MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Who Would Do This? (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

In 2015, Clyde, Ohio was one of the safest places to live in the entire United States. Basically, violent crime never happened there. So, on April 10th of that year; when a resident was reported missing in the morning, and then their car was spotted just a few hours later in an apartment parking lot... before the police even drove out to the vehicle, they already knew that they would find this missing person either sleeping in their car or maybe visiting one of their friends in the nearby apartments. However, they would be very wrong. And to this day, the contents of that missing person's car still haunt Clyde, Ohio. For 100s more stories like this one, check out our main 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.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. In 2015, Clyde, Ohio was one of the safest places to live in the entire United States. Basically, violent crime never happened there. So, on April 10th of that year, when a resident was reported missing in the morning, and then their car was spotted just a few hours later in an apartment parking lot, before the police even drove out to the vehicle, they already knew that they would find this missing person either sleeping in their car, or maybe visiting one of their friends in the nearby apartments. However, they would be very

wrong, and to this day, the contents of that missing person's car still haunt Clyde, Ohio. But before we get into that story, 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 hack the Amazon Music Follow button's work email and then send their employer a letter of resignation. Okay, let's get into today's story. 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? Okay 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 Wanderie Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. 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 28 year old Heather Bogle had just been through a couple of really hard weeks and now as the single mother looked up at the huge factory where she was about to spend the entire night building washing machines, she still just could not put the events of the past month out of her mind. It was April

9th, 2015, and Heather was standing next to her old car out in the parking lot of the largest employer in the tiny town of Clyde, Ohio, population 6,000. Directly in front of her was the entryway into Whirlpool Incorporated, a sprawling white metal and brick complex with a total workforce of 3,500 people. And once Heather clicked her way through that metal turnstile and entered the factory, she'd be walking out of the cool, clear, quiet evening darkness into an echo chamber the size of more than 30 football fields, all filled with sound and light and people wearing green foam earplugs and safety glasses. Heather had been working the night shift

here for two years, and the steady paycheck and health benefits she received had made it possible for her and her six-year-old daughter Mackenzie to afford a pretty good life in the town of Fremont, nine miles north of Clyde. But, important as this job was to Heather, the young mom did not plan to spend the rest of her life working on a production line. Over the last few years, Heather had split her daylight hours between taking care of Mackenzie, catching up on sleep, and also going to school so she could achieve her real ambition, which was to become a licensed practical nurse. Now, Heather forced herself not to look down at her phone and reread the horrible text messages her older half-brother

had sent her when Heather had recently gotten word that she'd failed one of her Ohio State Board nursing exams. But the real problem was, Heather didn't have to read those texts to hear them bouncing around in her head. Joshua had called her a dumb hoe who was too stupid to pass the licensed practical nurse exam. He'd signed off by accusing her of having low expectations and then describing her as, quote, typical trash like her mom and dad, end quote. And almost as bad as the pain those words caused was the fact that Heather had just broken up with the one person she could have turned to in this kind of situation for support and comfort. That person was Heather's ex-girlfriend, Carmela Badia. Carmela had been Heather's first relationship with a woman, and their two-year-long romance had been intense for both of them.

Before Carmela, Heather's longest relationship had been with Mackenzie's dad. Heather and Richard had met when Heather was 18, and even though they had never married, the two had moved in together right away and then ended their relationship five years later. Unlike Heather's breakup with Carmela, Heather's split from Richard had been a mutual decision. There wasn't much drama, Heather wanted to be free, and so did Richard. After that, when Heather and Mackenzie had moved to their house in Fremont, Heather was so busy and so focused on school and her daughter that she wasn't actively looking to date anyone. And when Heather first met Carmella at Whirlpool, Heather thought of Carmella only

as someone she hit it off with and whose day shift overlapped just enough with Heather's night shift that the two of them would eventually strike up a friendship. But right from the start, Carmella had been open about her crush on Heather. At first, Heather had laughed about Carmella's good-natured flirting, but over the course of a few months, Heather's feelings for Carmella had deepened. But the stress of working opposite shifts and the differences in their personalities, along with mutual feelings of jealousy, ultimately took their toll. And in March, less than one month earlier, the relationship had ended in a storm of arguments, accusations, and bitter phone calls and text messages. Just the day before,

