Murder on Songbird Road - 2. The Arrest

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Just days after the murder, the Williamson County State’s Attorney announced the death of Jade Beasley- and the arrest of Julia Bevely- in the same press conference. He claimed a thorough investigation had already been conducted, but glaring questions remain to this day.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jason Alexander and I'm Peter Tilden and together our mission on the Really No Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor? What's in the museum of failure and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to ReallyNoReally.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. The Really No Really podcast.

Follow us on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was big news. I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery, big, big news. A long investigation stalls until someone changes their story. I like saw what they're gonna happen. An arrest, trial and conviction soon follow. He did not kill her. There's no way. Is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free? Did you kill her?

Listen to The Real Killer Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremorchi. And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season we explore a new theme from poisoners to art thieves. We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching. And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Previously on Murder on Songbird Road. I thought she was guilty at first. I was by reading what the news said. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend

maintaining innocence but charged with her murder. A few hours ago, I charged Julia Beveley, age 29, of 11304 Songbird Road, Marion, with three counts of first-degree murder. The murder of Jade Marie Beasley, an 11-year-old girl. Most people that kill have a reason. A motive. There's always a motive. Something.

And it doesn't exist here. It's scary because the person who did it is still out there and nobody seems to care. I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco and this is Murder on Songbird Road. According to Jade Marie Beasley's obituary, the sixth grader was remembered as funny, smart and sassy. Fond of playing outside and swimming, she enjoyed art, drawing, painting and video games. The photo that accompanies the remembrance is the same one used by the Williamson County State's attorney when he announced her murder. Showing a beaming young Jade bespeckled in pink frames, her face framed with a golden

bob, accented with pink highlights. She's sporting a pink beaded necklace and garments in a matching hue. Jade's obituary goes on to state that she loved her friends, adored her pets, and cherished her siblings, unquote, before listing surviving family. Missing from that list is the woman who considered herself Jade's stepmother, Julia Beverly. Although Julia's son, Jaden, is listed as Jade's brother. But from the day of Jade's murder, Jaden's life would be forever altered. He went from living with his mom and his two younger sisters to he lived with me in Carbondale, which is 20 miles away from Marion.

Pretty much, you know, we get to see his siblings not being from the same house. It was obviously a bad side for him. It was an entirely different situation. That's Stort, the biological father of Jaden, Julia Beverly's eldest son. The weekend Jade Beasley was murdered, Jaden was staying with him. I was gonna have him for a weekend and then he was gonna go back.

Sunday afternoon, evening, I got a call from DCFS. DCFS, for those not familiar, is the Department of Children and Family Services in Illinois. Like, they're getting full custody right then. So pretty much, you know, he's just visiting for the weekend, and he was with me. As we'll further explain, DCFS would basically prohibit Julia Beveley from physically interacting

with her children pending the investigation. So Renee Hightower would be the one who broke the news to her grandson, Jaden, in person the night of the murder. I told his dad that I was coming over and that I wanted to tell him. And he said, okay. And I got there and I told him that something happened at his house. I said, a man broke in and his mom is okay.

And I said, but he hurt your mom and he hurt Jade. And I said, but Jade, he hurt her too badly. So he's looking at me and I said, he's looking a little confused. And I said, Jade is no longer with us. You could see him kind of trying to swallow those tears, and that's when I told him, I said, it's okay, it's all right, Jade.

So that's when he just let it out and hugged me and he was just crying in my arms for a little bit and I told him that his mom was gonna call him and he could talk to her and they talked for a little bit. I'm not a hundred percent on what Julie was saying to him but I could hear a little bit of how much she loves him and he's gonna stay with Stewart for a while until things get figured out. And he said, okay.

She calmed him down a little bit. We will dive much more deeply into this later, but Julia Beveley wasn't the only one cut off from her two youngest daughters and the son she was unknowingly carrying at the time of the murder. Her eldest child, Jaden, would lose not only his stepsister Jade and his mother, but eventually all access to his younger siblings.

