Murder on Songbird Road - 3. The Timeline

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Bob and Lauren connect in Marion, Illinois for Julia Bevely’s sentencing. Through a jailhouse visit with Bevely- and interviews with her family- a narrative emerges that is at odds with key elements of the prosecution theory in terms of the murder and the woman convicted of having committed it.  Email the us with thoughts, suggestions or tips at [e-mail].  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I don't think she did it. That's Stort, the biological father of Jaden. They've never found a weapon or to change clothes. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. If there was a magic wand waved and Julie was out, you wouldn't have any reservation whatsoever about Jaden being with her. No. She loved all her children.

Nikki says she knows Julia extremely well, even for cousins. Even the ones that she didn't give birth to, that is one thing that she is extremely good at. Beverly suddenly recalled that she actually stopped at Huck's. I said, Julie, you gotta tell them, because as of right now, they're trying to say you never left the house. I called and asked for Carl Gussentine personally. I told him that Julie remembered she stopped at Huck's for gas.

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, OK, and hung up the phone. The video from the gas station, what did they claim they'd found? They got Julie on camera stopping at the gas station to throw away items. In the same area Julie is at, there is an incident and this call was made at 1030 for a suspicious person.

No way. Yes. He's wearing a black hoodie and dark pants. We're heading to Marion. I'm here for it. I'm ready. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco, and this is Murder on Songbird Road. Julia Beverly's sentencing was scheduled for Friday, October 13, 2023. The day before, Bob Mata came down from Chicago. I flew in through St. Louis, Missouri, and drove the two hours to Marion.

We connected there in person for the first time. In person, Mata comes across more like a slightly jaded tough guy than a former defense attorney. He's long traded ties for t-shirts, a beard, and a mustache that veers more biker than bar exam, a look much more in keeping with his additional passion to law and his wife, Allison, music. When we finally crossed paths in Marion, he had just met with Julia Beverly at the Williamson County Jail. So I get down there, typical small town, county jail,

but big structure. It's a relatively big structure. I don't know, have you been into a jail? Yeah. So, Pinkneyville, where Chris is, it basically looks like a 1960s high school. Yeah. This one's a little more modern. It's still probably 30 years old. But for Marion, Illinois, which is extremely rural down here, it was big. Clearly they have a pretty good amount of people in there because there were several blocks

and you walk in and every jail and prison has that smell. There's no other smell like a jail or a prison. It's bad, it's like a weird maple syrup with like combined with dirty feet. I can't pick. I like to say it's kind of stress and depression. Yeah, that's, oh, well that's for certain. Like if that's, if that had a smell, like combined with dirty feet. I can't pick- I like to say it's kind of stress and depression. Yeah, that's, oh, well, that's for certain.

Like if that's, if that had a smell, that's exactly what it would smell like. So I get in, give them my creds. I wanted to be able to meet with her with some privacy so that we could have like a full discussion. Since Mata's still a licensed attorney, he was able to meet with Beverly in an area that allows a degree of privacy, as opposed to a communal visiting space, which was conducive to the conversation he planned on having.

So I wanted to interview her. I wanted to get factually what her side of the story was, where it wasn't being read through a transcript, where I know obviously things were not addressed, or things were inadmissible. I'm always walking in having defended some pretty awful people in my life, and I always can pride myself on being able to sense if somebody seems off. I always feel like I can pick them out, and I wasn't getting that sense from her.

You know, and I'm asking her a lot of questions. Like, I wouldn't consider it to be an interrogation, but I told her, I said, I'm'm asking her a lot of questions. Like I wouldn't consider it to be an interrogation, but I told her, I said, I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I want to pick out the things that we know were issues at trial, the things that we are going to be concerned with as we're progressing through this. We want to address them. We can't pretend that they don't exist. And I said, look, I don't want you sugarcoating anything. Like if you and Mike were in arguments, I want to hear authentically how they were. Like, were you guys screamers? Were you dropping F-bombs at each other? What kind of relationship was it? I want to know

because it all matters. She was candid. I'd start with the background. I get the history of her and Mike, the relationship with her and Jade. Mata and I both know that while friends and family often paint a sympathetic picture of the accused, some questions and doubts can only be addressed by actually sitting with them face to face. What was she like physically? Small. So she's probably 4'11", diminutive, small, like not imposing. My wife's 4'11", too, so I'm used to little. But she's little, sweet, very nice. I start from the history of her and Mike from the beginning.

