My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 43

Episode Date: October 30, 2017

Karen and Georgia read your hometown stories from Florida including a fieldwork tale, a lawnmower man, road trip incidents, and more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We at Wondery live, breathe, and downright obsess over true crime, and now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C, on Facebook, and listen to True Crime on Wondery and Amazon Music. Exhibit C, it's truly criminal. Hi Karen. Hi Georgia. Welcome Karen and Georgia to my favorite Merdyn mini-sode. That's right, this is the episode that's shorter than the other episodes, because you don't have time right now, just a little bit of time.

Yeah, you're just like a quick little treadmill. You're trying to just jump into some kind of a 32 minute, what would it be, trampoline session? Trampoline session, some interval training. Some staring, some hard staring at the wall. You know, trying to go to sleep at night. Trying to get up in the morning. You know, trying, just as a trying.

Really hard trying for like 28 minutes. Just getting shorter and shorter. You know how like for 21 minutes, all you want to do. You know, for the next seven minutes, you are going to focus. Okay, this is the mini-sodes where you guys send in your hometown murders, or your familial murders, or people you know, things that happen to them, and we read them back to you. That's right.

That's right, my favorite murder at Gmail. Are you ready to start? Ready. I'm going to start with what says number two in the number one spot. She just glare, I mean, glared at Stephen. God. Those bright blue eyes, razor cheekbones. I'm relying on these numbers.

I don't know what's going on in this page. Like a, who is that one newscaster that had that kind of breakdown? Well, I guess there's been a lot. Like about the teleprompter not working correctly. Was like, oh, maybe it was the Bill O'Reilly one. Did you see that one where he snaps? Anyway. All right.

Number two. Pythons, rabbits and dead bodies lighthearted. Okay. MFM family, thank you so much for the, doing the podcast. I listened to you while I do field work and you always put a smile on my face, even when I'm being attacked by mosquitoes. Oh, I'll see you in about 15 minutes when you have field work to do. Yes.

When you go outside and step, step around in the field, do some high steps in the field. I will be at the Orlando show. So hopefully I will have a chance to tell the story in person. Sorry, dude. Goodbye. This hometown story is from my master's research in the Everglades, along with many other batshit insane things.

Florida has a huge invasive species problem. The craziest one of these may be Burmese pythons. What the fuck? Oh God, Florida. Did you know that? I'm not surprised. Snakes that grow over 18 feet long and weigh over 200 pounds. That's too much for a snake.

18 feet long. 200 pounds. Oh shit, girl. They have decimated wildlife populations in the Everglades and can eat deer and even alligator. These are the ones where people buy babies of them and they're like, oh shit, and they like let it go. And flush it down the toilet.

I hope so. From 2013 to 2014, I studied how pythons affect mammals by tracking rabbits. I put radios on rabbits and followed them around with tracking equipment to see if they ended up eaten by a snake. Up until that point, I was like, it's Alice at Wonderland. It's just felt wonderful. Oh, that's so sad. Yeah, just witnessing a lot of rabbit side.

Okay, rabbits being nocturnal, I did a fair bit of solo work in the park. I felt safe. Oh my God, Stephen. Cut that melt out. Stephen, you got to give Karen the Diet Cokes after we record. Stephen, stop trying to humiliate me on national radio. Of course, the nicest thing he does when he just started to do it. Presents me a beautiful Diet Coke.

With a ribbon on it. Every episode with a small basket of Jordan Allmans inside. The loveliest gift. Jordan, all of those poor things. How did those get started as the thing you are given? I don't know. They're so fucking gross. They're disgusting.

Do you like... Okay, here's the thing. They're weddings. Do you like in your M&M's the candy part? Well, then here's a Jordan Allmans. And here's the thing. Oh, did you... I knew someone who would crack them open and just eat the Allmans out of them,

but at that point, you're like, buy some Allmans. Was it a squirrel? Oh yeah, I forgot to add that part. Oh, that's right. That's right. That's why she didn't talk so much. Okay. Okay, so she felt safe.

I felt safe. Oh, I'm assuming she... Sorry. I felt safe and park dispatch would keep track of me. I would call in and the park rangers would know where I was working. After a few months, one of my rabbits picked up and moved out to the western edge of the park. That side of Everglades National Park is boarded by a long canal and road. The road leads to a missile manufacturing and testing site that was abandoned in 1969.

