Murder on Songbird Road - 7. Close Calls

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

The State’s Attorney claimed Bevely’s account of encountering an armed assailant was proven false within days of the murder but a closer look into call records raises questions about other possible suspects. Wrongful Conviction Podcast Episodes: Julie Rae Michelle Murphy Melissa Lucio Email us with thoughts, suggestions or tips at [e-mail]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Previously on Murder on Songbird Road. I am Jade's great aunt. That's Brenda, the sister of Sheila Beasley, who is Mike's mother and Jade's paternal grandmother. My name is Bailey. Jade's father, Michael, is my first cousin. When you first heard that it was Julie, was there part of your mind that was like, no way? Or was there part of your mind where you're like, that totally makes sense? My personal opinion is that sometimes people snap. We believe the jealousy came in and we believe she snapped.

A family member owns a pagan store in Salem. They believe in witchery and witchcraft. There ain't no good witch. That pagan relative of Julie's Brenda is referencing is actually her cousin Nikki. Me and my mom run a witchcraft shop. We are both practicing pagans. I don't understand how it has anything to do with the trial. The people down there associate witchcraft with something evil,

so they're trying to associate evil with Julie. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco, and this is Murder on Songbird Road. At the press conference announcing Jade Beasley's murder and Julia Beverly's arrest, former Williamson County State's attorney, Brandon Zanotti, claimed Bevelie's claim of having encountered an armed assailant, Cladenol Black, was a fabrication. The suspect gave law enforcement an initial report that an unidentified male ran from the residence upon her arriving home. She said that she left the residence with Jade

alone in the home for a short time and returned home to find an unidentified male fleeing. The investigation has proven this story to be false. In her 911 call, Beverly is quite specific about what the intruder was wearing. Could you tell what color shirt he was wearing? and how they exited, but she was quite unsure where they took off running. Which way did they go? The other side of the road, they just ran out. Julia Beverly's 911 call wasn't the only one of interest on the day of Jade's murder.

We've been told of two other calls, one specifically mentioned by Renee in a previous episode. And this call was made at 1030 for a suspicious person. No way. Yes, this made at 1030 for a suspicious person. No way. Yes. This is at 1030. He was out there, belligerent, talking about harming somebody, cussing and carrying on. And somebody called the cops on him, and they go respond. And they pretty much got his name, information,

sent him on his way. He's wearing a black hoodie and dark pants. For reasons we'll explain shortly, Renee Hightower and Julia Beverly supporters also believe there was another call, one made by a neighbor on Songbird Road. My efforts to trace this specific call began in January of 2024 with Williamson County.

However, after weeks of being redirected, then ultimately ignored by the records division of the Marion Police Department, my request finally landed on the desk of Marion's city attorney, who I'd like to acknowledge for her helpful, timely, and professional responses. While the dispatch search she initiated didn't uncover the specific call, they explained that their audio files only go back 18 months. They also expressed their belief that the call was made to Williamson County rather than the city of Marion. They did locate several CAD reports, however, which they forwarded. CAD stands for Computer Aided Dispatch, a system used by law enforcement agencies

to document and manage calls for service. These reports provide a detailed timeline of events, including when an officer was dispatched, their arrival at the scene, and the specific actions they took. They also capture other key details and interactions that occurred during an incident. As Bob and I scrolled through the Williamson County

CAD reports, from December 5th, 2020, something caught our attention, making them far more intriguing than we'd initially expected. And it looks like there were two calls. The police were responding to Julie Bevelie's call, but it looks like Marion police were already in route to a call about a male in all black,

you know, 50 yards on that quarry league, which is the back road adjacent to Julie's next door neighbor. And that very clearly describes a male. The first of the three reports lists, under the description of Beverly's call, notations that Marion units, an ambulance, and K-9 units are en route. Then there's this verbatim. Marion advised they saw a male wearing a black hoodie walking on Buckley about 50 yards westbound off Cory League.