Heather and Carmela had had one of their worst arguments yet, and Carmela had written Heather a long, angry letter that was now sitting in the front passenger seat of Heather's 2003 Oldsmobile Alero car. As Heather locked up her dark green sedan before taking her first step towards the blue awning that read Whirlpool, Clyde Operations, Carmela's words also sounded inside of Heather's head. You duped me, Carmella had scrawled in ballpoint pen on the small lined pages. You have no idea how bad you hurt me. You're dead to me. A few minutes later, as Heather pushed her way through the metal roundabout before walking into the factory, all she could hope was that the

next eight hours would be so loud and distracting that the only thing she'd hear was the sound of metal and plastic appliance parts snapping into place. As a materials handler, Heather's own job took her to various parts of the factory. Using small vehicles called forklifts and tuggers, she was tasked with driving through the miles of factory space, collecting parts, and then delivering those parts to her fellow workers on the assembly line. But even in a workplace where 30 miles of conveyors clanked and rattled overhead, and where workers had to pay attention to what they were doing, Heather's friends on the production line they all shared couldn't help but notice that instead of her usual smile, Heather looked upset. all shared couldn't help but notice that instead of her usual smile, Heather looked upset. And as Heather shoved the foam plugs into her ears and slipped on her safety glasses before stepping in

behind the wheel of her tugger, she saw the looks of concern aimed in her direction. Checking over her shoulder to make sure that the little tow cart behind her tugger was securely attached before starting up the vehicle's engine, Heather found her spirits lifting just a little. She might not be able to confide about her recent disappointments to Carmela, but she reminded herself that she still had plenty of friends at work. People who were rooting for her to pick herself back up, to take that nursing exam again, and not give up on her dream of a better life for herself and Mackenzie. And between conversations with her friends over the course of the night, Heather didn't have to reply to any text message or incoming phone calls unless she felt like it.

All the important parts of her day were already totally planned out, and everyone who played a part in her daily routine already knew exactly where and when they could find Heather if they really needed to. And it had been that way for more than a year. Heather's shift always ended just after six in the morning, and after clocking out, Heather would call Mackenzie's babysitter before Mackenzie headed off to school, then Heather would head for her home in Fremont to sleep until it was time to collect Mackenzie at the end of the school day. After that, Heather could enjoy spending the afternoon and evening with her daughter before dropping Mackenzie back off with the sitter and

leaving for work just before 10 pm. Even now, when Heather was feeling down, just the thought of her daughter made her smile. Tomorrow's forecast called for cool weather and wind, but it was also supposed to be nice and sunny, and so if Heather made sure to bring along an extra warm jacket for Mackenzie to wear after school, the two of them could spend some time outside on the playground. Being out with Mackenzie was usually the best part of Heather's day, and Heather liked knowing that when people saw the two of them together, there was no mistaking them for anything other than mother and child. With her blonde hair and big smile, Mackenzie looked like a younger version of her slender mom, with the brown eyes, shoulder-length hair, and a scattering of freckles across a tan face. By the time Heather had begun her first circuit

of the Bright Warehouse that night, the third shift had settled in for that night's work. Over the next 24 hours, the Whirlpool factory would turn out a total of 20,000 washing machines. And tonight, as Heather waved to her co-workers, being one of the team that produced those washing machines made her feel better. She might not be here for the next 30 years, but she knew she was lucky to have this job and have co-workers whose lives were a lot like her own. Other parents raising kids just like she was, people with worries just like she had. And by the time morning rolled around and Heather was throwing away her foam earplugs and pulling off her safety glasses, her usual smile was back on

her face. Chatting with co-workers over the last eight hours had been good. These sympathetic responses she had gotten had helped put Heather back into her naturally optimistic state of mind. She knew that once she saved up enough money to take the state nursing exam again, she would make sure that she passed it. Now, as Heather looked up at the clock and shook her hair out of its ponytail, the disappointments and hurts of the last few days didn't seem nearly as crushing to her as they had the night before. She knew her mom had sent her at least a few text messages, but Heather decided she would answer those later. For now, she had one more thing she had to do before she went home to sleep, and it shouldn't take long. Heather would