What's up, stranger things? The fucking plot? Isn't this the plot? Or like Omega Man? I mean, like it's all like what radioactive fill in the blank is wandering around this fucking place waiting for you to show up with your shirt tied underneath your boots. So cute.

Right? Jump out of your jeep. Short shorts, but like big boots. Yes. Just because she's a scientist. Yeah. Or he. Okay, this site looks like something out of an apocalyptic zombie movie.

Run down covered in graffiti, you know, the vibe. The rabbits swarmed the canal and settled in the scrub next to the missile silo. I kept tracking it and even would head out there alone during my night tracks. This area was outside of the park and I got permission from the landowner to be on the property, but did not tell the police or the park rangers I was going out there. Great. Perfect. All of this.

Thank you for this perfect setup to the horror movie, to the second horror movie we're now going to. One night in November, I was tracking the rabbit around 245 and was walking along the road near the zombie base. All of a sudden I had a police spotlight on me. The cop yelled at me asking what I was doing there. The park service and local police don't always communicate. So I tried to calmly explain that I was a researcher and I had my permit and my car

and healed. No, what are you doing here? You can't be here. This is a crime scene. Apparently over the last few months, two bodies had been found in the canal near the missile silo with the most recent just days before. The body of 18 year old Jesus Trejo was found in the canal on September 5th and Christian McKenzie 21 was found dead from gunshot wounds near the same remote area on November 15th.

Police say people often use the area for target practice because it's so remote. I guess that makes it a good place to dump dead bodies. The Trejo murder remains unsolved and the McKenzie murder was cold until 2015 when Juan Salgado was charged with with second degree murder with a deadly weapon, third degree grand theft, third degree grand theft with a firearm and third degree grand theft with a vehicle. Suffice it to say, I was told to give up on tracking that rabbit. It was just one rabbit.

Oh, shit. The one rogue rabbit gets her all like almost. The rabbit did it. Okay. That's fucked up. In scientific papers, you need to give a reason why some animals are dropped from the project. In official publications, this rabbit quote moved out of the study area.

But now you are in on the overly honest field method that the real reason the rabbit was dropped is because it moved into zombie missile silo murder scene. Oh, my God. Thankfully, I stayed sexy. Did not get murdered SSDGMA. Wow. That was quite a letter. That was incredible.

Yes. I really, really, really want a tour of that missile silo. Yes or no. When we go to Florida. 100%, but it has to be during the day. Oh, fuck yeah. Could you even go there at night? No, that would be like,

okay, this is stupid. Like it would be funny how stupid it is. I would just be screaming at a low level the entire time. Just in the back. There just start there and the whole car right there. It's like, I think it's haunted. Did you hear that? No, it's just Karen's low level screaming.

Karen can't stop moaning. She really doesn't like it. I told you how scared I got in the corn maze. Yeah. Like I always think I'm into things like that. And then as it started, I'm just like, no, I don't trust anyone. This isn't my thing. No.

No. I'm excited for Florida because there's just so much going on. There really is. My Orlando murder, I'm like stoked on it, but it might be my Tampa murder. I can't remember. Anyways, here we go. Okay.

This is called hometown murder, Tampa, Florida. Great. Wow. Hey gals. I'm so excited. You guys are coming to my hometown on a side note. We currently have a serial killer that has shot three random people in the last week a mile from my residence.

Whoa. But that's not my hometown murder. Oh. It's a crazy that we're going to like an active serial killer territory. It's unbelievable. Yeah. I can't wait to see what happens with that case. We'll get them.

They're going to get them. It's a guy walking around shooting people. Yeah, they have like, they have him on video. Yeah. It's really sad. Okay. So I currently live in Tampa, Florida, but I grew up in a small town in North Florida called Sneeds.

If they say it's sneds, I'm going to be fucking pissed off because it's spelled Sneed. Because there's seven E's. It's S-N-E-A-D-S. That's Sneeds. Yeah. Sneeds. 100%.

Sneeds has one four-way stop, a caution light, four gas stations, and about 19 churches. I grew up on the corner of Curly and Howell Road. Howell is my grandmother's maiden name, and Curly is her married name. So yes, it's a true small town. In the 70s, my aunt Curly went missing for 10 months until her body was eventually found across the Georgia state line

in a national forest. She was 17 years old, and my mom, her younger sister, was 15. My grandfather was the warden of the state prison in our town. It did not, and did his own investigation. So I have these notes and copies of the official investigation notes from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. That's the word, investigational. Yes.

