Serialously with Annie Elise - 46: Warning: Graphic & Disturbing! Missouri Cannibals Tortured & Locked Victim Inside A Cage | Cassidy Rainwater Case

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Bonus Episode! In this episode, we’re talking about the horrifying case of Cassidy Rainwater in Lebanon, Missouri. On September 16, 2021, the FBI provided the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office with pictures sent to the FBI as a cyber tip that was alleged to be from the Dark Web. Some of those photos showed Cassidy partially nude in a cage. During a search, investigators on the scene made disturbing discoveries painting a heinous picture of what happened to Cassidy, including items from a freezer that appeared to be human flesh dated July 24. Police arrested two men in connection with Cassidy’s disappearance and murder. Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise Beam! Subscribe and save 20%. Plus get an additional 20% off and a free frother with my code 10TOLIFE when you click my link. Thats up to 40% off!  http://www.shopbeam.com/annieelise All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_  About Me: https://annieelise.com/  SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to annew bonus episode of Serialistly. It's me, Annie, your true crime bestie, here to talk all things true crime with you. Now, the reason why I had to jump on here and drop this bonus episode outside of the normal release schedule is because I need to talk to you about this case. It is so wild. There is so much to talk about, so we got to get right into it. Before we do, please take a quick second, just make sure that you are following along on the podcast so that you don't miss any future episodes and bonus episodes like these that drop, and also follow along on the serialistly facebook page where we drop all information regarding giveaways behind the scenes information guest

episodes q a's all sorts of good stuff all right now let's get into today's case the case i'm going to tell you about today truly highlights the absolute worst in humanity. All of the events occur in the Ozarks in Lebanon, Missouri, and Lebanon is a small town of around 14,000 people, according to the 2010 census. The Ozark region, also known as the Ozark Mountains, has an abundance of waterfalls, lakes, caves, lush greenery, and breathtaking views. So Cassidy Rainwater was only 33 years old and living in Lebanon when she mysteriously disappeared. She had blonde hair a little longer than her shoulders and wore thick black frame glasses very similar to mine. Cassidy's story still haunts this community and it makes everyone take a much closer look at their neighbors. So guys,

let's jump right in. On August 25th, 2021, Cora Terry contacted the Dallas County Sheriff's Office to report that Cassidy, one of her family members, was missing. She said that she hadn't seen or spoken with Cassidy in over six weeks, which was highly unusual. Cora also informed the police that Cassidy left with a man named Jim in a silver GMC truck, and apparently he has a cabin somewhere on Moon Valley Road. And Jim was actually a man named James Phelps, and you're going to hear a lot more about good old James. So deputies arrived at James Phelps' home on Moon Valley Road that day for a wellness check on Cassidy, but she wasn't there and there were actually no signs of her being there at all. One week later, on September 1st, 2021, police returned to the Moon Valley home to

see if they could get more information on Cassidy's whereabouts. Police spoke more with James and found out that Cassidy had stayed with him for a couple of weeks at his cabin while she was getting back on her feet. James also mentioned that she was talking about going to Colorado. He said that a month earlier, so around maybe I guess August 1st, Cassidy left in the middle of the night when she met somebody with a vehicle at the very end of the driveway, and he says he hadn't seen her or heard from her since. James says he couldn't see who she left with or what the vehicle looked like, but otherwise he didn't seem very concerned about it. So with no other information or leads, police couldn't really do much of anything except continue to treat this as a missing persons case.

Besides the one family member that reported Cassidy as missing initially, nobody else had contacted the department about it. But that all changed, however, about two weeks later. On September 16, 2021, the FBI contacted Dallas County Sheriff's investigators with a cyber tip containing a series of photographs in a folder titled Cassidy, and these photographs were allegedly coming from the dark web. So if you're unfamiliar with the dark web, it's essentially like an underground internet. So think about if you go to Google and search for something, you are using this like surface level level of web, and that information is published publicly. So this is what you would call regular internet that we use all the time.

The dark web is content that is accessed through particular browsers that don't use the.com address for websites, and it's underneath that surface level. These sites aren't accessed through regular browsers like Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Foxfire, or Firefox, Safari, or anything like that, but it's known to be used by people who do not want to be traced and for people who are looking for pretty awful things. So going back to that FBI tip of the photos that they received from the dark web. Based on these pictures, Dallas County Sheriff's Office believed that they had photographic evidence of Cassidy being held against her will on James Phelps' property.