Julie wouldn't have said, she said she didn't know what direction he ran off in. So they're not getting this tip from her. But Marion advised they saw a male wearing a black hoodie walking on Buckley about 50 yards westbound off of Cory League. Julie described what the man was wearing, said that he took off on foot. The 911 call, very specifically, she's asked, which direction did he head?

And she said, Her story's always been, like, she comes into the house, she has the scrap of the dude, she goes in to go try to get the gun. So we, she would have had no idea which way this guy would have run. I mean, what I'm saying is, to me, it's important if we can find out if in fact they had sent officers out to that area based on the other call saying, a dude just ran through my backyard in all black. — Renee Hightower first heard chatter

regarding the existence of such a call from multiple sources, including the private investigator she hired after the murder. — It's weird because, like, with my first investigator, he was telling me all these things that go on. He owns a gun range, and this is where all the Marion officers were going to shoot. And he's just listening. Here's that private investigator, Terry Newman. Renee hired me as an investigator to see if I could find anything that didn't seem right. And there was plenty of stuff that wasn't right. As I was digging around, I overheard a group of

law enforcement talking about it. Of course, that was a thing. That was a pretty big deal, a pretty gruesome deal. So there was a lot of talk. Maybe some of it was correct. Maybe some of it wasn't. Maybe somebody was talking and just wanted to be that guy that knew more than the other guy. But I did overhear one of the officers state to another couple officers that

we had a 911 call before that call. What struck me is this description of whoever called in. They were looking for a person in a dark hoodie and dark pants. Could be sweatpants, could just be dark pants. Running through suspiciously, running through backyards, which kind of was the description of what Julie gave of her attacker. So right away, and I think I called Renee up and I said,

hey, you need to get your attorney to subpoena all the 911 calls in all the dispatch offices. You know, I immediately tell Thien's second share there's supposed to be another call. They subpoena the 911 calls. It's not in there. But Renee claims the call did come up again, though, when she was seated with Julie's defense attorney, Terese Thien. Right before we were prepping though, when she was seated with Julie's defense attorney, Terese Thien. Right before we were prepping for trial,

I was in Thien's office talking to her, and she mentioned she's going through the notes really quick and she said, it's about another 911 call. And I'm like, wait, what? Go back. I said, what do you mean another call? Because you told me you didn't have another call before. And she said, well, it was rewired to a non-emergency call. But

this is the call where somebody said they seen somebody running through their yard wearing a black hoodie and black dark pants and a ski mask. Mind you. So this is that call. And it was within minutes of Julie's. Another source regarding that elusive call comes from a woman named Billy Jo. She's a longtime acquaintance of Renee, who started assisting Hightower's efforts for Beverly after her own efforts to find her missing brother, one who struggled with addiction and homelessness, made her question the motivations and integrity of local law enforcement. — The police, they weren't very cooperative.

Right off the bat, did not want nothing to do with helping find my brother because my brother was an addict. I have another sister that gets pulled over. They told her that we need to quit looking for my brother. He's a minister of society and he's in the bottom of a river. So I went to the mayor about it because they weren't very cooperative. Just to go back and revisit the initial comment that they didn't want to look for your brother

because he was an addict. Having been to Marion myself, addiction seems to be a pretty big problem. It is a very big problem here. Like I told you the other day, it's like a whole other city at night here in Marion. This is of note because of the rumors Bob and I have heard from the start that Jade's murder was actually tied to drugs, in particular meth, because of the irrational brutality involved. We'll further explore this theory later. Back to Billy Jo. What drew you initially to Julie's case? Just dealing with the Marion Police Department

over my brother missing. It questioned a lot of things, and Julie's story, knowing how small she is and talking to her, I just knew something wasn't adding up. And that was another reason I made sure I went and sat through trial, because I wanted to hear the facts. Billy Jo attended every day of the trial, which is why she knows that two specific names

