantae just being in her house

with Greg slowly dying in the garage, she calls T-Fry. T-Fry comes over. She looks in the garage. She sees Greg, and T-Fry's reaction is she just totally loses it. She panics, and she's screaming at Shantae, call 911, call paramedics, call the police. But Shantae refused. She didn't really give a reason, but she just said, no, I can't. And then shockingly, T-Fry also does not call anyone. The two of them just turn off the garage light again and shut the door and leave Greg. And they hop into T-Fry's car and they drive to T-Fry's apartment where they drive to T-Fry's apartment where they sleep for several hours. And then when they get up that morning, they go back over to

Shantae's house and they check on Greg, who's now motionless. And at this point, Shantae, she calls Cleet Jackson, the guy who she was supposed to go home with at the club, but had abandoned her for some other girl. She calls him and says, hey, I have this huge problem. I need you to come help me. And so Cleet Jackson has no idea what he's walking into, but he goes to her house and he goes through her kitchen. She opens the door and he looks into the garage and he sees Greg in the window. And he's furious with Shantae because now he's gotten involved and he doesn't really know if Greg's alive and he doesn't really know what to do because he's on parole. And if he gets wrapped up in this, he'll go back to jail. But he ultimately decides he's just going to help Shantae

because he believes at this point, Greg is dead. There's nothing they can do to save Greg. And so that night, Cleet gets in touch with his cousin, Tyrone, and the two of them, they go into the garage and they lay out a carpet next to the car. And they both kind of awkwardly apologize to Greg, who's just stuck in the window still and they yank him out they put him into the carpet they roll him up they put him in the back of one of their cars and they drive to Cobb Park they go through the gates they make their way over to that bench and they drop him on the bench. There had been some discussion about maybe destroying the body burning the body but Cleet felt strongly that they need to put his body out somewhere in public so at least

his family can identify him and bury him. After his body was placed in the park, Shantae told Cleet and Tyrone and T-Fry not to tell anyone, and they said they wouldn't. And within a week of Greg's body being discovered, Shantae was back at Joe's Big Bamboo partying it up as if nothing had ever happened. But eventually, T-Fry would tell a couple of her friends, and before long, word had gotten out, and one person found out about it that was kind of in the network of these people, this woman Miranda Daniels, and she really didn't like Shantae, and so she was the one who actually called the police and turned her in. And when the Fort Worth police followed up on Miranda's tip,

and they went to Sh on Miranda's tip and they went to Shantae's house, they went into her garage and there was her car with the windshield still obviously busted in from something being smashed through it. And there's blood all over the inside of the car. And there was some obvious attempts at trying to destroy evidence inside of the car. The seats had been taken out, some things had been burned, but none of the attempts Shante had made had actually destroyed any of the evidence. During the trial, the medical examiner who had done the autopsy on Greg Biggs said his injuries would not have killed him right away. Now, he didn't know for sure how long he would have been alive, but he believed it could be as long as several hours or maybe even up to a whole day and during that time greg was

just trapped inside of this pitch black garage no one's coming to help him despite people coming in over and over again that he's pleading with to help him and he would have been in excruciating pain he's got several significant broken bones his leg has been nearly amputated he's got cuts all over his body and he would have been trying to pull himself out of the windshield and every movement he was making would have been sending the jagged pieces of metal and glass into his body. I mean, this is a drawn out, horrible death. And during the trial, every single medical professional and every single law enforcement official said, had Shantae brought

Greg to get medical attention at any point in the first couple of hours, just basic medical care, he would have lived. And so his death is entirely because of Shantae's absolute indifference. T-Fry would ultimately, in exchange for full immunity, testify against Shantae, and Shantae would ultimately be found guilty of murder of Greg Biggs, and she would be sentenced to 50 years in prison. She'll be eligible for parole in 2027. As for Cleet Jackson and his cousin Tyrone, they received 10 years and 9 years respectively for their role in the crime.

During the victim impact statement portion of the trial, Brandon Biggs, Greg's son, he took the stand and he very eloquently told Shantae that he forgave her. And it seemed very genuine and it moved Shantae to tears. And then Brandon looked out at the audience where Shantae's family was and he said, you know, not only do I feel horrible for my family, but I feel bad for your family, Shantae, as well, because this crime has destroyed all of us. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, please hold the five-star review button at gunpoint

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