So would Renee Hightower, their maternal grandmother, who had been petitioning for visitation when we first connected. Back to Stort, the Department of Children and Family Services, and Jaden. DCFS wanted to talk to him, and I'm like, well, yeah, tell him the truth. Don't lie. But there wasn't anything. You know, DCFS talked to him for like half an hour, and they were like, yeah, okay, well, we just have to interview. But there's no signs or anything of abuse or neglect or anything like those lines. Which was in keeping with all the years Stort had co-parented Jaden with Julia Beverly. Jaden never had a bad thing to say about his mom.

She was always nice and loving and caring. There was no abuse. We never said anything, no mark, nothing. I mean, even later on when he had his younger sisters and other stuff, he never, you know, he never had anything bad to say about her. Suddenly the sole parent in terms of Jaden's day-to-day, Stort had to manage the passage of time with his young son's relentless optimism that his mother's incarceration was temporary.

It took two years for the trial. I mean, it was a drug out so long. And sometimes you just tell people, like, oh, well, once my mom gets out, I'm going back. Even before the trial, he was telling friends or his cousin, like, well, I'm going to go back. Soon as my mom gets out, we're back there. Like, well, I know that's what you want, but even if she gets out, nothing will be the same. Jaden's father has tried to help him navigate his new reality, an uncertain future.

We even talked about stuff like with the news, like there's people that are innocent, locked up, and then years later, then they're like, oh yeah, whoops, we got the wrong person. Even if your mom gets out, it's not gonna be the same. It's still, it's gonna be different, everything. Kinda like, try to tell them like like your grandma might be too optimistic and you kind of need to be in the middle because I don't think she did it but you know what if

she's been in for so long it's like there's a possibility she doesn't. In his reality, things are going to go back to normal. It's like they'll never go back to normal. If there was a magic wand waved tomorrow and Julie was out, you wouldn't have any reservation whatsoever about Jaden being with her. No, not really. I mean, like I've told him, is like, I don't think she did it. They've never found a weapon or it's like, if you stab somebody that many times,

you would have blood splatter with, you know, like, where's the change of clothes? Where's this? Where's that? Yeah, never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. The accusation that Julia Bevelie brutally stabbed her stepdaughter is particularly nonsensical to Bevelie's cousin, Nikki, who witnessed not only Bevelie grow up, but eventually interact as both a mother and stepmother. She loved all her children,

even the ones that she didn't give birth to. That is one thing that she is extremely good at. Nikki says she knows Julia extremely well, even for cousins. She's my maid of honor. She's my best friend. Julia's been my best friend since she was born. I'm a little bit older.

We grew up together. We did everything together. We promised each other cheerleading, Little League, you know, all the way through high school. We went to the same high school. We were with each other pretty much like every weekend at least. We were all so close. There was between me and my siblings and her and

her siblings, there were seven of us running around my grandma's house all the time. So we all grew up together. We were all extremely close. Particularly Nikki and Julia. We can look at each other and not say a thing and know exactly what the other one is saying. Which is why Nikki was the first to know when Julia found out she was expecting her first child, Jayden, while still in high school. She was really young. I think she was about to be 18.

And she hid it from us for a bit because she was scared. And then obviously, he couldn't hide it. She did it on her own for a few years. And still, his dad kind of came back into the picture and had more of a presence. I don't want to say she struggled with it, but it's just like any new transition I know that I did whenever I had my first child. It's hard, it's difficult to do it at such a young age. I can't even really imagine. She pretty much had to drop everything, become a mom. She was a great mom. It changed her because you're 17. You just got to drop all the things that you think are the most important things

in your life, like your dairy high school life that you think is going to be your entire life or going and hanging out with friends on the weekend. Or she just fully committed to being a mom. And she was there doing it on her own with family, but on her own, which had to be extremely hard, but she loved him completely. Home videos show Jaden as a toddler playing rock band to be extremely hard, but she loved him completely. Home videos show Jaden as a toddler playing rock band with a young Julia Beverly jamming on a small plastic guitar as Jaden sings lead.