that appear on the CAD reports Bob and I were viewing also appeared on the prosecution's witness list. A man named Aaron Luton, who we'll get into in a bit, and another man named Kenny Marks, also known as Butch. Butch was living in the house next to Beverly's when the murder occurred. Billy Joe believes he made that second call because of something he told her sister's boyfriend

while the two men were driving to work. So my sister Stephanie dates a guy named Steven and they worked at Reynolds Roofing, I believe it's called. It's Reynolds something. It's a construction,, I believe it's called. It's rental something. It's a construction. They build buildings and things. And Stephen was taking him back and forth to work and he started talking about it. He said there was a 911 call that there was a guy in a mask or a person in a mask running

through the backyard at that time. And he made that call. He said, I made the 911 call. What's interesting is the placement of the backyard of the property on Songbird Road where Marx was living, in addition to being immediately next to Beverly's. Quarry Lee Road is the one behind Songbird, right? So if you run through the back of Kenny Marx's, you end up on Quarry League. Aerial views and a simple drive-by show Butch's backyard

would have been a direct path to Corey League Road, complete with a heavily wooded area and multiple ponds on the way, which would have been convenient places to toss a weapon. Why they wouldn't have searched those little ponds for a murder weapon is beyond me. Why did they only search the small perimeter? Even if they're trying to get Julie, you know what I'm saying?

Like there's no excuse for them not checking the ponds at all. But connecting with Butch to verify that call would quickly become another rabbit hole. I do have his cell phone number, which I got through an anonymous source. That source was able to communicate with him, but apparently he is rather reluctant to talk about this. We'll be right back with murder on Songbird Road. with murder on Songbird Road.

This is David Eagleman, host of the science podcast, Inner Cosmos. For Valentine's Day, we're diving into the question, what is love from the brain's point of view? What does love have to do with how you were raised or the symmetry of someone's face or the smell of their underarms? Why does the character of love change throughout our lives? Why is heartbreak like drug withdrawal?

And what does any of this have to do with sweaty t-shirts or rom-coms or monogamous animals and the future of love and AI? Join me for this week's inner cosmos for a deep dive into the neurobiology of love and AI. Join me for this week's Inner Cosmos for a deep dive into the neurobiology of love. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, back to murder on Songbird Road. We'd reached out to Butch multiple times and in multiple ways before attempting to do so in person. In August of 2024, I knocked on the door of the small one-floor home he shares with his sisters. It sits atop a five-acre flat farmland property that's bordered at the back with a heavily wooded area. Climbing the two steps leading up to the petite concrete landing in the front door,

I couldn't help but notice the no trespassing sign attached to the white siding with its pronounced firearms theme. It wasn't long before I was heading back to the car. So the woman answered the door first, and I asked if she was living here in 2020. And she said she was not, but her sister was. I explained that I was a journalist and I was looking into the very unfortunate story that unfolded next to her. And she went to get her sister.

That sister was not exactly pleased to meet me or flattered by my compliments of the potted rose bush adorning her porch. Kenny was there, but she said that he was resting, sleeping, and so I inquired as to how he was doing in his health, and I left my number and my email and said that if it was easier for her to talk to me that way, I would love to hear from her. And so they grabbed, you know, went to grab pen and paper and I left my information with her.

Okay. Butch never reached out. So in December of 2024, it was Bob Mata's turn and he dressed for the occasion. Last time we were here, you looked more like disgruntled former detective and now you look like weakened soccer dad. Hey, alright good. I should have worn my hey dudes. Well, I mean the vans really kind of...

The vest, the vest gives you a more affable paternal. I don't know if that's better. When I was thinking about my outfit for the day. I was thinking about straight up hoodie. You know, it's like you want people to feel comfortable, right? Clothing choices have been an ongoing source of sarcastic camaraderie between us

since our initial trip to Marion when Bob shared this critique. And you implied that I don't blend. I mean, like a sore thumb you do. Like, you get that East Coast look to you, woman. I don't know what to tell you. I still remain unsure as to how to process that. Now, back to Bob outside of Butch's house on Songbird Road.

