RedHanded - Leo Schofield – Part 1: Murder in Bone Valley | #449

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

When the body of 18-year-old newlywed Michelle Schofield was found in a canal in Bone Valley, Florida, all eyes turned to her guitar-playing, heavy-metal husband, Leo Schofield.But despite his protestations of innocence (and rock-solid alibi), the facts of this case couldn’t help but muddy those waters. Namely: a nosy neighbour with ever-changing stories; a hot-shot southern lawyer with exactly nothing to prove; and the body’s location being revealed through a message from God…--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

On the 29th of August, 1986, in a small church in the city of Lakeland, Florida, Leo Schofield and Michelle Somm tied the knot. 19-year-old Leo looked every inch the wannabe 80s rock star, kitted out in his borrowed white tucks and black mullet, while 18-year-old Michelle beamed in her high-neck ivory gown, complete with puff sleeves and quaffed perm. The pair were young, and they hadn't been together that long, and they certainly didn't have much money,

But it's the 80s. Those things don't matter, and also they were very much in love. And with the help and support of their friends and family, they pulled off this small yet perfect wedding. Just six months later, Michelle would be dead. Fingers quickly began pointing at her husband, Leo. And then when accusations of violence in their relationship surfaced, along with the nose. neighbor's account of his odd behavior in the days after she vanished, suspicions rose yet further. Then, when Leo's own father discovered Michelle's savaged body, following what he claimed was a message from God, it looked like a horrific family affair that had ended in the brutal

murder of a young newlywed. But years later, the plot thickened when new evidence took things in an unbelievable direction. This is a case that has rolled on for four decades until 2024, when we finally got what is probably the closest we're ever going to get to justice in this case. And for that, we have to thank the fantastic podcast series, Bone Valley, and their hosts Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker. It's so good. is it?

It's very, very, very good. Okay. If you guys, if anybody hasn't listened to Bowen Valley, it's got like three seasons, four seasons now, I believe. I'm aware of it. Yeah. Yeah. The first two seasons are about this case.

And it's just, it's fantastic. It's just like a really, really good example. Good is putting it about it. A phenomenal example of relentless journalism. And absolutely what freedom is. innocent man who otherwise was completely out of options. We see a lot of these cases. Yeah, you love to see it. You love to see it. And when they actually are innocent. Exactly. I was going to say, we see a lot of podcasts that are like, you know, is this person

innocent? And I'm like, no, no. And in this case, it is like, you go through the story and they have just so much information. And the outcome that we have now, the outcome that Leo has now would just not be a reality without that podcast series. I also love the name Bone Valley. So good. And I went into it thinking like, why is it called Bone Valley? Is it like her body is found in a pit of boat? No, it's called Bone Valley because the area in central Florida, like the counties,

Pope County being one of them where Michelle's remains are found. They used to do a lot of phosphate mining there in the 1800s. and when they were like digging for phosphate, I assume that's how you find it. I didn't know you dug for phosphate. It sounds like it's just around. This is what I thought. But like phosphate mining, they discovered loads and loads of fossils in that area. So kind of like we've got our Jurassic Coast, Bone Valley in central Florida.

So there you go. Go listen to it. It's fantastic. We are not investigative journalists. We're going to spend the next two weeks. on this case. And we're going to pack a lot in, but we're obviously are not even going to be able to come close

to two seasons worth of information that is dedicated to this story over on Bone Valley. So if you do want to make it to your job to know about this case, go and check it out because Bone Valley has hours of first-hand interviews with all of the key figures in this case, and it is absolutely worth your time. And you're not going to get that here. No.

I'd say we're not like, if we were going to compare, character fashion. We're not like fast fashion because we are doing volume but also quality. But we're not like hookature, which is what I'd say bone valley is. We really need to write that into our pitch deck. We are, what are we? We're like an elevated premium brand. Affordable. But sustainable. What like when Alexa Chung had that fashion brand. Everyone's like, it's really expensive. She's like, yeah, because I don't use children in factories. That's why They cost £300. Exactly.

But she's Alexa Chung not a fancy brand name. Anyway, whatever. Fuck it. I was just trying. I was trying a thing. Anyway, with that, I'm Surruti. And I'm Alexa Chai. She's Hannah.

She's Hannah. And this is red-handed. And this is part one of our look at the case of Leoscofield. Yeah. And I haven't shagged Ian Watkins. Yet. No, he's dead. No word.

And this is why we're. never be of a chore. So brand safe over here. Anyway, Leo Scullfield wasn't Alexa Chung either. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. It always comes up. It does always come back. It always comes back to Fall River and Katie Price.

It's where, if you don't know, Four River is where the Lizzie Borden house is. Absolutely worth your time. 100%. Just drive to Lizzie Borden's house in Full River while listening to Bone Valley and then you've done everything. You've done your homework. You can also go see the courthouse where Aaron Hernandez was tried.

Very true. Anyway. Leo didn't last long in Fall River. He moved to Lakeland, Florida with his parents when he was a teen. And with his thick Bostonian accent, Leo stood out in the South. Not that he minded too much because after graduating high school, Leo may have worked in a factory by day, but by night, he was the lead guitarist for a rocker.

roll band called Rhino spelled R-Y-N-O which stood for tell them Rock your nuts off So far obviously I've got no idea what happens

Big fan of Leo Leo. Leo's a complicated character but he's definitely fun I think that's probably he's got a temper but you know he can play a guitar

and everyone likes him and all the ladies fancy him. Well, no one's perfect there. Leo and his friends played gigs all over the local area and had big ambitions for their group. And it was at one of these gigs that Leo and Michelle first hit it off. They actually already knew each other because Michelle had gone out with one of Leo's best friends. He's called Manny.

Manfred, one would assume. But when Manny got himself a four-year sent-old, at a youth development centre for handling a stolen gun, Michelle turned to Leo for comfort. What followed was a friendship. A pair hung out almost every day, listening to music, talking and going for long drives in Leo's car. Michelle had had a tough life.

She'd come from a happy family, but it was a fragmented one. When Michelle was still young, her mother had become very ill and had to move back to Texas to be nearer her family. Michelle and her siblings stayed with their dad, in Florida. But when their house burned down, they ended up in foster care, while her dad basically tried to do everything he could to rebuild their lives. So then, after all that, when she lost her boyfriend Manny for four years,

which, come on, they are so young. She's 18 when she marries here. She's even younger when Manny gets sentenced to this youth development centre. That would have felt like forever as a teenager. So, naturally, Michelle turned to Leo. And Leo, well, he was absolutely besotted. He said he'd never met a girl like Michelle before. Which is why, when their pastor suggested they get married,

the pair agreed and got hitched just six months after they first got together. It wasn't smooth sailing, though. Leo and Michelle had no money. They lived in a trailer, a single-wide one, not a double-white, with another couple, Michelle's best friend and her partner. A trailer, a single trailer with four people living in it. Like, yeah, it's a lot. Four whole people crammed into one singular trailer.

Naturally, there was quite a lot of tension. Especially because Michelle and Leo fought a lot. I've lived on my own for years now. genuinely don't know if I can go back. Like if I ever find someone to consistently shag me, this is going to be quite a large problem. It's just a lot of fights. Because I do what I want all the time.