wait to call her mom and babysitter once she had arrived back at her house in Fremont. A few minutes later, and Heather was pushing through the metal turnstile under the blue whirlpool awning, hands in her pockets and head down as she stepped out into the parking lot and headed for her car. It wasn't until 2 33 p.m that afternoon, eight and a half hours after Heather's night shift had ended, that Heather's mother really started to get worried. That's when Renee McLaughlin sent yet another text to her daughter asking if Heather was still planning to pick up Mackenzie after school. Renee might not even have bothered to send this text since Heather always picked her daughter up after school, but earlier

messages that Renee had sent to Heather while Heather was at work had all gone unanswered, and that wasn't like her daughter. Now, as Renee looked at her phone, waiting for Heather to text her back, Renee had to make a conscious effort to relax. Renee was still checking for Heather's reply when Renee got a phone call from another one of her daughters, Heather's younger sister, Jen. And as Renee listened to Jen explain what was going on, the worry Renee had been feeling tightened into a huge knot of fear. Now she knew for sure something was very, very wrong. It turned out that Jen, who was listed as Heather's emergency contact, had just been notified by Mackenzie's school that Heather had never arrived

that afternoon to pick Mackenzie up. Jen also discovered that in another break from Heather's usual routine, Heather had not called Mackenzie's babysitter that discovered that in another break from Heather's usual routine, Heather had not called Mackenzie's babysitter that morning before the babysitter had taken Mackenzie into school. After filling her mom in on the situation, Jen had hopped into her car and headed for Mackenzie's school. On her way, Jen used the short trip to call Heather's friends to see if any of them had heard from Heather that day. Meanwhile, Renee got on her phone and began calling other family members, including one of Heather's cousins who also worked at Whirlpool, to see if any of them had seen or heard from Heather. As soon as

Jen had returned from school and dropped Mackenzie off with Renee, Jen and one of Heather's best friends began their own search for Heather. They printed out flyers with Heather's picture on them to put on telephone poles. They jumped on Facebook and other social media sites to spread the word about Heather's disappearance. Then the two women drove and walked around Fremont and Clyde, splitting up so they could cover more ground, stopping at Heather's grandfather's house before hitting every store or park or playground that Heather liked to visit. They also called hospitals, tow truck companies, and more friends. By 5.30 p.m., after arranging care for Mackenzie, Renee walked into the Sandusky County Sheriff's Department 30 miles northeast of Fremont and filed a missing person report on her daughter. The violent crime rate in Clyde, Ohio

is among the lowest in the state, so any circumstance in which someone's life might be in danger was taken seriously right away. There was no 24-hour grace period or anything like that. Instead, it was instant action. And after hearing the pure panic in Renee's description of how out of character it would be for Heather not to pick up her daughter after school, the situation seemed unusual and suspicious enough that the sheriff's department acted immediately. Even as Jen and her friend were crisscrossing town searching for Heather, the sheriff's office issued an alert to local hospitals and other law enforcement agencies, as well as to the local news media, and before long, officers were driving over to the Whirlpool Factory parking lot and surrounding area to search for Heather's car. The deputies also stopped at local bars and went to

the home in a nearby trailer park to talk with Heather's ex and Mackenzie's dad, Richard. But it wasn't until 8 p.m. that evening, 40 minutes before darkness fell, that police got their first real news on the whereabouts of Heather Bogle. Without giving her name, a woman called police to report that she'd seen a car matching the description of Heather's older model dark green Oldsmobile sedan. And when police ran the license number that the caller gave them, they knew they had a match. A few minutes later, the first deputy on the scene called back to headquarters. He'd found the car where the caller had said it would be. It was in a parking lot that belonged to the Somerton Apartments on Hickory Street in Clyde, just a five-minute drive from

the Whirlpool factory where Heather worked. But any hope police had that they would find Heather asleep inside of her car or inside one of the apartments visiting a friend quickly vanished. The car was empty, except for a black and white striped knapsack and what looked like a personal letter, both sitting on the front passenger seat.