Hopefully Butch is there, and hopefully Butch is willing to speak. Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic is kind of an overstatement. I'm pessimistic but I feel like if we can get past the gatekeeper of a sister that we can get him talking. We just need to get him to the door. Yeah. So I'll wait in the car. Bring this with me if you gesture.

Maybe not. Well, yeah, if I gesture and you get out of the car, I'll ask him if they'd be willing to, you know, have us record them. Oh, he's going to the back door. I would go to the front. What are you doing, Bob? Always just looking, okay.

Yeah, I mean, there are doughnut trespass signs pretty much everywhere. He's knocking the door. Doesn't seem to be an answer. It is just about noon, so people could still be heading back from church. Door's opening. All right.

And it is the sister that I spoke to. Let's see if Bob's having any better luck. I didn't have to wait long for an answer. All right. Bob is coming back. And the sister was gesticulating a lot with her right hand. And I don't know if she was giving him directions or telling him where to go. I think we're about to find out.

She was telling me where to go. So I went up to the door and we parked probably about 50, 75 yards away from the property. Walk over there, I hear a chainsaw going. I see that there's a gentleman in the back, probably about 50 yards back into their property with the chainsaw. Looks like he cut a tree down, and I can see he's got the ear protection on. And I was initially going to walk up to him,

so I walked probably about halfway down the driveway, thought better of it, thought maybe I'll go check. I don't want to surprise the guy. No, and then like Texas chainsaw massacre. Or he has a piece on him, who knows? He's not going to hear me coming. He didn't see me. So I kind of like wave my arms a little bit.

He was pretty focused on what he was doing. So I went up to the house, rang the doorbell, take a couple of steps back, as I always do. I don't want to be all up in somebody's grill. Thirty seconds later, an older gal, I don't know what she looked like when you spoke with her. I recognized her immediately. That was the sister I spoke to. Yeah.

So she was clearly surprised by my presence. I then introduced myself. I say, is Butch here? He says, well, that's him in the back, sawing wood. She says, what do you want? I said, well, we're back again, and we're investigating what happened over here with your neighbors.

Like right away, she got very upset. You can see it in her face, you could hear it in her voice as well. She was agitated immediately. She said, I don't wanna talk about that. It's not something that I'm willing to talk about. I'm a very anxious person that gets me upset. It just brings back bad memories.

I said, yeah, I'm trying to be compassionate. I understand that and I'm sure that's true for her. So, I'm like, well, do you think your brother will talk to me? She says, probably not. It'll probably run you off. I said, well, we're really just trying to find out if this girl actually did it.

And she said, oh, she did it. And I'm like, well, what about this call that your brother made talking about somebody running through the backyard around the time that the homicides took place? Which I didn't say, I would have, but she was very, she was, I was trying to get as much in before I could tell she was gonna shut the door. The exact response to that

question was quote I don't know who that was. But it's interesting that she said I don't know who that was. Right. She doesn't know who made the call or she doesn't know who was running through the backyard but if you look at the trajectory and you're running through that, you're going to end up on Corey League Road. Yep. Which is the perfect route for somebody trying to get out that way, which is towards Marion, towards town. You know, that's the direction you're going to head.

You know, you're going to stay off the beaten path, especially if you're in the midst of trying to escape a murder scene. You know, it would make sense that that's the way that you go. path, especially if you're in the midst of trying to escape a murder scene. You know, it would make sense that that's the way that you go. Now you can see the little, from our vantage point, you can see the pond right in front of us, right? I'm assuming that's it, in front of the big pond there? Yeah, why that pond was not dredged is beyond me.