Yeah, that's gone. And I have done four years. And like, Mabel sleeps with me. And if someone else comes into that equation, I'm going to be like, she was here first. Especially if he fucking snores. There's a whole other world of pain. the bloke goes to the dentist and comes home and he's like

apparently I grind my teeth I had no idea just opens his mouth he's got stumps for teeth yeah right he's just like do you understand that 85% of my life is listening to you grind your teeth and you don't even know it's not selling the dream to be honest

I believe it well if you do decide to get any of my honest we'll talk about it when they take imprints of your ears They just keep that imprint forever so you can get earplugs that are designed for your ear. Oh, yeah, I need some of those. Anyway, Michelle and Leo, teeth grinding, unconfirmed,

but one of the most common fights they had was about the car that they shared and how Michelle was always late when it was her turn to pick Leo up from somewhere. And on Tuesday the 24th of February 1987, this is exactly the situation that seemed to be playing out again. Leo was at his friend Buddy Anderson's house for ban practice. Michelle had their car and was supposed to pick Leo up at 8.30pm. But she was late and Leo was starting to get pissed. She was supposed to

come to buddies straight after work and she clocked off at 8pm. So where the hell was she? And just to remind everybody, this story takes place in the 80s. And there will be no mobile phones, whatsoever in this case at all. So when we're like, he's just sat around being like, where the fuck is she? It's because he literally doesn't know where she is. And it's so alien. Like we're, you know, we're like not geriatric millennials, but we're certainly like mid-level millennials.

And even for me, even for me, someone who didn't get a mobile phone until, you know, like late high school, it is bizarre. how different their situation and their lives are. They're basically just sat around being like, where is she? I don't know. I remember asking my mum this once. I don't know what she is. A boomer?

I don't know. Is she that old? Anyway, shut up, Hannah, nobody cares. I asked her what you did in this situation. She was like, well, Hannah, back then, there was this novel concept of just being where you said you were going to be when you said you were going to be there. Yeah. And if you weren't, then people would just be like, well, I better drive to.

somebody's house who has a phone because there's a lot of that as well, basically just driving to people's houses to be like, can I borrow your phone to phone somebody else's house and hope that they're there? Might as well just have a fucking tin cam with a piece of string on it. Like, it is, it's a lot. And in this episode in particular, we're going to go through a lot of timelining because it's obviously very, very important to the story. It's just like, it's infuriating, like how hard it is for anybody to like just

get basic information. So, Leo, no phone Leo, stuck in the 80s, had to just sit around her buddies and wait. And finally, at 9.45pm, more than a hour after she was supposed to be there, Leo got a call at Buddy's house and it was Michelle. She was calling from the pay phone at the local petrol station, which was called Sparky. which was opposite the restaurant where she worked. What we know about this call comes from Leo and people who were at Buddy Anderson's house that night who overheard it.

Michelle was excited, seemingly oblivious to Leo's frustrations and she gushed that she'd made $13 in tips that night, so she'd put $3 worth of petrol in the car and she'd bought a Coke. Michelle explained that then she'd gone home to feed their new puppy and fold some laundry, which was why she was late. To be fair. If someone was late to pick me up because they had put some washing away,

I would be Fiorean. I think that this happens so much in Leo and Michelle's life that he's just like, at least you caught me. At least I know where you are. Anyway, At this information, Leo softened and he thanked Michelle for calling him and telling her.

And he said, look how easy things are when you call me and you tell me what is going on. Yeah, and we can only be as specific as we are being about what was said and Michelle's tone and demeanour. Obviously, like we said, Leo is on the phone to us, so he's telling us. But also the people at Buddy Anderson's house can hear Leo say these things. So we don't have phone records, we don't have loads of loads of information. We have to take the word of the people who were there. Michelle said she wanted to go to McDonald's and then she would come and get him. Oh my God, I would be...

I knew this was going to really upset you. Hulling my eyelashes out. I think the thing I want to say is because it is really easy to feel frustrated, especially because you do hear that this happened all the time with Leo and Michelle and this is why he gets annoyed. And the people at Buddy Anderson's like, oh, he was getting so annoyed, but he was always annoyed because this was always happening. But I also want to say that Michelle is 18.

Yeah. Like, it's like if I'm 36, I could feasibly have an 18-year-old child, right? I could. That. It's horrific, but I could. I could. And I think my mom basically had a 17-year-old at my age, which is bonkers. But I could.

And I would just think. Justice for Super. I know. And I'm like, I would. would just assume that if I had a 17 or 18 year old, I was like, can you please do this thing? That they would just probably not do it. And I just think she is so young. Yeah, to be fair, getting my brother to do anything. Yeah. So anyway, I'm sure lots of teenagers do exactly as they're supposed to. But she's 18. Like, of course it's annoying, but I just want to,

I just want to recalibrate everybody to how young they are. Yeah. And Leo said, no, no, no. Come and get me. And then we go to McDonald's. together, which is what I would do. And he asked Michelle to pick him up from another friend's house, and that friend is called Vince Rayner. And he said to Michelle, I'm going to walk to Vince Rainer's house right now. And Michelle said, okay, yeah. Now we know, again, there's no CCTV, there's very few phone records,

a lot of this is just based on eyewitness testimony. So that's the way we have to timeline this case. So we know that Michelle's boss at Tom's restaurant where she worked as a waitress, saw her leave after her shift finished at about 8pm. He also saw Michelle walk across the road to Sparkies. And there, we know that she did fill up her tank and buy a Coke, just like she told Leo. Interestingly, Michelle also asked the attendant who was working at the petrol station if there was a phone she could use.

Now, she didn't actually use the phone there and then, however, because, as she told Leo, Michelle went home to deal with the dog and fold some laundry. It seems that Michelle then came back from the trailer to Sparkies at 9.45pm to phone Leo at Buddy's place. And this is confusing. It's confusing as to why Michelle didn't just call Leo when she was at the petrol station at 8pm because, remember, she's meant to pick him up at 8.30. If you're there, you're asking about the phone. Why not just phone him there and then to be? be like, hey, I know I'm meant to pick you up in half an hour. I'm going to go sort the dog out. Maybe she thinks she can do it in half an hour and get to Buddy's house. Like maybe that's some sort of teenage, like, time paralysis way of thinking about it. Maybe that's why she doesn't

phone. But then why does she ask about the phone? Other people I've seen online are like, why does she ask about the phone at all? She works every day at Tom's restaurant across the road from Sparky's. She would have known there was a phone there. I don't know. I don't have an answer to that. But the attendant says she spoke to me and she asked about the phone. I don't know. So anyway, by 945, by the time she comes back to Sparkies to phone Leo at Buddy's house, she already was super late and she already knew where he was because that's how she phones buddies to speak to him. So my question is, why does she stop at Sparky's at all again to phone Buddy's house? Why not just go to buddies to get Leo. I guess it's because she wanted to go to McDonald's and she knew she was

going to be even more late and she wanted to tell Leo. It's hard to know for sure. And the only reason I bring it up is because by Leo's own admission and by pretty much everybody else's version of events, Michelle never called him. When she was late, she never called him. So the one time she calls him is the night that she, spoilers, ends up vanishing. I am not saying this as I'm suspicious about the call. I have to admit that we don't have records of this call, like a petrol station from the 80s, there's no record of her making this call, even if there was, like, I don't have it. And also I have to say that by 9pm, because Michelle's making this call at 945, Tom's restaurant is closed. So there's no witnesses across the road who could have seen Michelle, and there's

nobody at Sparky's either who sees her make this call. So some people question whether it even happened. I think it did. Because Buddy Anderson, his parents, and the rest of the band were in the room when Leo spoke to Michelle. And it's unlikely that Leo answered the phone in someone else's house, so one of Buddy's family must also have briefly spoken to Michelle when she called asking for her husband. So it's safe to say that this call was real, and it was Michelle on the other end,

and it did come in at 9.45. And I think we have to all agree that this call happened. otherwise the timeline is just like whatever. I'm happy to take the word of the people who were at Buddy Anderson's house because as we will see, they will turn on Leo, so they have no reason to lie for him. And it's a lot of people to lie. But this is where, after we have all mutually agreed, this phone call happened when it happened, things start to go off the rails.