And when the deputy forced open the trunk of Heather's car, disappointment and worry suddenly turned to shock and horror. Inside the trunk was the body of a young woman. She lay curled on her side, dressed in jeans, pink and white sneakers, and an oversized red Mickey Mouse t-shirt that hid the two bullet holes in the back of her chest. The victim's knees were drawn up to her chest and her hands were tucked under her chin. Even in the small beam of the flashlight, the deputy could see that this woman had also been savagely beaten. There was also no doubt that she was dead. And it wasn't just the injuries to nearly every visible inch of her body that shocked the veteran police officer. It

was the fact that her hair had been crudely hacked off in chunks right down to her scalp. And as the deputy moved the light so it shined down on her hands and face, he saw that her fingernails had also been cut brutally short right down to the soft flesh of the nail bed. Even before the family identified the body, the Sandusky Sheriff's Department knew that they had just found Heather Bogle. By the time Detective Sean O'Connell arrived at the Somerton apartment complex, the area around Heather's car had been marked off as a crime scene. The red paint on the front side panel of Heather's Oldsmobile, the result of body work to the car, was the only color picked up by the portable floodlights. But the detective, a veteran law enforcement officer with more than 20 years of service,

hardly registered the yellow crime scene tape or the sounds and lights of emergency vehicles that were now starting to pour into the 230 block of Hickory Street. Staring down into the trunk of the car and slowly taking in the sight of what had been done to Heather's hair and nails, as well as to her body, the investigators first thought was this murder was personal. Whoever had beaten Heather and then chopped off her hair must have been acting out of rage. The detective had already been told about a breakup letter from Heather's ex-girlfriend Carmela that had been left sitting on the front seat of Heather's car, and even without reading it, Detective O'Connell knew that Carmela was already high up on his list of

people of interest. But at the same time, this looked like a crime of passion. There were also obvious signs that the killer had gone to great lengths to erase any evidence that might help police in this homicide investigation. Even before Heather's body was carefully removed from the floor of the trunk and taken to the county morgue for an autopsy to determine exact cause of death and to collect additional physical evidence, there was no visible sign that this car was the place where Heather

had actually been murdered. There was no sign of a struggle, there was no sign of a weapon or bullet shell casings, and inside the well of the trunk, the jumper cables, a single white flip-flop, a spare pair of shoes, and a tangle of bungee cords next to a white plastic shopping bag from a Walmart store all appeared undisturbed. Instead, it looked to Detective O'Connell like Heather must have been murdered somewhere else and then dumped here. That way, police would not have an actual murder scene to investigate. There were other signs that the murderer had taken pains to cover

their tracks. The neon green top that Heather had been reported wearing when she went missing had been replaced by the extra-large red Mickey Mouse shirt. The defensive wounds on Heather's hands, arms, and face all told police that Heather had fought back hard against her attacker, so the killer had cut her nails and her hair in an effort to remove any trace of the killer's DNA that may have transferred to Heather's body in the course of that struggle. After that, it looked like the killer had arranged Heather's body into this fetal position inside the trunk of her car before leaving the vehicle and Heather's body in this poorly lit parking lot outside the cheaply built two-story apartment complex.

Crime scene techs would later confirm Detective O'Connell's initial impression of the crime scene. Despite a careful examination of the trunk interior, they found no usable forensic evidence. And a later autopsy report would estimate that Heather had been murdered much earlier in the day, probably within a few hours of the Whirlpool video surveillance tape that would show Heather leaving the Whirlpool factory at 6.17 a.m. that morning of Friday, April 10th. That same autopsy would also reveal that Heather had ultimately been killed by two gunshot wounds to her back. But in a huge break for law enforcement, despite the killer's effort to erase any connection to the crime, the medical examiner would find small amounts of what police assumed

was the killer's DNA buried under what little remained of Heather's fingernails. 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. The Wondery Act. 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

a 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. you get your podcasts. When Detective O'Connell finally looked up from his own visual inspection of Heather's body curled up in the trunk of her car, he noticed one of the residents of the 48-unit

complex in front of him standing outside her apartment door watching the police do their work. That person was 24-year-old Kiona Boer, an African-American woman raising two children on her own who had already had at least one run-in with the Sandusky Sheriff's Department's all-white detective bureau. After making sure the crime scene had been properly secured and processed, Detective O'Connell gave orders for police to start canvassing the area for information about the driver of the green car. He also set in motion interviews with personnel at Whirlpool, as well as with Heather's family and friends. Meanwhile, after taking a final look down at the police activity in her

parking lot, Kiona stepped back into her apartment, then carefully closed and locked the door behind her. Over the next two weeks, Detective O'Connell reported to the local media and to Heather's family that the Sheriff's Department was making good progress on their investigation into Heather's murder. While he was not ready to make any arrests, the lead detective said investigators had ruled out several key suspects who had close ties to Heather.