Keep singing! No, no! Their energy is loving and relaxed and natural, as is the clip of Beverly and Jayden, still a toddler, enjoying the first flakes of a snowfall. When Nikki and her parents moved from Marion to Massachusetts, Beverly eventually followed, living with Nikki for a period of time. Jayden was two when she moved out here. I would be like 20 or 21 because I had met my husband at the time.

She had Jayden out here too, so it was me, Julie, and Jayden living together. And so she went back after a few years? Yes, yeah. I would say it was probably about a year or so. It was just a little hard. Like we were here to help her, obviously, you know, but it was hard for her, I think, just being so far away from her own mom. It was soon after Beverly returned to Marion that she met and started dating Mike Beasley. She was extremely excited when she met him because he had a daughter who was the same age as Jaden.

So she was excited because she, being a single mom, she thought that it was gonna be extremely hard to find somebody to be with. So when she met Mike and found out that he also had a daughter who was the same age, it was almost kind of like amazing because their kids could play together, you know, and they both kind of have a same situation going on. So she was extremely happy when she met him,

another little boy, otherwise with me. They both together for eight years. She actually came to visit you more than once with Jade. Yes, yeah. So she came with Mike and Jade and Jade in. And they came a couple times. They stayed with my mom one time. And then they came out again for a wedding.

Just tell me a little bit about your observations as to how Julie welcomed Jade into her life and their relationship dynamic? She was obviously extremely, very welcoming when you come in as the girlfriend. She never overstepped any sort of boundaries with her, but she was very much there, always there to talk to, to be supportive of.

Julie treated her like her own, and five things for her is that it was her own child. Never had any sort of complaints about her. They came pretty close to the point, I think, she would prefer to stay at Mike and Julie's house over her mother's house, just from what I was told. She had her own space, had her own room. She was included in all family functions, all things, the holidays, pictures, and things like that. So, I mean, she was very much a part of the family,

even though they weren't technically married, that they were family. Photos that Renee Hightower has shared appear to back up this assertion, as does Julia Beverly's still existing social media. Her Facebook cover photo, now updated by Renee, boasts a banner with hashtag I stand with Julie. Underneath is a collage of seven photos, four depicting Jaden and Jade over the years. One shows a very pregnant Beverly as she smiles, her arms warmly wrapped around the backs of each step-sibling as they

bend down to kiss her large expectant belly. Julia and Jade are both wearing similar shades of bright purple, which pops against the green of the grassy background. Another photo shows Jade and Jayden in front of a colorfully lit Christmas tree. They appear to be around age six, with their arms affectionately draped around each other's shoulders. Jaden, the shorter of the two, is lifting his head up towards the camera wearing a wide grin. Jade is kicking one leg up to the side in a cheeky pose. They're adorable. As are all the siblings shown together, especially in photos that depict the two youngest girls being proudly and tenderly held by their big brother and sister.

Jaden and the younger girls all share Julia's broad smile. A deeper dive into Julia Beverly's Facebook history reflects the ongoing yearly tradition of posting Jaden's back to school photos alongside Jade's. Also reflected in past years is the blended family's apparent love for somewhat themed Halloween costumes. All while juggling a job that, like motherhood, required patience. As a customer service representative for Hyatt, Beverly was used to defusing disgruntled people's frustrations in a calm, respectful, and efficient manner.

She was actually incredibly patient. Probably more patient than me. Motherhood was everything to her. I mean, she did work from home, so she still had a job as far as bringing in money into the household. I'm pretty sure she was also the primary breadwinner at the household. But she worked from home as a way to still be extremely present and available to her children.

Every waking moment was dedicated for her children. It is of note again that Mike and Julie were together for nearly eight years and had already purchased wedding bands. They had planned for both of their daughters and were trying for a third, hoping for a son. Mike shared custody of Jade with her biological mother, Jessica.

Before the murder, there had never been any reports of Beverly being violent or abusive to any of her children, including Jade. If there had been, it's doubtful that her father would have continued not only to live with Beverly, but to plan on having more children with her. Murder on Songbird Road will return after the break. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. Murder on Songbird Roadwalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you, and the one bringing

back the wooly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park.

Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah. No, really. Go to ReallyNoReally.com.

And register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign. Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really. And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There was big news. I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery, big, big news. When a young woman is murdered, a desperate search for answers takes investigators to

some unexpected places. He believed it could be part of a satanic cult. I think there were many individuals present. I don't know who pulled the trigger. A long investigation stalls until someone changes their story. I saw what happened. An arrest, trial and conviction soon follow. He just saw his body just kind of collapsing.

Two decades later, a new team of lawyers says their client is innocent. He did not kill her. There's no way. Is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free? Are you capable of murder? I definitely am not.

Did you kill her? Listen to The Real Killer, season three, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarchi. And I'm Holly Frey. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season we explore a new theme,

everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them. We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact. We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from

legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective. And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom-made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now back to murder on Songbird Road. Everything would change when Jade was murdered.

Here's Renee's recollection of picking up Beverly at the police station the night of the murder and the days leading up to her arrest. Tell me what that car ride back from the station with Julie was like. Well, she was telling me the story and I was just in disbelief. And I was like, oh my God, you've got to tell Mike. They're under the impression this was suicide. And she's looking at me confused, like, oh my God, you've got to tell Mike they're under the impression. This was suicide. And she's looking at me confused. Like what?

I was telling her what was being said to me and I was going through the story and she's just shaking her head and she's crying. And she's telling me how this man came in the house and she said, nobody should ever have to see that. She said, no parent should ever have to see that. It was a quick ride, 10 minute ride. We got in the house and she sat down and my mom was hugging her and my mom was crying. It made her cry some more. And then her brother came and he just grabbed

her and hugged her. And then she lost it again, crying more. And then my mom's just sitting there rubbing her back and she just kept saying, I should have just took her with me. I should have just took her with me. And my mom's telling her, you can't blame yourself, Julie, you can't, I can't put this on you. She still had the jail uniform on, the little jumpsuit they gave her

because they took her clothing. When Beverly agreed to be questioned at the Williamson County Sheriff's Department without a lawyer present, she also willingly consented to the collection of DNA from both her person and her articles of clothing. We'll dive much more deeply into issues with how that DNA was collected later. Back to Renee. I got some of my clothes, gave her some little sweatpants, stretch pants and leggings and

a hoodie to wear. And she went in the shower and she was in there for a little while. I went to check on her and I can hear her crying in there. And she told me after she was in there crying because she had blood on the bottom of her feet. And when she got in the shower, it kind of brought it back. This is actually an important detail. Jade was murdered on an unseasonably warm day,

and Beverly had been wearing flip-flops. At some point, she'd flipped them off and likely walked through blood at the crime scene. Back to Renee. She got out of the shower. I said, you have to tell Mike. We ended up driving back to Marion to go to Mike's parents' house, called him on the way,

and said we were on our way over. And he said, well, DCFS just called, and they're about to be here too, so you might want to wait a minute. And I said, well, we're right down the street. And we ended up pulling up almost right at the same time as DCFS. And we sat in the car. It was me, well, we're right down the street. And we ended up pulling up almost right at the same time as DCFS. And we sat in the car.

It was me, Michael, and Julie. Quick clarification. Michael is Julie's older brother and an aviation mechanic with the US Navy, not to be confused with her boyfriend and then fiance, Mike. We sat in the car. Cindy McGuire was her name from DCFS. She came over to the passenger side of my vehicle to talk to Julie. And that's when she informed Julie that she cannot see

her children. And she lost it again. And she's like, no, she's screaming no. Because at this point, all she wants to do is hug her family, her children, after some tragedy, a horrific tragedy like this. She wants to hug her children, hug Mike, and grieve. What did they tell her? They said that its protocol is how they termed it, that she has to have no contact with her children. She can have a video visit once a day for 15 minutes. And that's it. That's the contact she gets with her children until this is resolved. So she had to sign a paper to where Mike gets temporary

custody of the children so they don't become wards of state. And she agreed to let them stay with Mike. She asked if she could talk to Mike, and they said, well, we're gonna talk to him first, and then we'll see if he wants to come out and talk to you. So they were in there for a good 20, 30 minutes. Mike came out, and as soon as Julie seen seen him she jumped out of my car and ran

to him and hugged him. And he hugged her back and they were both, you can see they were both crying. And then I can see Julie talking to him. And then he, and this is what me and Michael found really strange is the way he was consoling Julie. His immediate response was to hug her, and he did. And then after a while, he steps away while she's talking, and he lights a cigarette. And then he's smoking his cigarette, and he's still close to Julie.