After the call, Leo walked to Vince's house with Buddy, and Vince confirmed that they both arrived at 10pm. It should have been about a 10 or a 15-minute drive for Michelle. So they're just standing around expecting her to show up any minute. But that never happens. Michelle is nowhere to be seen. An hour and a half passes. And at 11.30pm, a worried Leo phones his parents from Vinces. And this is what I mean.

You expect her to literally be there at the same time you get to Vinces. an hour and a half. Patience people must have had to be like, well, there's nothing I can do. Yeah. So yeah, he phones his mum and dad's stepmom answers the call and passes the phone to Leo's dad, Leo Sr., which is just so infuriating.

I wish we could just change his name and call him something else because it makes it so confusing, but that is his name. And Leo Sr. tells his son, Leo, not to stress. Michelle was easily waylaid. She probably just bumped into a friend and got distracted. Leo Sr. assured his son that Michelle would turn up eventually. And he also reminded him, this sort of thing happens all the time. And like we said, Michelle's just 18.

And it's not just that she's forgetful or like unreliable. She also likes hanging out with her friends because she's 18. She likes staying out late. She likes going out. She likes partying. And Leo's not really into that in the same way. And he finds it quite annoying with Michelle. But again, like, what do you expect?

Yeah. So after speaking to his dad, Leo tried to calm down and wait it out. But just 15 minutes later, we're 1145. Leo called his dad again. And this time, Leo Sr. agreed to come pick his son up. He arrived at midnight in his blue and white camper van. And the pair of them then spent the next 40 minutes driving around the area of Cumbie in Lakeland

between Tom's restaurant, Sparkies, Buddies, vincers, and the trailer where Leo and Michelle lived. But there was no sign of Michelle. And also she's driving a very bait car. She's driving an orange master. They also don't see this car anywhere. At 12.43 p.m., Leo's dad drove him back to Vince's house. Leo told his friend that he was now really worried and he needed to use his phone.

Leo called the sheriff's department. He wanted to check if Michelle had been picked up by the cops. because she didn't actually have a driver's license. Yeah. And she had already been stopped a couple of months before, but that officer had let her go with a warning. And I think that it's clear that that's where his mind goes. He's like, the only thing that makes sense

is that she's been picked up by the cops. And yeah, good point of call. And again, very important because he's phoning the police. He's phoning the police at this point. Not being like, Michelle's been murdered. He's very... He's like, there's a valid reason for why he's calling. But unfortunately, the police hadn't seen Michelle either.

So Leo tried to file a missing person's report. But the officer he spoke to, he brushed him off, telling Leo, that she'd been missing like three hours. Go home, she'll turn up. This happens all the time. Which is exactly what the police said to my friends when I went missing in Massachusetts. And I did turn up. You did.

And that's why they say it. They're like, most people just turn up, go home. Most people are asleep in the lobby of an airport Hilton. You should check there first. So what's important about this call, other than the fact that it is the first point of contact that Leo has with the police, is that this call was recorded because it's obviously going through to the Sheriff's Department. And it gives us a bit more of an insight into his mind to this particular recording. Now, I'm not going to play it.

It is played in Bone Valley, so if people want to listen to it, they can go listen to it there. But basically, the bit that they play isn't actually Leo speaking to the officer. Oh, that's not the bit that's particularly interesting. The bit that's interesting is when he's on hold and he's speaking to his friend Vince, who's standing next to him. And Leo says, something along the lines of, I doubt she's screwing around, but if she is, God help her. The slightest thing sets me off. I don't know why. She's always doing stuff like this, but it's not like her to be this late.

And if you ask me, because a lot of people at the prosecution and the police, especially, be like, look how angry he sounds. Look how angry he sounds. That's not really the feeling I got when I listened to this call. To me, it sounds more like Leo is confused. He's confused about whether to be angry or scared. I think that's it. He's like, I'm angry because she's not here and I'm suspicious about what she's doing. But I'm also like, it's not like her to be this late.

So, yeah, I also think it's worth pointing out. that remember when this is all happening, Leo is 19 years old. So a lot of people are like, well, he knows he's being recorded and that's why he's saying this, that, and the other. Okay. I don't even know if he knows he's being recorded. I don't know. I think in this day and age, people would assume that.

I don't know if Leo knows that. And I'm also like, if he had done something to his wife, firstly, big firstly, when did he do it? At this point, it would have had to have happened in the 40 minutes that he and his dad were alone driving around after they left Vince's house. And this would be a later accusation that would be made and like, okay, maybe. So if that is what happened, why come back to Vince's house and call the police so early on and alert them to your missing wife? The theory some people have is that basically his dad comes and picks him up from Vince's house,

they drive off together. Leo finds Michelle, he kills her. And then Leo's dad is like, fuck, we better cover this up. Let's drive back to Vincers and call the police. Why would you call the fucking police? You'd just go home and be like, Michelle's always doing this. I'll deal with her in the morning when she gets back. Oh, she's not turned up. Like, why would you, somebody must have done something to her? Like, it doesn't make any sense. And also, why on earth, if you knew you were being recorded, why would you say things like, God help her? Everything sets me off. It doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't you just play that I'm so worried about my wife card? Which he doesn't do, which to me makes it seem more.

plausible. Anyway, after this call to the police, Leo Sr. said that he needed to go home. He had the flu and just wanted to go to sleep. So, at 1.15 a.m. and his dad drove to Leo's parents' house. Leo's dad went to bed. And now his stepmom joined Leo to help keep looking for Michelle. Kristen, Leo's little sister, had been woken up by Leo's initial call to their dad at 1130. and now she had once again woken up

when Leo and their dad came home and Leo and her mum left at 1.30 in the morning. The family had a grandfather clock that chimed every half hour. My grandparents used to have one of those. It's so annoying. Both Leo's mum and sister say that they heard this gong as they headed back out. So that's the reason we are sure of the exact time,

like all of the watches that froze on a Titanic. Yeah. So now Leo and his step-mom get back in the white and blue camper van and drive around. But there's still no sign of Michelle. And at 245 a.m., they actually went to Michelle's dad's house, David's son. Leo woke his father-in-law up asking if he knew where Michelle was. He didn't. And this is important.