Although she was among the first to be interviewed as a person of interest, Detective O'Connell quickly checked Carmela Badia off his suspect list. As far as he was concerned, Carmela, who had clocked into the Whirlpool factory for her day shift just half an hour after Heather was seen leaving the factory, just didn't have enough time to commit this murder. He also did not believe Carmela would have tried to cover her tracks, but still leave that breakup letter she had written to Heather in the front seat of Heather's car. Also in the clear were Heather's ex-boyfriend, Richard, and Heather's older brother, Joshua. In addition to having an alibi for the time of the murder,

Joshua explained to police that the degrading texts he had sent his half-sister shortly before her death were just his way of motivating Heather to do better on her nursing boards next time she took them. He described his insults as being, quote, tough love. But almost from the start of the investigation into Heather's death, it would turn out that Detective O'Connell had formed a theory of the crime that would lead him from one dead end to another. When toxicology tests on Heather's body eventually revealed a small amount of marijuana in her bloodstream, Detective O'Connell became totally convinced that Heather's murder was drug-related, and that Heather's murderer or murderers were all connected to the young

African-American woman who had stood outside of her apartment watching police work the crime scene on the night of April 10th, when Heather's body was first discovered. Detective O'Connell's suspicions were based on his theory that Heather had driven to the apartment complex after work in order to purchase drugs. And years earlier, Detective O'Connell had arrested the father of one of Keona Boer's children, a man named Omar Satchel, on drug charges. Police had also been informed that before Heather's murder, Keona had been seen wearing a large-sized red Mickey Mouse shirt that might match the shirt Heather was wearing when her body was discovered,

and that there was still a close association between Kiona and Omar. By April 17th, one week after Heather was murdered, police had conducted two searches of Kiona Boer's unit at the Somerton apartment complex. Police had also arrived in force and with guns drawn at the nursing home where Kiona worked to obtain a DNA sample. Even as other tips and potential leads in the case trickled in to the sheriff's office, Detective O'Connell continued to focus his effort on building a case against Kiona Boer, Omar Satchel, and a third African-American man who the investigators suspected of owning the gun that was used to kill Heather. Meanwhile, Heather's family and friends held a series of vigils in her honor and started raising money that would go to Heather's daughter, Mackenzie. But as the investigation into Heather's death dragged on for more than 12 months

without any arrests or hard evidence against Detective O'Connell's chief suspects, Heather's sister, Jen, was not the only person complaining to the media and the sheriff that Detective O'Connell was mishandling the murder investigation. And then in September 2016, 17 months after Heather's murder, Detective O'Connell announced that he was resigning from the Sandusky Sheriff's Department to take a job as a manager of a McDonald's fast food restaurant. Sean O'Connell's decision came several months after his prime suspects had all broken their silence, not only claiming that they had nothing to do with Heather's murder, but also pointing out that they had never even met Heather and had no personal ties to her whatsoever.

To prove their claim, the suspects volunteered tissue and DNA samples, they stated their willingness to take lie detector tests, and pointed to the alibis they had provided police. They also accused the Sheriff's Department of racial profiling, which is targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Just before his resignation, Detective O'Connell himself had been placed on three months of paid leave and the murder investigation had been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Investigation. And at the same time, Kyle Overmyer, Sandusky's sheriff and Detective O'Connell's boss,

admitted to opiate addiction and was charged with stealing prescription drugs from lockboxes at area police stations. Stunned, Heather's family and friends watched as the state stepped in and tried to pick up the pieces of the murder investigation. To them, and to the frightened residents of Clyde and Fremont, it looked like a bungled investigation by a corrupt and possibly racist sheriff's office would result in one of the most vicious murders ever committed in Northwest Ohio turning into a cold case. In November of 2016, 19 months after Heather Bogle's murder, the voters of Sandusky County voted in a brand new sheriff. And when police lieutenant Chris Hilton stepped into that office two months later,