And then he puts one arm around her shoulder, almost like resting his arm, almost like he had to do it to put up a front. It didn't look like a comforting hug that she needed. It just looked like he was just going through the motions. And I'm watching this and I said to Michael, and he's like, well, maybe it's because he smoked a cigarette. He doesn't want to, because Julie don't smoke.

And I was like, no, no. I said, look at his actions. And he was looking away from her, smoking a cigarette. And just, it was weird. And Julie said she was just going through, like, a brief summary of what happened. It was just an odd behavior consoling her for, like, 10 minutes. In Renee's opinion, Mike was already

doubting Beverly's innocence the night of the murder. Subsequent events would reinforce her opinion and add even more painful layers to this tragedy. They talked and she got back in the car and she was just upset. And for the next three to four days, she got to talk to Mike once a day for 15 minutes and the very first phone call, she got to FaceTime with the girls. Being denied physical contact with her children compounded by the stress and trauma of the murder, was overwhelming for Beverly, according to Renee.

Mike and the girls were staying with his mother, Sheila. Jaden remained with his father. Beverly stayed with her mother and grandmother. She didn't eat anything for two and a half days. I finally forced her to eat a sandwich. And she ate probably not even a half a sandwich. I made her some juice to drink some, she had to get something in her. I said, Julie, you got to, you can't not eat. She wasn't eating, she wasn't sleeping, she wasn't drinking.

Would you categorize her as in shock? Yes. In shock. In horrific grief. I mean, yeah. Yes. In the four days she was with me, the food she ate probably equated to three-fourths of a sandwich and a half a cup of liquid in four days. That's what she consumed. —Beverly's already limited access to her daughters would entirely disappear five days after the murder when Julia Beverly was arrested. Renee had been trying to help her daughter remember any details from the day Jade was killed, hoping they would vindicate her with a timeline.

—I remember it like it was yesterday. Once she left that police station, she was with me for four days before her arrest. In that four days, she wasn't remembering a lot, and I didn't want to force her because I know what she had been through. But she would give me little bits and pieces that she could put together.

It wasn't a clear picture. So I told her that fourth day, I said, I want you to sit down and write everything out that you did. Maybe that will trigger some more memories for you and start with the time you woke up. And she started writing it. And a few minutes later, she said, I went to Huck's. I had to get gas. This was like late morning. And that's when I made that phone call to Gusantine to say that she remembered she stopped at Huck's. — We'll get to the importance of Beverly's recollection that while she started out for Walmart, she never got there. Beverly suddenly recalled in the days that followed Jade Beasley's

murder that she actually stopped at Huck's, the closest gas station to her house, because her gas light came on. Thinking it would prove her daughter's innocence, Renee Hightower wanted to share the information with the police. I said, Julie, you gotta tell them. You're on camera, because as of right now, they're trying to say you never left the house. And she's like, I can't. I already invoked an attorney, so I can't speak to them without her.

I said, do you want me to tell them? And she's like, well, I don't know if you can, but I guess. So I picked up the phone and I called and asked for Carl Gussentine personally. He answered and I told him that Julie remembered she'd stopped at Huck's for gas, and realized she forgot her cards at home, and then she had to go back to the house. He said, well, I'll have to hear that from her. And I said, well, she's already invoked an attorney, so you have your information. And he said, okay, and hung up the phone.

That call didn't have the effect Hightower had hoped. Within an hour and a half, they were knocking at our back door. We'll be right back with murder on Songbird Road. I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Lily podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like, why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal?