Leo even used the home of phone. the Somme house to call Michelle's aunt to see if she had heard from her. Michelle's dad and Michelle's little brother, Jessie, both confirmed that Leo did indeed come to their house that morning because Jesse remembers being annoyed, thinking that Leo was a bit too controlling of his sister, always wanting to know where she was and disturbing other people at all hours with his nonsense. Leo and his mum left the Somm house at 3.15 a.m. and headed back out there. Before long they spotted two police officers out by Sparkies

and they think that those cops are there looking for Michelle so they're going to speak to them but the men say they don't know what Leo's talking about the Bolo announcement about Michelle had only just gone out those officers didn't even know about it yet the next point in our timeline is 3.30 a.m when Leo and his mum returned to the Schofield house Leo's dad was asleep

but his sister Kristen saw them come back Now, after he took his mum home at 3.30, Leo borrowed their campervan and went back out on his own to look for Michelle again. And this is important because this point at 3.30, when he leaves his parents' house with their car, the next bit of time is the only bit of time that entire night that Leo is unaccounted for by another witness. But it's only for about an hour. Because at 4.40 a.m., Leo went back. back to his friend Buddy Anderson's house. And Buddy says that Leo turned up crying

and saying that he was worried because he thought, quote, someone has Michelle. And that is a weird thing to say. Sure. Like that is a weird thing to say. He doesn't even know where Michelle is. And it wasn't like we've said totally out of character for Michelle to do this. Like stay out all night.

So why does Leo think that someone has her? I don't know. Maybe it's just like he's exhausted. It's 4.40 in the morning. He's been looking all night. like maybe your mind jumps to the worst possible place. I don't know. At 6.30 that morning, David Somm, Michelle's dad, also went out looking for her.

And the first stop he made was to the couple's trailer. David went in and noticed that the place was a total mess. But it was always a mess. I'm not surprised. There's four people on a puppy in there. So he didn't think too much of it. So by now, Leo, Michelle's dad and their friends were all out searching for Michelle. But the police were still not that concerned.

So shortly after noon on the 25th of February, Leo and his dad went to the police station. Michelle had now been missing for about 14 hours. And just to be clear, this is therefore his third attempt to speak to the police, because he calls the Sheriff's Department, he speaks to those officers outside Sparkies, and now he's going to the police station. The officer that Leo and Leo Sr. spoke to at first just told Leo that most people who are reported missing aren't actually missing. But as he started to ask more questions, he became suspicious.

The officer didn't like that whenever he asked Leo a question, his dad responded. At one point, Leo seemed to not know Michelle's birthday. And the officer pushes him on what sort of husband doesn't know. that. And look, I heard that and I was like, wow, look, he's in a state of shock, he's been up all night and all these things. And then I heard that his birthday and Michelle's birthday are a day apart. I don't, how would you forget that? If somebody's birthday was the day before mine, I wouldn't forget it. I don't think he forgot it. I think he literally is just like, his head is just like a mess. Yeah. And even if he had forgotten, that doesn't mean he killed her. But I don't know, a big deal is

made of the fact that he apparently doesn't know what color. Her eyes are. He apparently doesn't know her birthday. I just think he was a mess. But I understand why that looks suspicious to the officer. But I'm also like, why would he come and report it to you then? Yes. So early. I don't know.

I also personally know people who in like, you know when you get married, you have to go and do that interview to like prove that you actually like them. And people who sat there were like, what is her job? It just falls out of your head. Absolutely. I also recently learned that, so I've never really known what color my eyes are. Some people say blue, some people say green, I don't know. My passport says blue, that's why I go with.

It's because having blue eyes, similarly to how very few people are actually blonde, being blonde just means you have the G mutation, which means your hair bleaches in the sun. Having blue eyes is just an absence of melanin, which is why, depending on the light, they can look different because it's not a thing, it's an absence. Interesting, interesting. And yeah, speaking of like forgetting things or like getting things wrong. in the heat of the moment. When I went to one of those interviews

before I got married last year, I thought my dad's name wrong. My dad's name is spelled wrong on my wedding certificate. Don't tell. Don't tell them. Because at the, they like interview you before you

like walked down the aisle and she was speaking to me and I was like, I've had a couple of glasses of prosciko which like also you're not meant to do or like they're not meant to be able to tell that you've had a drink. And then she was like

reading the stuff off my wedding certificate because they're like double checking all the information is correct. And she read out my dad's name I was like, that's not right. And then she saw the look on my face and I was like, oh, no, that's fine. And she was like, are you sure? Because this is a legal document.

And I was like, yeah, that's fine. Because I didn't want her to be like, well, we need to like change all this. Or, you know, it's going to cause a big delay. I was like, yeah, it's fine. It's fine. So inofficial records one day when like my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandchild is like doing, tracing their lineage back, they'll be like, they'll think that's how my dad's name was spelled. And it's wrong.

That's sad. whatever. Maybe they'll find his passport as well and be like, wait, hang on a minute. There's fraud. Who am I? People forget things, it's the point. However, this law enforcement officer was so suspicious that he noted down that he thought foul play was going on. So he writes that down, but then doesn't do anything and then just sends Leo and his dad home.

So it's all very confusing. It's all very confusing. I think he's just like, in case anything happens later down the line, I'm going to write this down. But he is ultimately like, she's been missing 14 hours go home. So yes. I just think, you know, it's interesting that his mind jumps to that. He doesn't really have much evidence for the fact that there's foul play. All he really has is that Leo's the husband and he seems to not know what when her birthday is.

And they're also disregarding the fact that, like I said, Leo, by this point, 14 hours after he last spoke to Michelle, he has contacted the police three days. times. Perhaps, perhaps this was all just like a way to establish an alibi, as the prosecution would later claim. But again, if you just killed your wife, would you really be trying to involve law enforcement so early on? Especially when they themselves are telling you, fuck off for 24 hours. Like, why be so persistent? In my mind, you have, like, very little to gain by doing that. Yeah, I think so. So some people also wonder why Leo's so worried about Michelle. It's been 14 hours. Why has he contacted the police three times?

Seems a bit suspicious. And like we said, she has done this before where she stays out all night. The thing is, Cumbie was a pretty dangerous place. It was quite deprived and had quite high crime rates back in the 80s. And in the podcast Bone Valley, Leo explains that when he first moved to Florida, he was shocked by how many violent crimes they were. seem to be constantly being reported compared to when he lived in Boston.

Now look, I think this has probably got something to do with Florida's Sunshine Laws. As we know, usually does. Like, a lot more information gets reported in Florida so it can feel a bit more like overwhelming, I guess. But I did also actually look at the crime stats and I do have to say it's quite a stark difference because if you compare Massachusetts with Florida

the murder rate at the time in Florida was three times higher and the prevalence of rape was about twice as high. So I guess that's why Leo is a little bit more concerned. But the police still didn't seem all that fuss about the fact that Michelle was missing. Until that is, two days after Michelle vanished, when a friend of Leo's spotted the orange Mazda out on Interstate 4. He called Leo and he called the police.

and immediately it was odd that the car would be there because it was in the wrong direction to go to Vince Rainer's house from Sparky's which is the route that Michelle was meant to take the night she disappeared finally it was now that the police started to take the situation a bit more seriously because even if Michelle had just broken down and it was true that the car wouldn't start Michelle was close enough to just walk back

so where did she go? Yeah. Yeah it was. would have been a long fucking walk, but like somebody would have seen her. She would have found a way to get home. She's not like out in the middle of nowhere. No. So the car being broken down was also probably why it was still sat there two days later without having been stolen. But it seemed that someone had had a go. Because while the car doors were all locked, the boot wasn't. And inside the car, in a super 80s kind of way, someone had nicked the car speakers and tried

but failed to steal the radio. My mum used to have the radio that popped out. Do you remember those? Just put it in the glove box. Yes, yes, my parents had that. So, yeah, that's not perhaps that shocking. What was more worrying is that in the back of the car, investigators found a bottle of fabric softener with a blood smear on it.