in January of 2017, one of his first moves as sheriff was to appoint a new detective who would be charged with starting the Heather Bogle murder investigation all over again from scratch. And that new detective, Nick Kotsopoulos, did not waste any time following those orders. With 18 years experience in law enforcement, this would be the 11th homicide that Detective Kotsopoulos had investigated. And even though he was basically treating Heather's murder as a cold case,

the detective was coming at the homicide from a different direction than former investigator Sean O'Connell. He would follow the hard evidence wherever it took him, but he was also interested in talking with people and potential suspects who had a personal connection to Heather. He also wanted to find out exactly where Heather was killed. And after going through the complete file on Heather's murder, it didn't take long for the new lead investigator to totally rule out Sean O'Connell's top three suspects. Not only was there absolutely no physical evidence to connect them to Heather's death, it turned out none of their DNA matched the tissue sample that the medical examiner had found

under Heather's nails, an important detail that former Detective O'Connell had left out of his reports on the case. Those DNA results would also rule out, once and for all, Heather's ex-girlfriend Carmela and Heather's half-brother Joshua. Once he had cleared all the past suspects in Heather's murder, the new investigator went back through the tips that former Detective O'Connell had received from Heather's murder, the new investigator went back through the tips that former Detective O'Connell had received from Heather's co-workers but never followed up on. The investigator also found several search warrants related to collecting possible evidence in Heather's death that former Detective O'Connell had not executed.

Those warrants included one that allowed the investigator access to Heather's computer and to all the location data collected from Heather's devices, including her phone, that was collected and stored in her various Google applications. Designed by the technology giant Google, those applications included Heather's email account, as well as a social connection program called Google Hangouts that allowed the user to send their GPS location to their contacts. In order to do that, Google Hangouts used Heather's phone to track her real-life location. Heather's records showed that the last ping from Heather's cell phone before the battery died came in at 9 20 a.m. on April 10, 2015, three hours after Heather was last seen on that security footage

that showed her leaving the Whirlpool parking lot at 6.17 on the morning she disappeared. Using Heather's cell phone records, investigators were able to narrow her whereabouts between 6.17am and 9.20am, but they could only place her location during those critical hours within a radius of about five miles from the cell phone tower. So it wasn't until the investigator overlaid that data with the GPS coordinates of Heather's cell phone that had been collected by her various Google accounts, all of which Heather had left open, that Detective Katsopoulos finally hit paydirt. A map of all those GPS coordinates allowed investigators to pinpoint with much greater accuracy the location of Heather's cell phone on the morning that she

went missing. On May 26, 2017, just over two years after Heather's murder, Detective Kotsopoulos and his investigation team left the Sandusky Sheriff's Department and made the 40 minutes drive south to a place called Emerald Estates Trailer Park located in Green Creek Township. Their destination was a white trailer located at the bottom point of an important triangle. The home with the wooden porch built off the side was located 13 minutes and 6 miles southwest of the Whirlpool factory in Clyde, where Heather had worked, and 9 miles and 17 minutes southeast of Fremont, where Heather had lived with her little daughter Mackenzie. When police arrived at trailer number 79, the resident and owner of the trailer looked surprised to see them, but invited them to come inside. Yes, this person told Detective

Kotsopoulos they'd be more than happy to answer any questions about Heather Bogle, even though the person had hardly known her. It wasn't until the owner of trailer number 79 refused to volunteer a DNA sample that Detective Kotsopoulos felt the adrenaline surge through his body. He was suddenly sure that the 25-month-long search for Heather's killer was finally over. Based on evidence that Detective Katsopoulos and his team would collect over the next few days, here is a reconstruction of what police believe really happened to 28-year-old Heather Bogle

after she left work more than two years earlier on Friday, April 10th, 2015, at 6.17 in the morning. Heather's killer had an eye for vulnerable women. He also had an eye for attractive women who played up their femininity. He liked painted fingernails, and he liked that Heather had that nose piercing and wore that sparkling stud that brought out her brown eyes. He liked that she didn't eat Doritos with her fingers that Heather had that nose piercing and wore that sparkling stud that brought out her brown eyes. He liked that she didn't eat Doritos with her fingers because she didn't want to get the red seasoning from the corn chips all over her hands. But on the night of April 9th, when Heather