The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stunt man reveals the answer. And you never know who's gonna drop by.

Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you, sir? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel

might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really? No, really. Yeah, really. No, really. Go to reallynoreally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really? No, Really? And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app,

on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. That was big news. I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery, big, big news. When a young woman is murdered, a desperate search for answers takes investigators to some unexpected places. He believed it could be part of a satanic cult. I think there were many individuals present. I don't know who pulled the trigger. A long investigation stalls until someone changes their story. I like saw what happened. An arrest, trial and conviction soon follow.

He just saw his body just kind of collapsing. Two decades later, a new team of lawyers says their client is innocent. He did not kill her. There's no way. Is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free? Are you capable of murder? I definitely am not. Did you kill her? Listen to The Real Killer, Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria

Tremarchi. Holly Frye And I'm Holly Frye. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Maria Tremarchi Each season, we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them. Holly Frye We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective. And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom-made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now back to murder on Songbird Road. Cindy Geithman, Carl Augustine, and another officer stepped into my home, my mother's home, through the back door. They said they were there for Julie and they had a warrant for her arrest. A few moments prior to this, we seen comments on Facebook showing her warrant on the judiciary page and Julie began to panic at that point. And then a few minutes later, there was that knock at the door. I came in and Julie immediately started crying. She had her promise ring from Mike that she immediately took off and handed to me. My mother was there. My mother seen that they were putting cuffs on Julie. And she started crying and she said,

you guys are killing her. I'm sorry, just need a minute. Yeah. Because I've, you can feel my mother's pain at that point, witnessing this. And Cindy Geithman tells my mother, well, that's what she gets for killing somebody. I just can't believe she said that to my mother. And I just looked at her like, why would you even say that?

Why would you say that? I have reached out to both Cindy Geitman and Carl Gustentine. Both have since retired, as have multiple officers and officials involved with the investigation into Jade Beasley's murder and the case against Julia Bevely. Geitman and I spoke on the phone, and she made it exceedingly clear that she did not intend to comment on what would be her first and last time leading

a murder investigation. Back to Renee. I found out later when Cindy Geitman walked Julie outside to frisk her and check her. Julie had her hair in a ponytail with a scrunchie. Not a ponytail holder, not a super tight one, very loose, made of cloth, scrunchy. And she grabbed it out of Julie's hair. And Julie said she grabbed her hair so hard that it yanked her head back, pulled some of her hair out.

And later, I found that scrunchy sitting on top of my car with Julie's hair all over it, and then put her in the car and took her down to the station. While Carl Gustentine did not respond to my multiple attempts to question him about receiving the tip Renee Hightower says she gave him, the police appear to have acted upon it. After she was arrested, I was I was furious. So I said, I guarantee they're out there searching right now.

So I went past the gas station. And there they were searching the trash cans somewhere in the dumpster. And once they pulled the video from the gas station, what did they claim they'd found? They said that they got Julie on camera stopping at the gas station to throw away items. And they see her on camera with this bag that could fit in the palm of her hand, about the size of a diaper, because that's what she had in the bag, a diaper. She said maybe there was two in there, but it was diapers. But you can clearly see on the camera

that it could fit in the palm of her hand. And she threw it away, and then she went back to the house to get her cards. The prosecution would contend that the small bag Beverly discarded contained the murder weapon, blood-saturated clothing, and any material she used to clean up any trace of blood on her person. None of these items have ever been located,

not at that Hux gas station, nor the dump police combed for evidence. Hightower continues to take issue with how the incentive to search Hux was portrayed in court. There was an officer in trial who testified that he went to Hux, and the defense attorney, she asked, well, what made you go there? And he said, oh, I just got a feeling. Just got a feeling.

SONIA DARA GERMES So they set it up to make it look like Julie lied when it was something that she remembered and you gave as a tip, and then they didn't even attribute it to Julie or to you. Correct. So, Guzmintin was also on the prosecution's witness list. And if he would have testified, then I could have. But they kept him off too. He didn't testify either. And so they never disclosed where that tip came from? Never. I've even said this to people on my social media platform and and I get called a liar, and, nope, they found out

that she lied, and I'm like, okay. Well, I've got a text message to my sister to prove it, time stamped and all. You probably would have phone records showing that you called. Sure do. And every call is recorded that comes into that police station.