When did you meet? How old were the kids? Julie's got Jayden and Mike had Jade. They were both four years old when they met. She goes through the backstory in terms of- He was a cook, right? And she was a hostess? Yeah. They were working at this Benny's, which is an Italian spot that they both worked out here in Marion. In terms of the relationship, they hit it off.

They both liked the fact that they had a young kid. They felt that that was something that was going to make them compatible in terms of being able to, hey, we're not going to go out tonight because we have kids, you know, that type of thing. And so they really kind of connected pretty quickly. The relationship blossoms within a year they're moving in together. I was asking her, you know, how was your relationship with Jade initially? My parents divorced when I was young, and I'm also a parent of stepchildren.

I used that experience from me being a step-child to like what not to do in terms of being a step-parent, you know, never forcing kids to say, I love you and let them just develop organically their feelings for you and all the things that went on with me as a young kid. I didn't want those same mistakes and I wanted my kids to grow to love me on their own accord. So she did the same thing. She was very thoughtful about it. I'm like, how was your relationship with Jessica, who was Mike's ex, mother of Jade? Renee said that they never really interacted much.

They didn't. That was kind of the deal. Anytime there were issues with Jade, Jessica would never communicate with Julie. She would always go to Mike, which irritated Julie, obviously. She's like, we're together, they have two kids together, they're a blended family, and just Jessica just never would really get with her, like in terms of interacting so she gave me the examples of. Situations that had arisen over the years they weren't anything that lasted for long duration kind of like me neal type things like there was a thing where we be running late i give jade a pop tart on the run type of breakfast jade wouldn't eat it. run type of breakfast, Jade wouldn't eat it. And then Jade would mention something at school like, oh, I didn't eat breakfast,

my parents didn't feed me. And then they were calling Jessica and Jessica's like, oh, why aren't you feeding my kid? And she starts like for a couple of months, like bringing boxes of cereal over, like as if they're neglecting the kid. It's like those kind of things were going on. So it definitely was never

a relationship where they were friendly. It doesn't sound like. Just an aside, this strained, if not nonexistent, relationship with Jessica could shed some light on the lack of support for Julia in the days and hours immediately following the murder. Also know that we have reached out multiple times to multiple members of Jade's side of the family, and you will hear their take as well in future episodes. Back to Bob and his meeting with Beverly.

It wasn't like a battle. It just was like a non-existent relationship, which to me is strange. I mean, if you've got blended families, and Jessica had another kid, so Jade had a half-sister. And what had happened during COVID, when they shut the country down, kids eventually started having them do remote. another kid, so Jade had a half sister. And what had happened during COVID, when they shut the country down, kids eventually started having them do remote.

And then as it started to phase back, giving people the choice, you want to send your kids back or do you want them to stay remote? And so that was a sticky issue between Mike and Julie, because Mike and Julie wanted Jade to finish the year just remote. Jessica wanted her back in school in person. I guess Mike and Julie ended up having a beef about it.

And where Mike's like, well, look, ultimately it's not your kid. Jessica's going to have final say so over this thing. So I'm like, well, did you harbor resentment? Was that something that you would bring up in arguments? She's like, no, not really. I think that's really interesting because Julie was working at home for Hyatt. Right.

And Mike was working out of the house at Cracker Barrel. Right. So if Julie wanted Jade to do remote learning, that puts the responsibility on her. Right. Which speaks volumes to their relationship. Right. If you don't like a kid, you don't want that kid doing remote learning in your house.

Sure, you want them onto the house. Because you have to, you know, police it. Right. Exactly. We'll be right back with murder on Songbird Road. He was a Boy Scout leader, a church deacon, a husband, a father. He went to a local church. He was going to the grocery store with us. He was the guy next door.

But he was leading a double life. He was certainly a peeping Tom, looking through the windows, looking at people, fantasizing about what he could do. He then began entering the houses. He could get into the home, take something, and get out and not be caught. He felt very powerful. He was a monster, hiding in plain sight. Someone killed four members of a family.