arrived at work without her usual smile and with stress written all over her face, what Heather's killer liked most of all was the fact that Heather was so obviously upset. And when their paths crossed at work that night on the manufacturing line, as they had every night for more than a year, Heather's killer made it a point to find out exactly what was bothering his popular and trusting young co-worker. Over the next eight hours, Heather's killer gathered up each crumb of information, receiving each one with a look of sympathy. How Heather had failed one of her nursing exams, how her own brother had just sent her text messages calling her too stupid to pass, how she would have to go back to studying

for the tests all over again and save up the hundreds of dollars it would cost her to retake the state exams. And by the time Heather's night shift was over, Heather's killer had persuaded her to stop by his house after work. He was pretty sure he had some books on human anatomy and biology that might help with Heather's next round of study. He told her where he lived and how easy it was to get there. So, after leaving the Whirlpool Factory parking lot at 6.17am, Heather hopped into her dark green car with the bright red front side panel and began the short drive to Emerald Estates Trailer Park.

There was no need to call her mom or babysitter, Heather expected this visit would be a short one, and if it delayed her at all, it would only be for a few minutes, she could return her mom's text messages and call the sitter on her drive back to Fremont. When Heather pulled up outside of the white trailer marked number 79, Heather saw her co-worker's car in the driveway. So, after parking her Laro, she hopped out and walked up the four wooden steps leading to the covered porch and knocked on the front door of the trailer. Heather only had to wait a second before the door was open, and with a smile of thanks, Heather stepped inside. As soon as the killer had closed the door behind his visitor, he didn't waste any time on any more conversation with Heather about her recent setbacks.

He also did not have any study guides that would help her pass her next round of exams. Instead of collecting nursing textbooks, Heather's killer was a man who had spent a lot of time building a home video library that showcased his taste for violent sex and for non-consensual bondage and domination. And what he wanted now, very badly reaching out to pull her towards him. Heather was confused and repelled, saying no to his advances and then pushing him away. The man in front of her was 46 years old. That was 18 years older than she was. And Heather's last relationship had been with a woman. But even as the creepiness and then danger of the situation fully registered with Heather, it was too late. Because now, the man in front of her was both enraged and excited by Heather's rejection. In that moment, the killer's need to have sex with Heather, an act that might leave traces of his DNA inside of her,

had changed to something else. An overwhelming desire to control and punish her. But Heather was a fighter, and despite the fact that she was hopelessly outweighed and overpowered by her much larger and stronger attacker, Heather responded to the assault by hitting her killer so hard that she broke one of his teeth and cracked another. But over the course of that morning, Heather would pay for her bravery. The autopsy on her body that would be performed the next day would include a long catalog of injuries to all parts of Heather's body. Ligature marks on her wrists and ankles showed that she had been tied up. There were also curved red lines on the left side of her neck where she may have been whipped with a cord or had the cord wrapped around her throat. Heather's face, jaw, eyelids, forehead, and legs were covered with bruises and even her

tongue showed signs of bite marks and lacerations. Her hands and arms were dotted with round red defensive wounds caused by blunt trauma. And when the killer was finished with his savage torture and beating, he left her on the floor and then came back with his.380 Cobra small caliber handgun and fired two shots into Heather's back, injuries that collapsed her lungs and caused almost immediate death. But even though Heather's resistance had enraged her killer, it was that decision to fight for her life that would eventually help police identify her killer. Before arranging Heather's lifeless body in the trunk of her green car, the killer pulled off her green neon top and replaced it with an extra large red Mickey Mouse t-shirt. And then, in what

police believe was an effort to destroy any physical evidence that could tie him to the murderer, the killer also hacked Heather's shoulder-length hair off at the roots and cut her fingernails down to the quick. But Heather had fought so hard that traces of her attacker's DNA had been pushed underneath the cuticles that covered the bottom of her fingernails. It would be just enough to give police the tissue sample they would later use to help convict her killer. After abandoning Heather's car with Heather's body locked in the trunk at the Somerton apartment complex, the killer sat back to wait and to build his cover of innocence. He made sure that he went to Heather's funeral and signed the guest register expressing his grief alongside so many of Heather's other co-workers from Whirlpool. He also