They would actually be able to match the blood smear on the bottle of fabric softener with Michelle's blood type. Again, remember, this is the 80s, and that's pretty much all they could do back then. And it also wasn't a lot of blood. It's just like a smear across it, but it wasn't looking good. And then it started to look very weird

because the police dusted the car and only found in the entire car two sets of matching prints, one on the inside windscreen and one on the back of the car on the inside by the boot. these prints didn't belong to Leo or Michelle In fact, no prince whatsoever belonging to either of them were found anywhere in or on the car

How? Exactly. It's very fucking weird because it's their car. That's like impossible. They find no prints. They find no prints. And look, I'll keep saying, like, it's the 80s, it's the 80s, but they know how to dust for prints.

Yeah. So very weird. Basically, what it looked like was, Someone had wiped the entire vehicle down. Maticulously with a Q-tip. Like, that is so hard. But then seemingly carelessly left two sets of prints, possibly their own, behind.

And maybe they say when they find no other prints, maybe they mean they don't find, like, usable prints. I don't know. But they say the only two prints they find are these two. And so the search for Michelle ramped up, and it took on a darker feeling. although nobody said it. It felt inevitable that now they were probably looking for a body.

And sadly, on Friday the 27th of February, three days after she went missing, they found Michelle's remains. Her body had been dumped in a drainage ditch near State Road 23, off interstate 4, six miles from where her car had been abandoned. And it was actually a drainage ditch that was connected to an old phosphate. mine. Michelle was found lying face down in the water with a plywood board placed on her back.

She'd been stabbed to death in what looked like a frenzied attack. The autopsy would later show that she'd been stabbed at least 26 times in her back and chest and neck. There was no alcohol or drugs in her system. And unusually, in a case like this, no sign of sexual assault either. Michelle's body was fully clothed

and she was still dressed in the white shirt and red trousers that she'd worn to work the day she vanished and her wedding band was still on her finger only her shoes her purse and handbag were missing but the scene was a total mess there was rubbish absolutely everywhere people use this place as a sort of dumping ground as well as unfortunately a spot for hooking up

and taking trucks. It's sort of like secluded enough that I think if you were there, you would feel like you were really out of the way. But it's also easy enough to get to for whatever no good one might be up to. So the prosecution always says it's so remote, it's so remote, it's so remote. It's not really. It's like just off the interstate. But once you're there, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.

Sure. So yes. Areas a mess. I think that also plays. is a significant role in how poorly this scene is processed. Again, it's the 80s, I get it, it's a different set of forensic standards that were probably being met. But like, it's crazy with our heads now to think about how much evidence they probably missed because they didn't know what was evidence on what was just rubbish. So, yeah, it's confusing. Anyway, despite all

the rubbish that was strewn around, it was clear to see drag marks and large, large pools of blood in the dirt, starting about roughly 20 yards from the edge of the canal, drainage ditch, whatever we want to call it, in which Michelle is found. Man-made waterway. Yeah. And one look at Michelle's back made it very obvious that she had been dragged across the ground, most likely after she was already dead and dumped in the water. According to witnesses, when he was told what the police had found, Leo fell apart on the side of the

fell apart on the side of the road. Was it guilt or was it heartbreak? To the police, it looked like the former. Especially when the officer who had taken Leo's original statement about Michelle being missing called the Schofield family to offer his condolences and learned from Leo Sr. That he had been the one to discover Michelle's remains. Thanks to a message from God.

Leo Sr. claimed that the night before he had had a dream in which Michelle appeared to him, smiling as if to thank him. He said that when he woke up, he knew exactly where to go. And there she was. Just like in his dream. It's extremely weird.

It's extremely weird. And when I first heard that, when I first heard about his case, I was like, fucking hell. Yeah. Like that is wild. And we'll come on to it. We'll come on to it.

But what we need to know for now is that just like us, just like you listening, it felt like way too much of a coincidence for investigators. They immediately suspected Leo and thought that perhaps his dad, Leo Sr., had helped him dump the body, or that Leo had told his dad what he had done and where he had left Michelle. And Leo Sr. had cracked under the guilt and gone to look for himself, found the body and then reported it. So the police take it. take Leo in and have him do a polygraph, which they claimed he failed. But we also know they can lie about this.

We know that the police in the US, especially at the time, could make you do a polygraph and then tell you you failed that polygraph just to see what your reaction is. And look, even if Leo did fail that polygraph, all it means is that he was stressed. All it could mean is that he was stressed, which feels like a normal response given the situation that he's currently in. And even in the A.T's in Florida, polygraphs were not admissible in court, so the police needed more. And by this point, they had already gathered accounts from friends of the couple that Leo had a temper and would often shout at Michelle and even hit her. But nobody believe that Leo would have killed Michelle. Until the police spoke to Alice Scott.

Alice Scott was Leo and Michelle's neighbour and she would go on to become a very important character in this story Alice says that she often struggled to sleep so she regularly sat around watching her neighbours do you remember when we were shooting in Clop Hell and we were doing like a thing in front of the sign on the like Village Green and that lady right

if you are filming in public it's very embarrassing right like if nobody wants me doing it like you just need to get it over as quickly as possible but you can't like let that show that you're like I'm having a terrible damn I hate it I hate it it's awful it's the worst thing and it was so like

hot fuzz like village green preservation society like it was so everyone was just like they're here yeah and this one lady it was so funny was watching us from her window and she came out

to her front garden, brought a chair. And a book. And a book. And just sat in her. High holes in it. I was like, is this the Wambles? Like, what is happening? It was awful.

It was so funny. And then when it was obvious that we were done and we packed up, she was gone. She should have had signed. It was so funny. But that's Alice Scott. That is Alice Scott. When you are in Cape Town, you will see so many influences just like getting the shot. Like, people stop their cars.

Oh, God. And like, to take pictures of their girlfriend. It's so funny. That's hilarious. Unless you, like, need to be. somewhere. Sure. That it's very annoying.

But I watch them and I'm like, I think I need like 40% of the brass balls you have to be able to do that. Yeah. Just so brazen. Anyway, Alice is a nosy parker is what we've established. And we believe that she just sits around knocking on people. But that's about it. Alice Scott. She is just...

She's a card. A card. We will go on to see. Alice Scott changed her story. A lot of times. And she also influenced other witnesses while she was at it. But the police were all ears. And what Alice Scott had to say made Leo look really, really guilty.

Yeah. So Alice first spoke to the police when they were initially canvassing the area after Michelle vanished. And she told them that she had seen a blue and white camper van parked by Leo and Michelle's trailer at about 9pm or 10pm on the night in question. The issue with this sighting, because if you remember, the blue and white camper van is Leo Sr's car. That's video. I didn't remember that, but thank you. Just to clarify. Orange Mazda, Leo Michelle's car, blue and white camper van belongs to Leo's dad.