Man. Pull forward, I want to see. I want to see our guy. All of this begs to question why Butch, who was on the prosecution's witness list but never called, seemed so reluctant to speak to anyone about what he did or did not see the day of Jade's murder. It's also interesting to note that the reports we were reading weren't Butch's first appearance in police files. In December of 2011, Kenny E. Marks was arrested in Marion and charged with manufacturing meth and meth-related child endangerment, in addition

to other meth-related offenses. It's also worth mentioning that his son, also named Kenny Marks, is no stranger to law enforcement either, having been picked up this past fall on violation sex offender registry and possession of meth charges. Given Beverly's consistent placement of her alleged intruder's height being around 5'5". It's also of note that the younger Mark's height is listed by police at 5'4". I mention this not to suggest any involvement in Jade's murder, but rather to highlight that there were known criminals in the area matching Beverly's description who do not appear to have been investigated.

And there's something else. That heavily wooded area in the back of Butch's place? Apparently, it isn't just housing trees and hidden ponds. Here's what her sister's boyfriend, Steven, told Billy Jo. So when I was talking to him, he said to me, what about the camper in the woods? And I said, in what woods? The camper where?

And he said, about a year ago, me and your sister was into it. I didn't have nowhere to stay. So I was sleeping in my car and I ran into Kenny Marks. So he told me I could stay out of his house. And we were out there talking. And he told me there was a camper in the woods that if I wanted to stay there, I could, but not to tell nobody because his sister doesn't know that his son goes out there and stays that he has to go there at night. He don't come in and out during the day because his sister doesn't know that his son goes out there and stays, that he has to go there at night. That he don't come in and out during the day because his sister don't want him on the property because he's a sex offender. Wow, so there is basically like an abandoned camper

in the wooded area? Yeah, so I took it upon myself. Renee actually met me out there the other day. And there is definitely something out there. If you look directly behind there to the right, you can tell there's something there in the thick trees. This blows my mind because if you think about it, this is the property that's adjacent to the murder scene

with multiple bodies of water, a heavily wooded area, and now what we're hearing, a makeshift encampment for transient people and the police don't check it? That's what I can't understand. Why they didn't look back there. Why they didn't search any of that back there. We'll revisit that later. Back to Bob and the mention of Butch on the CAD reports from the day of the murder.

Yeah, I mean, it doesn't tell us much. It certainly, like, it begs the question, why is it in here? And why is he on the prosecution's witness list and never called? Right. Well, it's the same with Aaron Luton. Aaron Luton's the other call that comes in. Aaron Luton's name came up early and continues to come up in multiple interviews and very prominently on call records from the morning of Jade Beasley's murder. A bit past 10 30 a.m., a call comes in

about a male subject who stormed out of his house screaming about killing someone. Here's Bob. And Luton is at least reported to be out on the street acting a fool, screaming and yelling. Wearing a black top. Wearing a black top, threatening to kill people, saying that he wants somebody to shoot him. When we first became privy to that call, we were obviously perked our ears up.

We're like, well, what's this? We went to Thein. We went to Julie's trial attorney and said, but what's the deal with Luton? Did she dig into this? And Thein says that she vetted it out and that her understanding was that Luton had been picked up because we had heard conflicting stories initially.

We had heard that he had been left out there acting a fool. And then later Thein says, well, what I saw from my discovery was that he was ultimately dropped off at the hospital. But now, reading through the call logs timeline, Mata and I had new questions and reason to revisit Aaron Lutten's exact whereabouts during exact times on December 5th, 2020.

So like I'm scrolling through, it says an advisor is a male on the road screaming and yelling, right? And that comes in at 1037 on 12-5. So that's the day of, and you know, the timing fits in terms of when things may have gone down there, right? It's a little early for kind of our purposes in terms of when we think things may have gone down there, right? It's a little early for our purposes in terms of when we think things may have gone down.