So when investigators arrived back at the Moon Valley home, they could see that the property matched the background in the photos of Cassidy. While executing their search warrant, police found several photographs on James Phelps' phone of Cassidy Rainwater. She was partially nude and in a cage. James Phelps was immediately arrested at the scene. James Phelps' phone also implicated another person, Timothy Norton. So the day after James was arrested, Timothy was brought into the Sheriff's Department. Tim said that he lived in his car because he was an overload trucker, and this didn't exactly add up to investigators because his address that he had listed online in the court systems and court documents showed the same address as James

Phelps on Moon Valley Road, and that had been his address for many, many years going back. So after he was confronted with this, Tim declined to answer any more questions and invoked his right to an attorney. Three days later, on September 20, 2021, FBI agents questioned Timothy Norton for a second time. After being caught lying several times, he eventually confessed to helping James restrain Cassidy Rainwater on July 24, the night before James Phelps swore that she had disappeared. Tim Norton was then arrested as well. Both men were soon charged with felony kidnapping and accused of holding Cassidy Rainwater against her will. So what exactly was depicted in these photos that was sent over by the FBI that blew

this case wide open? Now I want to make sure before we go into it that I give you guys a little bit of a warning because the details are very graphic and extremely disturbing. Some images showed Cassidy partially nude in a cage on his property as I mentioned earlier. Other pictures showed Cassidy's body bound to a crane device. Authorities said that this device is commonly used for processing wild game like deer. Cassidy was said to be in obvious distress, but otherwise identifiable. In the announcement of James Phelps' arrest, the community was shocked and disgusted. The public, however, would not get any more additional information.

Sheriff Scott Rice had said, due to the extreme nature of the crime and the continuation of the investigation, additional details cannot be released at this time. So in the weeks following the arrest, rumors spread on TikTok and other social media platforms like wildfire. Rumors that the two men had been butchering humans and storing, even selling, them as meat. Now I want to warn you, this is all gossip and conspiracy at this point. Still, just to give some examples of the rumors, here are a few of them. A neighbor said that she was found skinned, hanging from a tree. Another was that the FBI had received a tip that these guys were trying to sell her meat on the dark web in a cannibal forum. Another was that the men had been doing this for 16 years. And it's weird because it wasn't just one rumor

here and there. There were so many coming from locals with different variations of pretty much the same story, the same root of a rumor. Ultimately, none of those rumors had any basis in fact, and a lot of people brushed it off as crazy internet gossip. It's also important to note that while all of this was spreading like wildfire, neither of the men had even been charged with murder at this point, and authorities were still looking for Cassidy. Federal authorities are ramping up their search for 33-year-old Cassidy Rainwater. Investigators say two men held Rainwater in a cage on Moon Valley Road near Lebanon. It's a horrible deal. All I

know living this close to this all these years that God had a protecting hand and some of us around here. Bob Hostetler lives about a mile away from the alleged crime scene and knows members of the Rainwater family. Federal investigators say no one has seen Cassidy Rainwater since July. Someone reported her missing on August 25th. Two weeks ago, FBI investigators from Kansas City got an anonymous tip that someone was holding Rainwater in a cage on this property near Lebanon. Authorities arrested Timothy Norton and James Phelps. Prosecutors charged the two men with felony kidnapping. Court documents say investigators found photos on Phelps' cell phone showing a woman partially

nude and in a cage. Investigators say Norton admitted he helped Phelps to restrain rainwater. Beyond the photos, investigators have not disclosed what they have found on the Phelps property. Hostetler briefly spoke with Phelps just one time during the past year as a neighbor and heard the rumors of cannibalism. He's arrested and potentially everybody involved. So hopefully it will all get cleaned up and it's a bad thing. I can't imagine. I can't imagine.

Norton and Phelps are in the Dallas County Jail without bond. The two men have criminal setting hearings scheduled for Tuesday. Cassidy Rainwater is still missing. Anyone who knows where she is should contact their local law enforcement agency. So on October 4th, while Timothy and James were in custody awaiting their first appearance in court, a fire started at James' property and it burned the entire house to the ground. So initial reports stated that the bomb squad had been called in and found a device in a mortar tube with an attached trip wire.

This is what remains after the fire from Monday night. The sunlight now showing us what the Dallas County Sheriff's Office tells us is a total loss. Officials say this home of alleged kidnapper James Phelps burned to the ground and a bomb squad was called in. Now let's show you this scene from late Monday night. Officials with the Missouri Department of Public Safety say help from the Division of Fire Safety was requested by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office for a cause and origin investigation. But that's not all. Springfield City officials confirmed the city's bomb squad was called in to investigate after a Dallas County deputy found something that resembled a trip wire.