Now, the issue with this citing that Alice Scott gives is that it doesn't really fit anything. It doesn't fit with anything. Because as we know, Michelle called Leo, who was at Buddy's house from Sparkies at 9.45pm. So basically, if we say Alice Scott's 9pm, 10pm, somewhere in the midpoint of that, Michelle is still alive. She's at Sparkies. She's calling Leo. Now, Leo didn't phone his dad until 11.30pm. So his dad has no idea that Michelle is missing or anything is going on.

until 11.30 p.m. And while the pair of them did go to Leo and Michelle's trailer in the blue and white camper van, it wasn't until much later that evening. Now look, I know some people will be like, well, suspicious, why was Leo's dad? Maybe he was parked up at their trailer before and, like, he did something to Michelle. Maybe, but like, there's no evidence of that other than what Alice Scott says. And we know at this point Michelle is still alive. So it's not like she's dead and he's there doing something to her.

She's still alive. and at Sparkies. And so, yeah, unsurprisingly, this citing that Alice gives actually vanishes altogether from her later subsequent accounts, probably because she realised that it didn't fit with a very different timeline that had been corroborated by many other people. So, Alice Scott then said that she saw Leo and Michelle come home in their orange master at 1 or 1.30 in the morning.

She watched them go inside and then she heard them fighting. She heard Michelle screaming, no, Leo, don't. Then Alice claimed that she saw Leo leave again at 150 a.m. For this Alice Scott timeline to work, Leo and his mum, who were driving around together from 1.30 to 3.30 in the morning must have actually found Michelle pretty much straight away. and Leo would have then had to join Michelle in their orange car and drive home. What doesn't make sense is that we know that Leo and his mum went to Michelle's dad's house at 2.45 a.m.

And we know that happened because her dad is like, yeah, they came here. And Jessie, her brother was like, yeah, he was fucking here being annoyed. So are we then to believe that Leo came back to the trailer with Michelle as per Alice Scott's eyewitness testimony, kill her during a fight in the trailer, and then immediately head back out at 150. Presumably to then go back to his parents' place and ask his mum to get out of bed,

come back out with him so he could go to Michelle's dad's place to establish an alibi. Why would that happen? Because surely his mum would be like, well, why do you need to go to Michelle's dad's place? We found Michelle. or even if you do need to go there, you've come here in your orange Mazda.

Why do you need me to come with you? Why do we need to go in the blue and white camper to Michelle's dad's place? To believe any of this, you have to believe that Leo kills Michelle in the trailer during the fight that Alice Scott says she hears, then drive to his parents' house. Tell them everything. Fuck, mom and dad, dad and stepmom. I killed Michelle. Now we need to immediately implement some sort of alibi for me.

And I need you to be in on it. Then no questions asked immediately are just on board. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what you have to believe for this particular timeline to make sense. Right, the Warren Commission. So yes, also the question becomes, let's say Leo did kill Michelle, as per Alice Scott's hearing of it. Why the fuck would he go to Michelle's dad's place? Why would he do this?

Even let's say his mum and his dad are on board, they go along with it. Why would he do this? Why would he go to Michelle's dad's place? Imagine he goes there and Michelle's dad is like, oh my God, yes, where is my daughter? her, let's go back to your trailer. What if he had insisted on going back to the trailer with him, where Michelle was presumably lying dead, or at least severely injured at this point

because Leo's apparently already attacked her, why would you go to Michelle's dad's place? It doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't you be trying to cover up the murder you've just committed? A lot of people would have to be in very specific cahoots. Yes, yes. It just doesn't make lot of sense. And also, remember Leo and his mum stopped and spoke to those officers.

At Sparky's at 315, why would you do that if you've just murdered your wife? Why would you bring so much attention to a situation that you haven't cleaned up yet in front of your mum? Yeah, it's just like you've apparently just murdered her, left her in that trailer, and then you're running around drawing loads of attention to the fact that she's missing. Why wouldn't you be dealing with the imminent problem of the fact that you've murdered your wife? And also, Kristen, Leo's younger sister, saw him bring his mum home. their mum at 3.30 in the morning. And Kristen saw her dad asleep in his room and said she would have heard if he left. The prosecution would later claim that all of the Schofields were in on it

together and covering up for Leo. And yes, it is less than ideal that it's his family vouching for him during certain times that night. But we know that Leo went to Michelle's dad's place and he spoke to those officers. And those people don't have any reason to lie for him. You just have to do quite a lot of mental gymnastics and question a lot of people's stories in order to trust Nosey Parker, Alice Scott. Yeah. And look, I am not saying at this juncture that I'm like, that's enough evidence that Leo didn't do it. We're poking holes in Alice Scott's story because it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't mean that Leo didn't do it. It just means what she's saying is completely like lacking any sort of credibility.

But the prosecution love it, the police love it, so let's stick with her for now. To Alice Scott tells the police that after he left at 150 a.m., she saw Leo come back to the trailer at 2.10 a.m. So he's been gone for about 20 minutes. And yes, Alice Scott is still up and still watching everything from her bathroom window, which is what she claims. According to Alice, he goes back into the trailer and 10 minutes later he comes back out and this time he's carrying something heavy that he places into his car, the orange

master. We only have Leo and his stepmom's word for it as to what they were doing at this point because they were driving around at this point looking for Michelle. So of course they could be lying. Of course his stepmom could be lying for him. But Alice later changes this timeline because this timeline that she's giving is the first version. She later changes this story and says that it was probably more like 233 a.m. When she saw Leo carrying that heavy object out of his trailer and putting it into his car.

And this makes no sense because we know that was the time that Leo was at his father-in-law's house. Now look, eyewitness testimony, eyewitnesses in general are notoriously bad. And Alice Scott was definitely a busy body who watched her neighbours all the time and called the police all the time. Oh, fucking hell. She would have loved Facebook. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Fuck it all. She's a nightmare in this sense. And look, maybe to give Alice Scott the biggest benefit of the doubt, maybe because she does this all the time, she's getting her nights confused. Maybe she's thinking about another night

in which these things did happen and these were the times. Because Leo, when he's told about this, something heavy he was carrying out, I was like, yeah, I have a fucking amp that I take to band practice and it is heavy. But he's like, anybody looking at it would know goddamn well that it's an amp. So she's lying. And he's like, I didn't do it that night, but he could have done it another night.

So maybe she's confused. And look, if we didn't have Leo confirmed to be with other people in other places at the same point that Leo says she saw him at the trailer doing all of these things, her confusion over the exact timings wouldn't bother me as much. Like I wouldn't be sitting here being like, well, one minute you said it was two, the next minute you say it's three, the next minute you say it's 130, like which is it? I would be like, she's probably just confused, but maybe this did really happen. The fact that there is direct contradictory evidence that is backed up by other people as to where Leo is the same time she says he's at the trailer, that's what makes me not believe her, right?