It just didn't happen here. Journey inside the mind of one of history's most notorious killers, BTK, through the voices of the people who know him best. Listen to Monster BTK on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Catch Jon Stewart back in action on The Daily Show and in your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast.

From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now. Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in-depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter.

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Listen to Nocturne, Tales from the Shadows, as part of my cultural podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarchi Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarchi. Holly Frey And I'm Holly Frey. 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 Frey 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.

So the portrait of Beverly as a mother and a stepmother that had begun to emerge from our preliminary interviews seems in keeping with the fact that the state never presented a motive or any testimony that painted Julia Beverly as abusive or violent. Instead, they offered a timeline, confirmed by her employer's record, cell signals and surveillance footage. According to the prosecution, on December 5, 2020, Beveley was scheduled to work from home from 7.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.

But while she was scheduled to have a break from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. But while she was scheduled to have a break from 9.30 a.m. to 9.45, Beverly was actually logged out of the work system from 9.30 to 10.15 a.m. It is during that 45-minute window that the prosecution contends Beverly brutally murdered Jade Beasley, meticulously removing all evidence of blood from her person before returning to her home office and typing text responses

to customer inquiries and complaints on social media for an additional 50 minutes. Beverly then requested to end her workday early, at 11.05 a.m., and was granted time off at 11.07, when she logged off Hyatt's system. Beverly left the house by 11.36 a.m. The prosecution contends that was when Beverly departed, with the bloody outfit she wore while committing the murder,

the material she used to clean up, and the murder weapon. All of this fitting into the small bag she was captured on video discarding at Huck's gas station, where she said she stopped to get gas before realizing she'd left her credit cards at home. There are many issues with this narrative, which we will address in great detail going forward, but one stuck out immediately to both Mata and myself as soon as we started reviewing the facts of this case. No blood was ever found in Beverly's home office.

Not Beverly's or Jade Beasley's. We will get back to the importance and probability of that in terms of the prosecution's theory. But back to Bob. And I lead up to the 5th of December, which is that horrible day. I'm like, start from the minute you open your eyes. Tell me what happened.

I get the background about, like, Jessica had had another child, Jade's half-sister, and there was a party that was supposed to be taking place that weekend. Julie had been told by both Jade and Mike that the party was taking place on Sunday. And December 5th is Saturday, and she's working that day. And she had pushed up her work schedule an hour. She wanted to get off an hour earlier.

I asked her, was there a reason in particular that you wanted to reschedule and move that hour up? She's like, no, not in particular. Essentially, Mike's out of the house early by like seven o'clock. He's working the morning shift at the Cracker Barrel. And at that point, it's just Julie and Jade. She logs in remotely, keystrokes the whole nine yards. They know when she's off, they know when she's on, they know what she's doing on her computer. About eight o'clock, Jade wanders in and she's got like an office that's got a door. I'm like, was the door closed? She's like, yeah, typically we'll keep it closed. And she said, Jade came in, hungry. She said, we'll go make yourself a bowl of cereal. She says, okay. Closes the door. Doesn't hear from her for a couple hours.

And at some point, Jade apparently comes in and says, I'm hungry again. Julie's like, why don't we wait till lunch? It's in an hour and a half, we'll have a nice lunch. And she said Jade was upset about it. Like she was frustrated. She's like, I'm hungry now, I wanna eat now. Julie's like, what's really going on?

You can't be that upset because I don't want you to eat another bowl of cereal. It was at this point, according to Beverly, Jade confided in her as to a situation she was navigating with a friend from school. We are not diving into the specifics of that conversation because it is not our intention to sensationalize or exploit dynamics happening

within an 11-year-old social circle. But it isn't a new window that has come up repeatedly in multiple interviews. We mention it now only because it could explain the initial misconception that Jade was processing something that could have prompted her to contemplate suicide. That conversation is also what Beverly says led to the extension of the break, which was supposed to last from 9.30 to 9.45 a.m. So what Julie tells me today is that she had gone on break coinciding with when Jade's in the room with her.