The case is still unsolved, but there was only one main suspect that held the focus on the investigation. They also looked into Ted Bundy because she went missing around the time he was in Tallahassee, murdering Chai Omega's. The day Angie went missing, she received a phone call at the beauty shop she worked at from a male caller.

The shop owner who asked the caller, who asked who the caller was when she got off the phone, and Angie replied, just some guy who always wants me to fix his relationship when his wife is mad at him. Angie had a friend named Valetia French, and it was pretty well known that every time she and her husband Ray would fight,

he would call Angie and ask her to talk to Valetia, so she would forgive him for whatever he had done that time. Valetia told authorities she believed Ray killed Angie because he came home the night she went missing, covered in blood and scratches. He claimed he was in the woods squirrel hunting, and the blood and scratches were from bushes and branches, which we know is not a thing.

He disposed of the clothes he was wearing that night, so investigators only had his wife's testimony and the phone call from the male caller at the beauty shop. This was a 70s, so I have no idea how much phone records played in the investigation. Strangely enough, when I was reading the investigators' reports, I came across an interview titled Tony Barnes. That's my father.

In the interview, they asked him about dating Valetia and his relationship with Ray French. My dad said he had only met Ray once, and his involvement with Valetia was years before she married Ray, but he did remember in high school Ray was going around telling people he shot himself in his arm because he wanted to know what it felt like. It felt like you're faced.

Questions, I can see them. First of all, that's horrifying, because I bet it hurts way worse than you imagined. I always wondered what part of horrifying you were talking about. Yeah, so it shows a level of stupidity that if it's true, it's shocking. Stupidity and not being able to reason, having no reasoning skills.

Yeah, just having an idea and then going for it. But that's what high school boys are made of. That's true, but that in particular is being crazy, because you do things that give you risky things to give you pleasure, not risky things to put in. That could kill you. It could kill you, and also just it's only pain. It's just you're trying to figure out a level of pain.

Totally, and it's going to be... Okay, so we know what's going on so far, right? Yes, okay. My dad said he was crazy, and he tried to stay away from crazy people. Don't we all? Okay, for nearly 30 years, Ray was the only person my family believed would have killed Angie. They received many leads over the years,

but those were mostly attention seekers wanting to claim responsibility for her murder. In the early 2000s, Angie's ex-boyfriend, Mike Lender, was arrested for domestic abuse and attempted murder of his girlfriend. Mike was that guy for Angie, the one she was in love with at the young age of 17. He was arrested because he got into a fight with his current girlfriend, knocked her out, and she woke up on the floorboard of his truck as he was unlocking the gate to 40 acres of forest-filled land he owned.

Oh, fuck. Morning. Holy shit. Dude. You're just like, oh, what are these? I can see all the stars are so far away from the city. This is gorgeous. Hold on a second.

Oh, no. She managed to get out of the truck and run to the nearest neighbor for help. Fuck. Before he knocked her out, he said he had killed three other women, and he was not afraid to do it again. The day he was supposed to stand trial, he didn't show up for court, and he was found on the side of the road in his truck dead from an overdose.

A local reporter who has done her own investigations into the case said he was such an evil person. She stops by Mike's grave every so often just to make sure he's still in the ground. Whoa. Can't wait to see you in a few weeks, but until then, don't get murdered, Lee. Holy shit. Yeah.

That was like a Carson McCuller's novel. Who did it? Who did it? I mean, I think he did it. That last guy. Yeah. Dude.

That... Search that forest area. Well, they found... Did they find her body? Yeah. B-b-b-but... Yeah. Then went missing until her body was eventually found

across the Georgia State Line in the National Forest. Oh, okay. So they found her body. But that's not what he owned that he was bringing that woman to. No. I don't think I'm guessing not, but I'm sure there's other bodies in there anyways. I just think we should dig it up.

I just... Let's check. Listen, we're canceling three shows we have this weekend in Florida. We're going to inset everyone come to the National Forest, wherever the fuck this guy's shit is. It's just going to be some private land. It's a little risky. Bring a digging implement. Maybe some snacks, some orange slices.