But I mean, it begs the question if this is the beginning of the episode with Aaron Luton and it just keeps going, which is where this interesting thing that I noticed in here. Because when we get down to here, so at 1056, received another call on Aaron that he's screaming at groups of people to come shoot him. So that's a full 20 minutes after the first call. Okay. And then at 1058, it says one male detained. And then we get down here, doesn't say what they're doing with them anywhere

as I'm kind of reading through. Whoever took them into custody is now transporting them to the station, transporting them to a hospital. Because it's interesting because here. It's a new call, so now we're at. 1119, get this new call. So Marion Police Department at 111943, Unit M13, Aaron Luton Dean created. All right. And then you've got 1237, event cleared by recheck, no active

units. This is where it got a little weird to me. So it says that at 1611, comments changed to, male taken to Heartland for evaluation. But changed from where? And look at that time period. Right. Huge gap in time. Yeah. It puts us at 411. Says he's taken to the hospital.

So does that mean that this comment has changed or is that when the event happened? And does that mean they have him in custody for hours? Or does that mean that I? Don't know so that window if they last were with him at 1119 and Then it's not clear as to whether or not they left him right, but where was he from 1119 until four o'clock? And if he were in that state and left, that's the same timeline that would fit with the murder. Right.

When this episode was being edited, I was still awaiting response from Williamson County on the multiple requests I'd made for information regarding Luton. He was, however, on the radar of both Beverly's defense and the prosecution. Here's what Renee was told happened. Cindy Gatman, the lead investigator on this, had him at the station questioning him. And she said her first question to him was do you know anything about the child that was murdered out in the country and his response to that question was which one. What? Yes. And he has a rap sheet that

includes burglary, robbery, assault, and domestic battery. At the time of this episode's release, Luton was incarcerated, having been sentenced to 11 years in December of 2021 for attempting to disarm an officer who'd responded to a domestic violence call. I've attempted to email Aaron Luton in prison multiple times. He's only responded once with a subject line, Pimp, that's P-I-M-P, with the attached message, what up bro? I would kill to get into talks with this guy.

I don't know when he was at the hospital because if Cindy Geiman was at the house, and that's around, because Julie was still at the house at this time, when was he at the police station? When did you pick him up? If that were true, why would he have been brought in for questioning? And I've asked for that video.

As I was finishing this episode, I received documents that state Luton was in an ambulance at 11.08 a.m. on the day of the murder, arriving at the hospital at 11.26 a.m., ultimately being discharged at 9.38 p.m., which rules him out as a suspect. I also received video of the interrogation, which happened at the end of July 2021, nearly eight months after Jade's murder and Beverly's arrest. While Renee's version of his interrogation was off, this is what Luton replied when asked about Jade Beasley's murder. Huh? Was she in something? What do you mean? Oh. I'm just saying, I've been in, it wasn't a year ago, it wasn't a year ago.

Okay, just, I'll let you guys speak. Geithman doesn't appear to pursue that line of questioning. Still, why was Luton, like Butch, on the prosecution's witness list, but never called to testify. Murder on Songbird Road will continue after the break. This is David Eagleman, host of the Science Podcast, Inner Cosmos. For Valentine's Day, we're diving into the question, what is love from the brain's point of view?

What does love have to do with how you were raised, or the symmetry of someone's face, or the smell of their underarms? Why does the character of love change throughout our lives? Why is heartbreak like drug withdrawal? And what does any of this have to do with sweaty t-shirts or rom-coms or monogamous animals and the future of love and AI. Join me for this week's Inner Cosmos for a deep dive into the neurobiology of love. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. Here again is Murder on Songbird Road. Butch and Erin aside, we had other pressing questions. For instance, the dispatch event summary notes that three different officers, Welgie Sloan and Ward, administered CPR to Jade Beasley at the scene, all before EMS arrived. If the prosecution's timeline is accurate and Jade was murdered between 9.30 and 10.15 a.m., why would multiple officers attempt CPR on her more than two hours later?

And why was a medevac reportedly called, according to the CAD notes, nearly a half an hour after police arrived, only to be canceled. Listen carefully to Danny Valle's report on the day of the arrest. Zanatti says police and EMTs arrived Saturday, shortly after the 911 call was made. When they got there, they found Beasley with multiple stab wounds, and Beasley later died at the scene.