And at some point, this conversation's proceeding, and Julie feels like she's not making any headway with her, and she stands up and she starts to usher out. She's like, I got to get back to work. My break's over. I'm already 10 minutes over. Go, go. We'll talk about it later. Mata pressed Beverly on the dynamic between her and Jade regarding the conversation.

She's like, well, I got up when I was trying to end the conversation, because I couldn't get her to leave the room, because I needed to get back on and continue to work and get logged back in, because I had been out for way longer than 15 minutes. Well, I'm like, do you remember what time you logged in? She said, I think it was like 10.13 is when I get logged back in. And I'm like, okay. At some point you stand up and she's like, yeah.

And what are you doing? She's like, well, I'm walking behind Jade like this, you know, I'm behind her and I'm not pushing her violently. I'm just kind of like, all right, you got to go. So you get her out of the room. I mean, I'm like, did that devolve into a screaming match? Were you screaming at her? She's like, no, none of that.

I was obviously upset. I was obviously frustrated. I got her out of the room. I told her to go to her room. And she's like, I logged back in. According to her login and keystrokes, we know that Beverly then returned to working, typing exchanges from 10.15 a.m.

until she asked to wrap her day early and logged off at 11.07. During that window, phone records also show that at 10.19, she receives a silly meme text from Jade's father, Mike, before replying wow, asking at 10.39 if he's already off work. He responds at 11.23.

She gets a response that he's scheduled till two, but probably gonna get off at one. An important note, Beverly does not appear to have been forthright with the police about the conversation she had with Jade or the fact Jade wasn't happy about ending it when Beverly had to get back to work and sent her to her room. One could argue that she didn't want to divulge the nature of the conversation or that she had disciplined Jade in order to protect Jade's memory. One

could also argue it was to protect herself. Either way, she decides to end her workday early. So she says, okay, I've decided I'm gonna do some retail therapy, is what she calls it. I've got a bunch of people on my Christmas list, it's December 5th, I'm gonna go to Walmart, I'm gonna shop. So that's like at 1107. And at that point I ask her, well, had you texted anybody that you were going shopping?

She's like, no. So Beverly logged off from work by 1107 and cell tower pangs have her leaving the house by 1136 a.m. Here's how she accounted for those 29 minutes to Bob. She's like, all right, well, I had to get dressed because I don't have to get dressed to work. I'm in my pajamas.

I got my clothes on, I brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, and I let the dogs out. They have two decent sized dogs. One's like an Australian shepherd. The other's like a rot mix. So they're big dogs. I'm like, okay, and then you leave. And she's like, yeah, I leave.

And I'm like, well, did you remember to let the dogs back in? And she's like, yeah, I leave. And I'm like, well, did you remember to let the dogs back in? And she's like, no. I'm like, well, if I'm law enforcement, it's extremely convenient that you've let the dogs out in the backyard when all this is taking place, whether it's you or an intruder. And I've done it. I've left my dog out.

You know, if I'm in a rush, she claims that she'd just forgotten to bring the dogs back in when she left. This would become another of what Bob and I call bad facts for Beverly, as is the fact that Beverly left 11-year-old Jade at home alone. Especially since in Illinois, it is illegal to leave a child under the age of 14 home alone. This is the highest age requirement in the United States.

And so she's like, all right, well, I tell Jade, I'm gonna be gone a couple hours, just play on your phone, and I'll be back. She's like, it wasn't unusual for us to leave Jade and Jade. We'd never leave the little kids, but if it was just a couple hours, like a two-hour max, we would leave the 11-year-olds if it was during the day. So I'm like, did you invite her?

She's like, no, I didn't invite her. I wanted to clear my head. So she says she goes out, gets in the car, starts driving. Bethely says she was about halfway into her travels when she noticed her gas light was on and the car was on empty. She's at a red light, and she opens her bag, and she says she's got two purses.

She uses a bigger purse when she's got the babies because she keeps diapers in there. And she's got a smaller purse that when she doesn't have the kids, she'll just carry the smaller purse around where she drops her cards in there and her ID. So she says she realizes she doesn't have her debit card there. She continues on to Hawks, pulls in and then at that point she's like, sometimes I have to change the kids into the car. I had these diapers there. So I pull in and I dump these in the garbage.