Officials say the bomb squad arrived around 1.30 in the morning and detonated an explosive device near the area of the fire. Springfield City officials say they don't have any further information, only that they responded at the request of the sheriff's office. We've reached out to the sheriff's office to try to get some more information behind this fire. We've yet to hear back. And after this was reported, it later came out that the report from the state fire marshal classified the incident as criminal, alleging felony second-degree arson. Now, how does this happen? When is the last time that a suspect's house where crimes were supposed to have taken place allegedly burnt down and burnt down on the FBI's watch? If there was a trip wire, why didn't it go off when they were arrested or at any time while the authorities were investigating this

property? Was the trip wire put in after police seemed to have left the scene or could it have possibly been on some type of timer and it was there all along? Could somebody have placed it there who was involved in their inner workings after they saw the arrests had happened? Who was responsible for setting up the devices if it was set up after the two men were in custody? I highly doubt that it was just a good Samaritan committing arson because they hated these men. It seems like it was somebody trying to destroy evidence. Could it have been a third person or who knows how many others really that were involved that wanted to make sure that their DNA was not found? I don't even know what to think of this, guys. Also, this was supposedly an active investigation, making the property an active crime scene. So does anybody else find it a little bit

odd that with the news media, they're literally walking around and picking up handfuls of ash? What on earth is going on here? On October 5th, both defendants had their first appearance in court. Mr. Norton, are you able to hear us? Criminal hearings in Dallas County today bring new video of James Phelps and Timothy Norton from jail, more than two weeks since the two were arrested, accused of kidnapping Cassidy Rainwater. Judge Lisa Henderson spoke with each of their public defenders this afternoon, with all agreeing to meet here again next month.

Mr. Norton, we're setting your case for preliminary hearing on November 5th, and that will be at 9.30 a.m. We'll see you here in the courtroom on that date. That's all I have for you today sir. Thank you. Thank you. Charging documents say Phelps and Norton were holding Cassidy Rainwater against her will at a property on Moon Valley Road near Windyville. With no word on Cassidy's whereabouts, rumors coming from the tight-knit community are now spreading across county lines. I feel like they're kind of taking the story and running with it and maybe making it hyped up to more than what it really is. But I also feel like if law enforcement and others would give us more information, then maybe they wouldn't have to resort to that kind of filling in.

Savannah Williams lives in Urbana. She says she moved to Dallas County to get away from violence in Kansas City. Everything was quiet and I thought moving to the country was gonna be the best fit. Now, I don't wanna go back to the city, but I feel like I might've made a bad choice. Williams says a lack of information

coming from authorities still investigating leads an entire community to speculate. And then all of a sudden, like I'm hearing about a guy who's got women locked up and possible torture, and I don't understand what makes people get like that. Both James and Tim were held in two separate jails, so they couldn't corroborate or change stories with each other. Then on November 17, 2021, Tim and James were charged with first-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse, along with those initial kidnapping charges. The Dallas County Sheriff's Department announced the murder charges against Tim Norton, who's 56 years old, and James Phelps, who's 58 years old,

in a statement on Facebook. Court documents described gruesome and disturbing details of the crime and how everything did take place. So once again, I want to give you a serious warning here. The details are sickening and pretty graphic. Court documents revealed that beyond photos of Cassidy in a cage and having her bound to that gantry device, the images also depicted her in evisceration and dismemberment. Investigators found items in the freezer that appeared to be packaged human flesh with a date written on them of July 24th. Skeletal remains believed to be Cassidy were also located on an adjacent property to James House. Police also recovered digital evidence from

electronic devices, and in total, over 200 pieces of evidence were recovered. The crime lab confirmed the remains in the freezer to be Cassidy Rainwater. So it looks like these rumors that were spreading by the neighbors weren't so much rumors after all. Her meat had been packaged with a date on it and frozen as if it's something that you would buy in a supermarket. The digital evidence revealed messages between James and Tim planning the murder of Cassidy for months. More information about Tim's confession also came out in court documents. So far, we already knew that he admitted to helping James physically restrain Cassidy. It turns out that he also confessed to assisting in her murder. He told FBI agents that James had him come over while Cassidy was sleeping on the living room floor

so that they had an easy access to attack Cassidy. After entering the house, Tim held Cassidy's legs down while James strangled her and placed a bag over her head. After Cassidy was deceased, he and James took a short break before carrying her body outside. Then James bound her to that crane and James began the evisceration and dismemberment of Cassidy's body. Tim said he helped James carry the rest of Cassidy's body into the house and placed her in the bathtub. The sheriff gave an exclusive interview detailing their case information on November 18th, 2021. That tip sent on about two months ago now shows Cassidy partially nude and in a cage. The sheriff told me that tip that was sent