So, Jade Beasley died more than two hours after the prosecution alleged Julia Beveley killed her? Then there's this. The adjacent property, wood, small bodies of water, and known transient activity. Why wasn't this area searched or investigated? And why weren't any other potential suspects actually considered? She said that she left the residence with Jade alone in the home for a short time, and returned home to find an unidentified male fleeing. The investigation has proven this story to be false.

But did it? These questions only added to the larger issues we'd already uncovered. Tunnel vision, a lack of presumption of innocence, and even allegations of witchcraft. None of which the prosecution tied to motive or concrete evidence. All of this was weighing on my mind as I prepared to make this introduction. Jason Flom, Bob Mata, Bob Jason. Nice to meet you, man. Jason Flom is a founding board member

of The Innocence Project and co-host and creator of the Wrongful Conviction podcast series, which is credited with helping to free nearly two dozen people. It's also inspired legislators in three different states that we know of to change laws to make the justice system more just. But Flaum is best known for his legendary career

in the music industry as the record executive behind the success of artists like Skid Row, Stone Temple Pilots, Lorde, Katy Perry, and many more. I've been a big admirer of what you do out there as a criminal defense guy for a long time, man. I appreciate the fact that, you know, you could have probably done anything that you wanted with your life after your career, and then you chose to do this.

Hits me right in all the fields. So I was pretty excited to meet you, man. Part of it is trying to make your job and people who do the same type of work that you do to make your job a little easier and tip the scales of justice somewhere closer instead of being 90-10, like making at least, you know, somewhat of a fairer fight. Jason and I met years ago while I was working on a podcast called Murder in Oregon. Because Wrongful Conviction was and still is one of my favorite podcasts, I picked up a freelance television shoot in New York City just to meet him, not knowing he was binging Murder in Oregon at the time.

We've been friends since. Jason Flom brings a pragmatic and brutally honest take to our justice system. It's amazing how in America, the land of the free, right? It's the most incarcerated nation in the history of the world. Not only do we have 25% of the world's prison population, but we have 33% of the world's female prison population. And I would even go so far as to say that we reserve the worst treatment.

There's no lack of horror stories taking place right this very minute in jails and prisons all over the country, men's facilities, women's facilities, you name it. But I think the idea that we lock women up and remove them from their families, their children, right? And we know that bond is stronger than anything. And innocent or guilty, we don't care, right? We just do it.

I'd started sending Flom background and updates on Beverly's case even before we started digging in. I can't even think about this case without thinking about another Julie from Illinois, whose son was murdered, who got blamed for it, right? With Julie Ray I'm talking about, right? Who is one of my favorite human beings and just an absolutely remarkable human being. And then there's Michelle Murphy. And you know, you have these cases where these women can't even, Melissa Lucio, right? Any of these ones where the woman's baby or child is taken from them in the most horrendous way. That doesn't apply to Melissa. That was just an accident. In many of these cases where there is an actual murder, like in Michelle Murphy's case,

many of these cases where there is an actual murder, like in Michelle Murphy's case, they've lost the thing they love most in the world in the most terrifying way. For those not familiar with these high profile cases of mothers wrongfully convicted of murdering their own children, we'll link to their wrongful conviction episodes in the show description.

And they don't even have a moment to grieve, right? Because they're taken to the police station because here's the other theme, they're the ones moment to grieve, right? Because they're taken to the police station. Because here's the other theme, they're the ones who found the body, right? Or they're the ones who are proximate to it. So, you know, lazy policing, if that's maybe that's too kind. Investigating and prosecuting. Yeah, it's just like, well, you found the body, you're good for it, right? It's good enough, it's close enough.