It just doesn't match up with so many people's accounts of that 90. The only time that night, as we said earlier, that there were no eyewitnesses as to where Leo was, was between 3.30 and 4.40 a.m. That's from when he took his mum home, and before he turned back up at Buddy's house. Could he have killed Michelle in this time? It's tight, but it is possible. And so the police was suspicious. But Alice Scott is still the only one, Lingel. King, Leo and Michelle that night. Forensics teams investigated the trailer, and just like David Somm, who's Michelle's dad, had said they noted that it was a total mess.

But there was no blood in there. This is an infuriating part of the story, because in a lot of reporting at the time, and like pretty much before Bone Valley, they found blood. They found blood in there. They don't find blood in there. They don't. Luminal did light up in a few places

but so they would in everybody's house There's four people living in that house And a dog Yeah It's also, we'll talk about us later remarkable at the things that Luminal will react to It's not just blood But the medical examiner said

That Michelle would have lost Around five pints of blood When she was killed And Alice Scott's account makes it seem like Leo killed Michelle in their trailer. So where is all that five pints gone? It's all on the dirt path by the canal where Michelle's body was found.

Yeah. So it really looks like the murder site and the dump site are one in the same. Also, the medical examiner's report stated that Michelle had been placed in the water within minutes of her death. So are we really to believe, therefore, that Leo, let's place.

it out with Alice Scott's theory and the physical evidence we have. For that to work, it would have to mean that Leo incapacitates Michelle at the house. Even though she didn't have any other notable injuries other than the stab wounds, he somehow incapacitates her. Maybe he even thinks that she's dead. And then he runs around trying to establish an alibi for some reason, and then he comes back, shoves her in the car, drives her out to that canal, still alive, where he drags her out, stabs her 26 times, and then dumps her in that ditch. Before leaving the car, broken down six miles in the wrong direction from his house, but somehow still getting from the dumped car to Buddy Anderson's house.

On foot? It's not walkable in that time. Did somebody give him a lift? If so, why is that person never come forward? How did he do all that in an hour? In an hour. Oh, and also, this is very important. When Leo turned up at Buddy Anderson's house at 4.40 a.m.,

Leo didn't have any blood or mud on him. Despite the fact that he's attacked Michelle, stabbed her 26 times, dragged her across a dirt path and dumped her in a ditch. He's got no blood, no mud on him whatsoever. And Buddy Anderson, who, as I said, will turn against Leo later. later, always testifies that Leo was still wearing the same clothes he was wearing at band practice earlier that evening. How would that make any sense?

But none of this mattered, according to the prosecution, who stuck with the theory that Leo had killed Michelle in the trailer. And look, the prosecution, they depend so heavily on Alice Scott because she's the only person linking Leo and Michelle that night. So they need her. They need her. and because they use her so heavily, the things she's saying don't make sense.

They fly in the face of like other evidence we have and it also creates this weird situation in which Leo has to attack and or kill Michelle in the trailer. But it doesn't make sense, but they have to go with it. So they kind of paint themselves into a corner and make their case even more complicated because they have to use Alice Scott. But we'll get on to that next week.

For now, we're going to stick to the blood. How did the prosecution explain the lack of blood? Once again, Alice Scott. This is amazing. Alice Scott said that she saw Leo with a carpet cleaning machine the very next day. Yeah. Apparently, the next afternoon, Alice Scott saw Leo cleaning his trailer with the door wide open. As you would, if you were cleaning up a shit ton of blood after you'd murdered your wife and that.

Let's go with it for a second. Fine, but forensics found no detergent in the carpet to suggest that it had been recently cleaned. And it didn't even look clean. Yeah. And again, they're like, where is the logic? The prosecution is just like, he could have cleaned it with just water. You're going to clean blood out of a carpet with just water and no detergent.

I know he's a 19-year-old. But even that, like, come on, come on. You need like heavy-duty fucking bleach. And even then you're not going to get it all. No. They don't win anything. They're in there for hours and they find nothing. On top of that, there were clothes all over the floor.

So, while Alice Scott is asking us to believe is that Leo, please. the carpet with the door wide open and then put everything back on the floor. Yeah. Just rearranged the mess to how it had been before. He's a criminal genius if he has because he's like, well, I don't want it to look too clean

because then people are going to be suspicious because we're quite messy people. So let me pick up all this stuff. Clean the carpet. Maybe I'll make it messy again because, you know, I don't want people to wonder why the carpet's so clean. But I'll clean it with the door open.

And then I'll put all the stuff back out on the floor so it looks a mess. Like, come on. And I'll make sure I only use water so they don't find detergent. What? And Alice Scott says that the carpet cleaning wasn't until at least noon the day after Michelle vanished, but Michelle's dad went by the trailer at 6.30 that morning and didn't notice anything weird. So how did he not notice the five pints of blood? Mm-hmm.

And this time mine also means that Leo went to report. report Michelle missing before he cleaned up. Yeah, because remember at noon, he went with his dad to the police that day. Don't come to my trailer though, but take very seriously the fact that my wife is missing. Shut up, come on. Yeah, I don't believe anyone would do that. I don't believe a child would do that. It's so unserious.

So yeah, nothing was really matching up. And the forensics was pretty weak. Like we mentioned, they had found. found a few splashes of something that had triggered the luminal in the trailer's bathroom, kitchen and bedroom. But firstly, it was in nowhere near the kind of volume that you would expect to see. And also, they couldn't even identify it as Michelle's blood. They couldn't even identify most of it as blood. And like I said, luminal reacts to all sorts of things, including urine, alcohol and other bodily fluids. And like I said, it's a small trailer with four adults living

in it. Those spots could have been anything. So, despite the fact that for the police, Leo was their prime suspect, they couldn't actually arrest him because they knew they had nothing. But they did keep questioning him. And Leo, by all accounts, cooperated. He didn't even ask for a lawyer. Because there's a lot of people that say, oh, and then he fled. He fled Florida and headed back to Massachusetts.

He does leave. He does leave, but he leaves after he's in quite a bad car accident. and he ends up moving back to Massachusetts with his family at that point. But, and this is important, he leaves all of his details, including his new address in Massachusetts, with the lead detective in Lakeland, who was dealing with Michelle's case and says, please keep me informed of anything that comes up.

Around that time, Polk County got a new assistant state attorney, John Aguero. Boo! With 10 unsolved homicides on the books, this young hire was under pressure to get some cases cleared. And after taking one look at the murder of Michelle Scolfield, Aguero couldn't believe that the police had let Leo and his dad run off up north, especially when he found out that Leo Sr. had actually been arrested for molesting a girl in Rhode Island after they'd moved back. Oh good. So Aguero opened the case back up and spoke once more to Alice Scott,

who this time pointed him in the direction of another couple. the Lafoons Unfortunate surname Unfortunate involvement in this case Because the Lafoons also lived near Leo and Michelle And they had been spoken to again At the time of the initial investigation But at that point they said

I don't know anything Don't know anything about this But now A year and a half later After having had presumably some very deep chats With their neighbour Alice Scott But they suddenly seemed to remember a lot more. Like how, specifically, between 3am and 4 a.m. on the night that Michelle vanished,

they had seen an orange car and a blue and white truck parked up near where Michelle's body would later be found. This sounds pretty bad for Leo and his dad, because now it looks like they're in on it together, dumping Michelle's body whilst also running around to various people's houses trying to establish an alibi. Aguero was certain that they had their man, so he actually went personally all the way to Massachusetts to arrest Leo. They charged him with first-degree homicide and made it clear that they wanted the death penalty for it. Now Leo finally got a lawyer. And he's even told that he can fight extradition to Florida, but he doesn't, saying he's an innocent man, so he doesn't need to worry. He just wants to clear the whole thing up.