I'm like, so you pull up to like a pump and you're using one of the garbage cans that they have typically between the pumps. And she's like, yeah. So then I obviously have to go home and get my cards. This is when the prosecution contends Beverly dumped bloody clothing, shoes, cleaning materials, and the murder weapon. Even though the surveillance footage from the gas station shows her discarding a small bag that easily fit in one hand. It's also of note that when her car was seized after the murder and placed in storage,

it was indeed on empty. Back to Bob and what Beverly told him about returning home and sitting in the driveway in front of the barn, situated to the side of the house, scrolling Facebook, before becoming aware something seemed off. She can hear the dogs barking and not like, oh mommy's home, but like that deeper, deeper bark like oh there's a squirrel or there's another dog, like that real deep guttural bark that dogs can get.

So she's got the dogs barking like that in the backyard, and this door is ajar. What is going on here? I don't know if she's on high alert, but she feels like something is astray, like something seems off to her. And she claims that she goes up, she notices that the front door is open,

the storm door is closed. I'm like, and you did not leave it that way. She's like, I did not leave it that way. And she claims that as soon as she pulls the storm open, that she notices blood in the living room. And somebody clad in all black, it's got a mask on, black gloves, comes charging at her and that he's got a knife.

And I said, okay, where are you locationally? She's like, I am literally in the doorway of the house. Well, what do you do? She's like, well am literally in the doorway of the house. Well, what do you do? She's like, well, I put my hand up because he's got the knife above shoulder height drawn back. Well, what kind of knife is it? She's like, well, I don't know. Did it look like a kitchen knife, like a chef's knife,

what we use to cut vegetables? She's like, yeah, it definitely wasn't a folding knife. So I'm like, it was fixed blade, just a regular kitchen knife. She's like, it could have been. I'm like, could it, just a regular kitchen knife. She's like, it could have been. I'm like, could it have been one of your knives? She's like, it could have been. And so she claims that this guy comes at her,

she puts her left hand up. I'm like, what handed are you? She's like, I'm right handed, but I have my little purse in my right hand. So instinctually I put my left hand up and got a cut and we wrestle around and then I get away from him and I make a beeline to Mike's bed stand because Mike has a gun in there and while I'm on the way I hear the storm door slam and I'm like, well, do you go get the gun?

It's like I never get the gun. She's like, I didn't, I didn't, I don't know how to shoot it, but I thought if I would get it, I could scare them off. I'm like, so what stopped you from getting the gun? I was retelling this story to Allison. Again, Allison is Mata's wife and also a criminal defense attorney. And Allison's like, I don't care if you heard this, like the storm door slam or not, I'm getting the gun, whether I know how to shoot her or not, I'm getting the gun, whether I know how to shoot it or not, I'm getting the gun.

So Allison had a little problem with that part of the story, that she didn't just go and get the gun. So at that point, I said, okay, what do you do then? She's like, well, I go to the bathroom, our bathroom. That's when, Beverly said, she rinsed her bleeding hands and wrapped her left hand with a cloth because of the wounds to the side of the hand that took the brunt of the assailant's knife.

Well, did you have to walk by the bathroom that Jade was found in in order to get to your bathroom? She's like, no, I didn't. Well, what's going through your mind at this point? She's like, I have no idea, honestly. I have no idea. And then 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. She's walking past the bathroom, and she hears the water running. And she opens the door, and it's like a nightmare. It's like nothing she's ever seen. So I'm watching her reaction, and she's telling me this story,

and she starts crying, authentically, it seemed to me. But you never know what the genesis of that is. You don't know if it's regret. You don't know if it's reliving it. What remains problematic for Beverly and was leveraged by the prosecution is the amount of time their timeline purports transpired between Beverly's return home, encountering her alleged assailant, discovering Jade's body, and calling 911.

That call was made at 1224 p.m., a full 31 minutes after the state contends Beverly drove up her driveway. We'll explore why that amount of time may be misleading later. Back to Bob. She says the Huck's video has her dumping the garbage at 11.48. Now, she claimed at trial that there was some evidence that came in that indicated that the clock was off, like that the time stamp

was off for the video. Now I'm asking, was it giving you more time or less time? And she's like, I can't remember. So we have 11 48. So we've got the drive back to the house again, seven to 10 minutes. So that puts us like 1201 1202, a few minutes scrolling Facebook and then into the house. So it's like I was putting the struggle minute, a couple minutes, you know, like it's it's 28, 30 minutes like gap from like she gets in there and doesn't do anything. That is our biggest issue to me. We're going to have to build these timelines out, like, hardcore. And it's going to have to be through things that we can substantiate.