pulled up and replaced the flooring in his trailer where police believe Heather had been shot and killed. And when Heather's family set up a GoFundMe page for Heather's daughter Mackenzie, 44-year-old Daniel Myers, a 17-year veteran of Whirlpool who had worked right alongside Heather on the factory's production and material handling lines, made a donation of $125. On that same GoFundMe page, Daniel, who had been arrested on a domestic assault charge in 2001 and another assault charge in 2004, posted this message, quote, Heather, you were such an amazing person. I am distraught that there will be no more of your

smiles at work. You will always be in my thoughts. Your daughter will always be in my prayers. God bless you, little Missy. End quote. It would turn out that on May 26th, when Detective Nick Katsopoulos and his team headed to trailer number 79 in Emerald Estates Trailer Park, they were following the location coordinates they had found stored in Heather's Google accounts. It had been an electronic trail, there ever since the day of Heather's murder, that followed the young mother from the Whirlpool factory in Clyde on the morning of April 10th, 2015, to the actual scene of her murder.

And during that first interview with Detective Kotsopoulos, when Daniel Myers told police he hardly knew Heather, and then refused to volunteer a DNA sample, the investigator knew right away that he had a brand new prime suspect in the murder of Heather Bogle. As for Daniel Myers' broken tooth, he told investigators it was nothing and that he'd fixed it himself using superglue. In the days immediately following that first interview with Daniel Myers at trailer number 79, investigators were able to get a search warrant that compelled him to give police a DNA sample. Police also got a warrant to search his house, where they found guns, videotapes of violent

sexual encounters, and under the carpet, new sections of flooring that had been installed within a week of Heather's disappearance. On June 1st, after lab tests matched Daniel's DNA to the tissue found under Heather's cuticles, Daniel Myers was arrested and charged with aggravated first-degree murder, robbery, and kidnapping in the death of Heather Bogle. Immediately after Daniel Myers' arrest, 10 women came forward to report that they had been raped by Daniel Myers. But it would turn out that Daniel Myers would not be the only person in'Connell was sentenced to two years in prison for actions related to his investigation into Heather's murder.

Those charges included tampering with and falsifying evidence and sharing confidential murder files with members of the public. It would turn out that former detective O'Connell had pursued his case against Keona Boer, Omar Satchel, and a third African-American suspect even after he knew that their DNA did not match the DNA found under Heather's fingernails. As a result of being singled out as a murder suspect, Kiona Boer would lose her job and apartment, and she and her school-age son would both become the target of hate and bullying. apartment, and she and her school-aged son would both become the target of hate and bullying. Former Detective O'Connell was also criticized for delaying justice. Just days after Heather's murder, Sean O'Connell had received an email tip from a woman who

worked at Whirlpool telling police she knew of one employee who she believed, based on her own encounters, would be capable of committing murder. And that man's name was Daniel Myers. Detective O'Connell also failed to execute the search warrant he had early on in the Heather Bogle investigation that would have given him access to the Google accounts that had stored a record of Heather's movements from the time she left work on the day of her murder until her phone died three hours later. On February 13th, 2019, almost four years after Heather's death, Heather's co-worker Daniel Myers pleaded guilty to murder in order to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But before the judge issued that sentence, there was one final twist in a murder

case that had generated headlines across the state and that would become the subject of several true crime documentaries. Just days after Daniel Myers was arrested in 2017, investigators reopened an older case involving the death of Myers' ex-girlfriend, 37-year-old Leanne Sluder. Back in 2009, six years before the murder of Heather Bogle, Daniel Myers told police he had discovered Leanne lying dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the bedroom of a trailer he owned. At the time, police did not question Daniel's account or treat the death as suspicious, even though Leanne's family wanted Daniel questioned

as a suspect. Ultimately, the new investigation into Leanne's death turned up a suicide note in the victim's handwriting that was provided by Daniel Meyer's family. But although the Leanne Sluder investigation ended without another charge of murder, Leanne Sluder's family insist that if police had done a thorough investigation into Leanne's death and questioned Daniel Myers as a suspect back in 2009, Heather Bogle would still be alive today. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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