Hightower has indeed showed me text messages and phone records that back up her version of that outreach. Again, to date, Carl Gustentin has not responded to my multiple attempts to reach him. But while Renee's call didn't prevent her daughter's arrest, it didn't provoke it. The arrest warrant was issued the day before, actually. It was signed and issued the day before. And they chose to arrest her on this day because of her first appearance, it would line up on the same day as Jay's funeral.

And that was a calculated decision, I believe, to boost and bolster the emotional outrage of the public. Because here you have her having her first appearance at the exact same time that the funeral is going on and they are a parking lot away from each other. Criminal defense attorney Bob Mata and I connected with Renee on a call. Hello. Hey, how are you? Hi, I'm good.

I'm gonna patch in Bob, stand by. Hello. Okay, I'm merging. I'm gonna, Patch and Bob, stand by. Hello? Okay, I'm merging us with Renee. Hold on one second. All right, you guys, Bob, Renee, Renee, Bob. So Bob, we have some really interesting updates for you. In the press conference held five days after the murder, the then Williamson County State's attorney states that Julia Bevelies claims she was met

by a knife-wielding mass desalent were proven false. But Renee Hightower and Julia's supporters have never stopped looking for him. Renee even hired a private investigator to find him. My private investigator said that he overheard a dispatcher, because they come out to his shooting range, he overheard the dispatcher saying, they come out to his shooting range. He overheard dispatcher saying, I thought we were on our way to the other 911 call. Julie's 911 call was placed at 1224.

So there's supposed to be another call. They subpoena the 911 calls, it's not in there. However, there is a incident out in the same area that Julie is at. And this call was made at 1030 for a suspicious person. No way. Yes. This is at 1030. He was out there, deligerent, talking about harming somebody, just cussing and carrying on.

And somebody calls the cops on them, and then they go respond. And they pretty much did whatever, talked, got his name, information, sent him on his way. He's wearing a black hoodie and dark pants. This would spur the first of many rabbit holes Bob and I would go down, looking for the knife-wielding man Julia Bevelie claimed she encountered. But this tip led to a specific man, a man now incarcerated for attempting to disarm an officer, and arrested multiple times previously.

A man who, unlike Julia Bevel Beverly, has a history of crimes, mental illness, and a fondness for hunting. Never in a million trillion years would you ever suspect Julia of this. Never. Not one person. As a matter of fact, they thought it was suicide before they even thought about Julia,

until the police said it was Julie. I mean, that guy sounds like somebody that we really need to look at. Yes. Man, that is crazy. If Julia Bevelie didn't kill Jade Beasley, someone else did, and there was one likely place to start searching.

We're heading to Marion. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. I'm here for it. I'm ready. On the next murder on Songbird Road, we travel to Marion, Illinois to sit face-to-face with Julia Bevely. She said she wasn't even thinking, and then she's walking through, and then she sees the blood in the living room.

She's like, oh my god, Jay. And encounter a community divided. The woman behind the desk at Starbucks, she said it's sad. But she also had her doubts as to whether or not Julie did it before heading to the site of the murder. Should we go walk it? I think so. I think we should.

I think we should. All right, let's go see what's up. Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Taylor Chocoin and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research, writing, and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting by Bob Mata and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Editing, sound design, and original music by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chicoin. Additional music by Asher Kurtz.

Archival elements courtesy of WSIL News 3. Please like, subscribe, and leave us a review wherever you're listening. You can follow me on all platforms at Lauren Bright-Pacheco and email the show with thoughts, suggestions, or tips at investigatingmurderatihartmedia.com. For more I Heart podcasts, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Thanks for listening. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden.

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Is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free? Did you kill her? Listen to The Real Killer, Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremorchi. And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season, we explore a new theme from poisoners to art thieves. We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching. And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app,

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