Murder on Songbird Road will return after the break. He was a Boy Scout leader, a church deacon, a husband, a father. He went to a local church. He was going to the grocery store with us. He was the guy next door. But he was leading a double life. He was certainly a peeping Tom, looking through the windows, looking at people, fantasizing about what he could do. He then began entering the houses.

He could get into their home, take something, and get out and not be caught. He felt very powerful. He was a monster, hiding in plain sight. Someone killed four members of a family. It just didn't happen here. Journey inside the mind of one of history's most notorious

killers, BTK, through the voices of the people who know him best. Listen to Monster BTK on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. John Stewart is back at The Daily Show and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition Podcast. Dive into John's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the shows, correspondents and contributors. And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else.

Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, tales from the shadows presented by I Heart and Sonora An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters

To bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures I know you Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarchi. And I'm Holly Frye. 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. Here again is murder on Songbird Road. With that in mind, we head to Songbird Road the next morning after stopping for coffee along the way. So we're going to start with a field trip over to what was formerly Mike and Julie and Jade's and the rest of the kids' house. I'm curious to see the layout. Yeah. I want to see where it's situated.

And how close the neighbors are, yeah. I want to see how remote it is. Exactly. Or just like how close there is to anything, you know, like walking distance. Yeah, now that we're driving out of the commercial district, you can see that it's feeling much more rural. It's very rural. I thought… While we were getting coffee, I asked the woman behind the counter if she'd heard of

the murder that took place on Songbird Road. I thought she made it very interesting. She said it's sad. It is, and it is. But she also had her doubts as to whether or not Julie did it. Exactly. And I asked her, what's your source? They didn't televise this trial, right?

So you're going to get people that talk in a small town, and you're going to get the local news. Like those are going to be the two sources if they didn't go sit in at the trial, right? Yeah, and often they intermesh. Exactly. Without us prodding, at the end I kind of asked her, well, you know, do you think that Julie did it?

She's like, I don't know. Yeah, and so she has doubts. That's the thing. The concept of reasonable doubt has never been properly defined. There is no blanket definition of what that means for jurors. There isn't. Every jurisdiction has a different definition for it. You get your jury instructions,

and those are always argued between the sides prior to them getting issued to the jury when they're getting ready to go deliberate. There is no uniform definition of it. It was Friday, October 13th, 2023, the same day Julia Beveley would be sentenced. It was a cloudy, warm day as we made our way through the winding, rural roads.

Halloween decor and some early seasonal tricks were on display. We've got a little TP action. It's Friday night lights down here. I mean, it's essentially pink houses, you know, John Mullen camp, too. That's what we're talking about. Turn right onto Pinsum Road. You know John Mellingham too We're getting remote two miles out We know that the house they disassembled it We're back here Just blow by it? No, coming up. It's this hook in the road, I think.

We're back here. We're getting back here. Alright, now we're turning onto Sungbird Road. Oh my gosh, there's a little... Baseball field. Is that a baseball field? Yeah. So, she told me about this.

They used to actually play Little League games. It's grown over at this point. Looks like it hasn't been, and there's the old concession stand. That's so sweet. And so we're two tenths of a mile away from the house. Over to our left, we've got clearly a farmer. Some abandoned cars.

Some abandoned cars. Got like a little- Another abandoned baseball field. Baseball field field all grown over clearly abandoned All right, so this is a neighbor small house carport back there and about Keep off my property sign. Yes. I mean we're here

You can see where the front where the house was. Okay, so that's the foundation of the house. That's the barn then. Should we go walk it? I think so. I think we should. I think we should. I wanna pull in this little driveway. All right. All right, let's go see what's up.