Some saltine. Some saltine and orange slices. Maybe a little seven up or ginger ale. Yeah, you know. This is a first responder story. Hey Karen, Georgia, Steven and friends. My name is Eric and I'm a college student in Northern Alabama where I got hooked on MFM during a long commute.

I had after classes from my college down to my hometown for work. Listening to you guys made it feel like hanging out with friends rather than the semi-lonely car ride, which it was. Car rides are a time to think and fart in silence. And pretend you're hanging out with people who can't hear you when you talk. Or fart. I hope you or fart. Hope you enjoy this first responder story.

Yes, please. A classic. Okay, August 27th, 1988. And then it says in asterisks, doll-up style shout out. Yep. So I should have yelled that at the top of my lungs like Dave Anthony, but I'm not going back. Okay, my friend was working a 24-hour paramedic shift in Tampa, Florida.

24 hours? Yeah. I don't want that person working on me. Well, no, because then they're all supercharged up to like resuscitate you. Okay. It's good. They're just on tons of speed and they just want to resuscitate the fuck out of you. They want to bring you.

You're like, I'm awake, bro. I'm not even. My leg is broken. I'm resuscitated. You don't need to resuscitate me. I'm fully resuscitated. Okay. My leg is broken.

Okay. They got a call to a Vietnam veteran's house outside the city. When they get there, they're informed that the man has PTSD and has shot out the lights in his home and is in a panic because he thinks his wife is in danger. Because in his head, she's somewhere in the war zone with him. Can you imagine shooting all the lights out in your like that to me is a fucking nightmare sentence. It's so horrible. It's, it's so awful.

Yeah. Um, okay. Sorry, go. No, no, no. The vet was apparently a very big man, so the police were having a hard time controlling him and were afraid of what he might do to them or the wife, even accidentally. My dad becomes the total hero of the story as he steps in with the idea to use his paramedic uniform to their advantage by convincing the vet

that he is the commanding officer. Keep in mind, my dad is only five, six, so he decided to try to participate in the man's reality because physical restraint was not an option. Oh my God. He approaches the man and points to the EMT patches on his uniform and yells, saying that he is his commanding officer and he has been sent to give him the orders, even shouting, are you going to do what I say or not? I'm going to give it a Southern accent.

I love it. Do it. The man jumps into action. Let's go of his wife and immediately gets into the back of the ambulance. In the end, he was able to get the help he needed. And his wife even wrote my dad a letter a few weeks later, thanking him for what he did to save her and help her husband. Needless to say, if I'm ever on a cult, I definitely need to call my dad.

Thanks for podcasting and podcasting. Well, Eric, that's so awesome. What a smart, what a like smart person. I don't know what to say other than that. Yeah. Well, it also reminds me of the very first mind hunter. I was just thinking about that, right? Where the cops being all like aggro and then the mind hunter guy is like,

hey, maybe we don't still kill them. So yeah, so much. Yeah. But he didn't kill the lady. Come on. Let's upset. I know, man. I don't know.

We got we got stuff to talk about about my hunter. We need to peel it apart. And I don't want to say anything bad because the lead actor like gave us a shout out in an interview. Yeah, that's right. I don't want to be like you legally cannot say anything. I don't think anytime someone says anything, he didn't even say anything nice about us.

He just brought it up. I'm not allowed to say anything. Yeah, that's right. We are bound by the honor the Hollywood honor system. Not many people know that there is a thing called the Hollywood honor system. It's the Hollywood honor system. It's a very much very similar to being an Eagle Scout where when you take the oath of Hollywood honor, you don't shit on others who have not shit on you.

Right. Is that the who had a chance to shit on you and didn't. Right. I don't know. My mom told me not to go to an interview with Harvey Weinstein. Today Georgia. Yes. Like a mom that's not going to A.

You're like it's already on the books. Yeah. So I'm not canceling it. I can't cancel. You know that. You can't cancel. And then she got it. I go, mom, are you fucking kidding me?

And she goes, well, if you do bring bring Vince. She's out of her mind. Okay. She's about 15 years too late. Looking for a better cooking routine with meal planning, shopping and prepping handled. Hello Fresh has you covered. Hello Fresh makes home cooking easy and affordable.

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when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder 20 and use code murder 20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy farm town of Chowchilla, California. They bury the children and their bus driver deep underground planning to hold them for ransom. Local police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry.