Yeah. Famous last words. Very much. Now, at first, Leo was appointed a public defender. But once he goes into jail, he gets talking to his fellow inmates, who warn him, you don't want a public defender on a case like this. You need a hot-shot lawyer.

I disagree. The public defender in this case, and I think in a lot of cases, but definitely in this case, they're interviewed in Bone Valley, They're like, we believed him. We knew he was innocent. The case didn't make any fucking sense. We were going to go hard.

And they were like, we were going to investigate. We were going to do everything. We were going to fight this. But Leo gets it in his head that he needs a hot shot attorney. And the man on everybody's lips was Jack Edmund. Jack Edmund was a quintessential southern gent. He sounds like the cockerel attorney in Futurama. Do you remember?

Of course I remember. He sounds like that. But he looks like the KFC Colonel. Like I'm not even exaggerating. That is what he looks like. I'm actually going to show you a picture because it is. It's just so striking. Oh boy, yeah.

Yeah. And literally sounds like the cockerel. So this is the man, right? And Edmund, if you listen to him speak, like in court recordings and things like that, He has this like deep southern drawl. He's flamboyant. He's bombastic. And he also does that kind of like doddering act when needed.

And when Leo reached out to him and Jack's team found out about the car accident Leo had been in, for which he was owed $50,000 compensation, they said that Jack would take his case if Leo signed that entire $50,000 over to the Cockrell Man. Yeah. And Leo agreed. After all, his life was on the line. It doesn't have any other money. But this would turn out to be a huge mistake on Leo's part.

Because Jack Edmund wouldn't even come to see Leo until the night before the start of his trial. For a fucking death penalty case. It is diabolical. I have a lot of questions about how Jack Edmund handles this case. and I've seen a lot of people online talk about, and they talk about this in Bone Valley and like other people, you know, ponder about this.

Is that Jack Edmund is like, it's like a big deal. He's a big name in Florida at the time. Am I only thinking about why he does this is like, people are like, he's the guy you want if you're actually guilty. Ah, because he's, you know, if you're actually guilty, he doesn't need to look into the fucking case. He's just going to come there and pu-p-poo-poo-pire shots at the prosecution. poke a bunch holes in it.

Got it. But if you are actually innocent, you need a public defender who's going to look into every single fucking little bit of evidence against you, who's going to leave no stone unturned, who's going to do a proper investigation and is going to be like, this makes no sense. Don't get me wrong. Jack Edmund could still have done that, and I'm not letting Jack Edmund off the hook because he is a massive part of what happens

that we're going to get into in episode two. But Jack Edmund, for whatever reason, does an absolutely piss poor job of this. it's actually quite staggering especially because he has got a 20-year-old man in front of him who is facing death it blows the mind and when he eventually bothered to go and see Leo

it was to tell him that Aguero had offered him a plea deal if Leo pleaded guilty to second-degree murder he would get 12 to 17 years and given his lack of priors he would probably be out in a few years with good behaviour.

If Leo went to trial, however, and if he was found guilty, he was facing death. But Leo refused the plea deal, saying that he couldn't and wouldn't say that he was guilty because he wasn't. Leo would also claim that before this plea deal, Aguero had offered him something different.

Leo said that one night out of the blue, he had been taken from his cell to Aguero's office, where Aguero allegedly told him, I don't think it was you. I think it was your dad. Tell me he did it, testify to that, and I'll let you walk. And Leo had previously said to the police,

in the midst of all of this while he's going through all the turmoil of Michelle being missing and then turning up dead, and especially after his own dad finds her body, he does actually say to the police, worried about my dad. Yeah, and he's a child, Melissa. But Leo refused this plea deal from Aguero as well, saying, I can't testify to something like that because I can only tell you what I know.

And when Leo wouldn't go along with it, Aguero apparently told him in that meeting, then I'll put you in the electric chair. Now look, there is no record of this deal anywhere. I'm not surprised. So it is just Leo's word against Aguero's, that this meeting even took place, that Aguero even said any of these things. But next week, we will come on to more of Aguero's little deals. And why the idea that he said this, let alone that there is no official clearance, or like

paperwork or paper trail, that this was ever true, might not be that unbelievable. What I will say for now is that if Aguero did this, if he did come, come to Leo Schofield and say, I think your dad really did this. I don't think you did this. Testify to that and I'll let you go. That is highly unethical. Because he does it without talking to Jack Edmund.

You can't just be talking to a defendant and offering plea deals without their defense in on it. It's like staggering. And Aguero knows this. And that's probably why he doesn't keep a record of anything, obviously. And there's no other eyewitnesses to it. Everything he is doing is dodgy, dodgy, dodgy. And I believe that he did do this.

As Leo says, he sat all the way through trial thinking, how can this mad be coming so hard for me when he told me he doesn't even think I did it? He thinks my dad did it. And for whatever reason, perhaps because he thought the case the prosecution had was weak, Jack Edmund and his team didn't even carry out their own investigation. Jack Edmund does so little it is staggering. I, like, literally do not understand him.

He didn't even seem that familiar with Leo's case. Which, when you're taking on a capital murder case for $50,000 in the 80s, is criminal. I'm Phoebe Judge. I've done it so much better than that. Never mind. I'm Phoebe Judge. Excellent. And this is criminal.

Good. It's fine. She's retired now. Now say you're Alexa Chung. I'm Alexa Chung. And this is Ian Watkins. Anyway. Jack Edmund, piss poor job from the very start.

Firstly, there was another high-profile case set to run at the same time. So there was a limited number of jurors to pull from. So Leo's Goldfield ended up with just 12 jurors and no alternates. So that meant if everyone pulled out during the trial, trial, they would be short to the full 12. Yeah. Literally, one person could pull out and then you haven't got 12 people. Just in case people don't know what an alternate is, but I'm sure you guys can guess,

it's like extra jury members who are in the trial, who were there the entire time, hear the whole trial. So if somebody has to pull out of the jury, for whatever reason, they can step in because they've already heard all the evidence and you can keep that number at 12. There are no alternates in a capital murder case. What the fuck is going on? and it's something that Jack Edmund should have railed against

and it could have very easily people do that all the time he didn't even need to rail he could have been like judge no that's it that's it no he doesn't he's like yeah sure whatever and by the end of the trial

two jurors did drop out so therefore the state only needed for the death penalty a unanimous verdict from 10 people yeah so just to be clear every person they lose is one less person that the state has to convince. It's mind-boggling.

So yes, look, that's it. We're going to have to stop with that today. We're going to have to pick this back up next week where we will get into the trial and, yeah, talk all about the frankly, incredibly absurd things that went down in the courtroom and, very importantly, all the madness that came afterwards. So join us next week to hear all about that, including whose fingerprints they were that they found in Michelle's car because it is wild.

And entirely the reason we have two episodes in this case. Okay, wow. And why Bone Valley has two seasons. So join us then for the final part of our look at the case of Leoskefield. Goodbye. Marge, let's roll.