It's just like a bit of a makeshift gravel driveway. To the right are two giant, just vine-overwhelmed, really mature trees that look like they've seen better days. Yeah, and I mean, these are 100-plus-year-old trees. These are old, old trees. They're actually kind of amazing-looking trees. The two distinct trees that mark the driveway were the same trees Julia's cousin Nicky immediately recognized in the social media post the day of the murder.

I don't know that I've ever seen a tree overgrown with vines like that. We walked further up the driveway. Probably about 50 yards from the road leads up to where I believe Julie would have pulled up. OK, so this is what she referred to as the barn. She said that they used to have horses, and they used to keep horses in this barn back in the day. So she says when she gets back from her huck strip

that she pulls up right here and she says that the front door is open and she notices it at some point they had a fence back here for the dogs which they've taken down. Let's walk in and see. So and she said there was no access to the backyard because there was no gate in the fence. And so this would have been the backyard, the fenced-in backyard where the dogs wandered and there was no access to it. So she would have had to have gone into the house to let the dogs in because I asked her, you park here like you knew that you left the dogs out, but I asked her, did you text Jade to let the dogs in? And she did not. All right, so we see

what used to be the modular home, the double-wide, which was obviously removed. So it looks like it was what? I don't know, 1200 square feet maybe? Yeah, one level. The house is no longer there, but the outline of where it stood is still visible, as are the remnants of what would have been water and electrical access.

So we still got some of the piping from... So this is the foundation that they lay. It's literally just kind of tarped. Yeah, it's tarped, and it was cinder blocks. I mean, that was literally the foundation. So if this was the front door, this is where it went down with the masked marauder for to believe that story.

Even in the exposed confines of the former home's footing, the area feels nestled in an isolating way. And unfortunately, this is not the kind of neighborhood where you would have ring cameras or... No way. Yeah. I mean, this is rural. We're in farmland here. There's no question about it. So if we're looking at Songbird Road, get the neighbor to the left facing road is probably about the house looks to be about 150 yards and it's about the same to the right.

Yeah, the three are kind of equidistant almost. The three closest homes and neither one is directly across. Yeah, and we're not close to any kind of main thoroughfare. So, like, the concept of somebody walking back here seems remote to me. You're not getting, like, casual foot traffic or somebody who is looking to rob because they think that there is something of great value in this neighborhood.

Yeah, zero chance of somebody just wandering around back here. You know, because somebody would have had to have known that Jade was home. Almost a year later, that exchange would come back to haunt us. But in this moment, we were walking through the remnants of a family's former life, building materials strewn with broken bits of dog's toys and children's playthings, reminders of lives interrupted and one ended. So it's a pretty, she said, it was about two acres. So I'm assuming it goes all the way to the back here. This is all their land.

Looks like a recently cut down tree. It's rural. Yeah. I mean, it's so rural that if anybody's screaming in that house, I don't know that they're hearing it because I'd say that that closest neighbor, if you're facing the road, it's probably about 150 yards.

Yeah, on either side. Should we stop over there? I feel like we kind of should stop over there. Let's see if the... Oh. I just heard something. Look at that bird up there. It's a turkey vulture. Wow.

It's kind of ominous. It's super ominous. Wow. It's kind of ominous. It's super ominous. Wow. Yeah, you hear a thump and you look up and you see that. Yeah. Wow. That's interesting. I've never seen one up close like that. That's a good eye, Lauren.

I knew that was a turkey vulture. It lent more than a slightly portentous tone to the morning heading into Beverly Sentencing, but we had one more stop to make along the way. Should we head to the gas station? Yeah, let's do it. The time it would take us to get there was only one of the surprises we were about to encounter. On the next murder on Songbird Road, the great aunt ends up giving the victim impact statement

on behalf of the family. There was like an undercurrent of real animosity that was religious-based in this family dynamic between these two different families, that being... To say that those three children are being raised Christian. Christian, like... As if it's vindication. To say that those three children are being raised Christian. Christian. Like...

As if it's vindication. Adamantly stated it. Turn to Julie and set it with conviction. Raised as Christians, looking directly at her. Make no bones about it. Darkness, the light, evil. Oh, that's what I wrote down. Yeah. They're talking about witches.

Are they alleging that this was some kind of ritual or? Truth seems like it to me. Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Taylor Chicoin and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research, writing, and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting by Bob Mata 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. 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

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