As the air supply for the trapped children dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges. Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Okay, where was I? This is called almost murdered on a road trip. Oh, hello to the MFM crew. These are fucking great entrances. Yeah, this week.

Clean, clean, concise, accurate. Yes, spelling is correct. So I'll get right to this. About a year ago, I was driving on my first long trip alone from Florida to North Carolina. I was listening to MFM for my road trip, of course, when I pulled off the off the highway for gas. I drove up to a crappy shell station where there was nothing else on the highway. I got out and noticed the only cars were mine and a red key wagon with no driver at the pump. I started pumping in a few moments later, a dude walked out of the convenience store

just by the look on his face. I got an immediate chill down my spine. I felt almost, it felt almost primal. My sudden need to get out. This dude was creepy as hell, singing to himself and smiling at me. What a combination. What do you think he was saying? Just a bigger smile though.

Just crazy guys. Every time. Just like all whites of eyes. Oh, Jesus Christ. So here's where the story gets really unbelievable in FDAP. This dude grabbed the gas hose from the pump and started pumping gas, all caps, onto the ground around his car. Oh, the whole time he looked at me smiling. Seriously, what the fuck?

My heart was racing and I felt like I was going to throw up. Then much to my disbelief, the man put the hose back and started making his way towards me. Oh my God. Oh my God. Gasoline around his car, walking towards you. No. After smiling and singing at you. No.

Yes or no? Are you okay with that? I think the answer might be no. No. I heard your voices shouting, fuck politeness at me as I promptly, well, she wrote F politeness, which is so cute, I love that. Yeah, me which I, as I promptly pulled the hose from my car

and ran into my car, ran to my car door, locking myself in. The man continued walking towards me as I sped off heart racing. Too much of this was too creepy for me to assume this guy was just a decent dude. Just the sight of him stuck with me and haunted me the rest of the day. Isn't that the thing where like then you look in your rear view mirror and he's fucking following you? Yeah. It's kind of a moment, okay.

So you'll never guess what happens next. My friend is a social worker and she helped me search for criminals in the Florida area. His face stuck with me as I scrolled through pages upon pages of sex offenders and criminals. Then I saw those creepy eyes that could only belong to my guy. I pointed him out to my friend and she just looked through his profile, shaking her head and saying over and over, this is bad. The dude was a child predator who had been arrested multiple times. Apparently not enough times to leave him there.

I knew his face like the back of my hand, but just to confirm my suspicions, he drove a red Kia wagon the same as the one at the show. Thank God for MFM and the confidence and knowledge it gave me to get the F out of that situation safely and continue to SSDGM. Fuck. Seriously, love you ladies and the confidence you badassness, your badassness, you give women because you've so open. Wait, because of you, I've opened up to my husband about my anxiety and mental health issues

as well as seeking out counselors through some of the darkest times of this past year and a half. I remember turning on MFM and it could make me smile and laugh when nothing else in the world could. Love you ladies and you, Steven, so much you'll never know the impact you make. Excited to see you in Orlando, Peyton. Oh, nice. Thanks, Peyton. That's so nice. But still, that is fucking nice.

I love that you can do, like have you, I've done that recent, like not too long ago, someone was walking towards me in my car in broad daylight in Hollywood. Excuse me, excuse me, and I fucking noped that shit and got in my car and locked the door and just stared at him from the car being like, what the fuck are you thinking? Get out of here. I don't care. No, get out of here. Yeah, and we had just been drinking in the same bar.

So it's like, well, I know you've been drinking. Yeah. I'm not doing that. Nope. See you later. Why? Don't need it. Your friend card is full.

You're not making friends on the sidewalk these days. No, these days I don't stop when someone wants to speak to me for no fucking reason. Maybe if that same drunk guy shows up at a dinner party and you have a proper introduction. Right, let's chit chat. Hi, how are you? It's great. Oh, you wanted to compliment me on my coat? That's it?

Thank you. I love this coat. Yeah, it's a great coat. Other than that, get the fuck out of here, rando. Thanks for sending those in, everyone. Send your crazy weird shit near misses, hometowns, all this to my favorite murder Gmail and stay sexy and don't get murdered. Bye.

I don't know Elvis. Elvis, where is everyone these days? Come here, you want a cookie? Yeah. Is that not what I was, are you calling me? Elvis, you want a cookie? Oh, you fuck. There he goes.