And so, I don't know what to tell somebody, somebody's listening, they're like, well, what if I find a body, what should I do? I don't know, go to Brazil. Don't call it in. Unless you wanna be the guy. It's really bad, but I mean, you kinda have to call it in. I mean, what are you gonna, like, it's really, there's no good answer there,

but keep track of your movements and get a lawyer quick, because everyone thinks I shouldn't get a lawyer, because it makes me look like I might be guilty. But no, you need to get a lawyer quick, because everyone thinks I shouldn't get a lawyer because it makes me look like I might be guilty, but no, you need to get a lawyer because it's... It makes you look smart. Julie didn't lawyer up. Not only was she the one to call it in,

she was the last one to see Jade alive. So she had the double whammy where you're automatically the person, you're it. You know, like they're not doing any work beyond that. And it's exactly what happened to her. And they played heavily into the evil stepmother dynamic on this, and race was definitely an issue. We went to Marion, and I mean, it is a lily-white town.

I didn't see one Black person the entire time I was there, except at the hotel. And aside, Marion is still more diverse than the all-white jury that found Beverly guilty amidst much racially-charged chatter on social media and local sites before, during, and after her trial. Posts like this one from a Marion resident who goes by Chucky, quote,

A black girl killed her so BLM, which stands for Black Lives Matter, and its idiot followers are doing anything they can to screw the investigation. Linda, who appears to be a white-haired grandma from nearby Buckner, Illinois, posted, I say, in all caps, hang the bitch. She deserves it. And Daniel from neighboring West Frankfurt

brought the lynching theme fully home with this. Should give her a tall tree and a short piece of rope. Meanwhile, Renee Hightower was receiving voicemails like this one, which was left by a pre-K teacher from a neighboring town. Your family's trash. Your mix trash. Back to Jason Flom. I mean, the whole thing is so nuts.

And it's like, it also reminds me a little bit of the Christine Bunch case, right, where the prosecutor in that case actually said to the jury, and she was convicted of murdering her only child, a four-year-old, we acknowledge that we don't have a motive. But that shouldn't prevent you. I'm paraphrasing, right? But he said, we admit, we don't have a motive. But that shouldn't prevent you, the jury, from convicting.

And sure enough, they did. So this one's like that, too. What the hell would the motive possibly be? Jason, you have no idea how spot on that is, because the argument from the prosecution was that they couldn't test everything. You know, they never presented a motive, and ultimately, they didn't really have

any concrete physical evidence. Yeah. And Julie, very much like all of the red flag hallmarks of a wrongful conviction, there was an instant presumption of guilt. There was tunnel vision. There was trial in the community on social media. She was tried and convicted in the local news and again held for two years almost

before she set foot in that court. When the forces of prosecution and the whole justice system, police, prosecution, in this case the judge, all of these people, when they sort of conspire, may not be the right word, in this case the judge, all of these people, when they sort of conspire, may not be the right word, but let's use that for lack of a better one, to railroad somebody, they are literally acting in concert,

in service of the person who actually committed the crime. Because the single best thing that can happen to that person is that somebody else gets convicted and everybody stops looking for them, right? It's like, hey, you hit the jackpot, buddy. You got away with it. Bingo. We have this adversarial system, right, where the prosecution is trying to win

and the defense is trying to defend their client. What we need is an inquisitorial system, right? We should all want to get to the truth, because whoever did this, that's a person we need to really reckon with. We'll lay all of that out going forward, but others can and did make the case against Beverly based on additional bad facts we were about to dissect while going through the trial transcripts. The lies to me were the biggest problem.

Because as soon as you start lying to law enforcement and they figure it out, immediately you're done. In their minds, there's no reason to lie about anything other than the fact that you didn't and you're trying to cover your tracks. On the next murder on Songbird Road, access to the initial interrogation video and DNA collection raises new concerns... The DNA on the arm, which to me was probably the smoking gun in this case.

...and criticism... There was a lot of red flags. Let me say that. If I was training him, I would have stopped him. ...while Julie's friends weigh in on the delay in calling 911. I can't even imagine how she even got the phone to call. Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Taylor Chicoine and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research, writing, and hosting by 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 Chicoine. 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 wherever you get your favorite shows.

Thanks for listening.