to the FBI could have come from out of the country. Anonymous to me, it's also anonymous to the FBI. They have worked really hard at trying to figure out a way to find out who sent that tip and we don't know who sent it. We just know the tip came from Germany. It bounced off an IP address came from Germany. It bou out of Germany. A tip tha of these two men felt sti County Jail and Norton in jail. We can't talk about

until we get all the facts prosecutor and that to th now there's still more fa about the case that can't come out until court we located in the freezer some human flesh and we also found skeleton remains that were just off the property of where Phelps was living her skeletal remains found on property belonging to Cassidy's grandfather, Bill Rainwater. He died years ago and the land is now in a trust. On whose property were those remains found on?

It would have been on Rainwater's property. The sheriff says Timothy Norton confessed to helping James Phelps kill Cassidy and says texts back and forth between the two show they had planned this for a while. It had been a few months back, several months back that they had talked about that. The sheriff also addressed the untrue rumors that have been circulating on social media. One, they're forgetting that there is a victim and a victim's family with kids that, you know, they see all that and they hear all that. And what's happened with Cassidy is something nobody should ever go through,

let alone with all the people just deciding to make up their own stories. Before we go on further, I do want to add that part of the dark web's allure for criminals is its anonymity and ability to basically replicate IP addresses from all over the world. The IP address with the tip could have very well appeared to be from Germany, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's where it actually came from. Now for what they discovered. Let's get right into it because there is just no easy way to start here. Did Tim seriously confess and essentially say,

well, I was there, but I didn't do any of the bad parts of this crime. I mean, I'm not buying that one at all. It seems easy for him to admit a small amount of the truth, but then the cage piece of this, how long had James had this cage? Where did it come from? Is it something that he built? If he did make this, was this explicitly built for Cassidy in their months of planning? Or has he used this cage in the past? Guys, this cage is giant and it's hard to believe that you would need such a large cage to trap animals. So surely it wasn't something just lying around that he had and that they happened to use. So was this cage some part of some, you know, sexual behavior that maybe James

was also into? Was the torture and the humiliation acts some type of sick fantasy of his? Had other people been in that cage before? Have there been other victims? And then this gantry device that was used by hunters to dress deer or other wildlife after killing them. I mean, it's awful. These freaking sick guys hung her up like a piece of meat and photographed the entire thing. It's interesting to me that Tim never mentioned the photography aspect during this confession, and this whole thing sounds like some seriously twisted, you know, sadistic behavior that can only be described as something literally straight up out of a horror movie. So it does make sense that those pictures ended up on the dark web. It's even sicker that James Phelps kept some of those images on his

phone, like some sort of trophy that he wanted to revert back to. So were the photos sold on the dark web, or were they uploaded to some grisly torture database or something? If the pictures were sold to someone, it's possible that whoever was paying for them wasn't satisfied with just the cage pictures and wanted more. Also, this cannot be the first person in my opinion that they have lured into this sick trap. This doesn't seem like somebody's first killing. It seems advanced. It seems planned and the fact that you then are selling and saving materials seems very clear and calculated. Not only that but labeling and dating the body parts are highly methodical and straight up serial killer

like behavior. Think Jeffrey Dahmer guys. He kept the body parts in his refrigerator and in his freezer. It's just like that but also also, why dismember her in the first place? Unless your intention was to sell her. Suppose all of these events with the cage, the device, and the suffering were just to sell these sick photos on the dark web or for their own personal pleasure. How can you possibly explain all of the rest? Why package up certain body parts? Why scatter bones in a field? So did those rumors of cannibalism or selling meat have any merit? I think so, guys. I think so. If the packages in the fridge were dated 724, I would assume that that means that they immediately took her life

upon her arrival. There was no staying there while she was getting back on her feet like James was suggesting. That was all a lie. They lured her there. They had planned this for months, which we now kind of already know. But still, thinking about it is just so insane to wrap your mind around it. And it's heartbreaking to realize now that Cassidy never stood a chance. This was planned and this was deliberate. But how did she end up with these men?

Why were they even planning to kill her? They must have thought that nobody would notice that she was missing or that nobody would even care. These monsters didn't even treat Cassidy like a human after her death. They killed her like a wild animal. They carved her up and they threw the rest of her out like garbage in the woods. This is a screenshot I took from a still shot in a news clip outside of James' house. So was this something similar to what they used? Let's go back a little bit to October 7th before any murder charges were announced. Sheriff Scott Rice addressed the misinformation and rumors about the case in this Facebook post. He encouraged people not to listen to the TikTok creators

that are just sitting in their apartment or their mommy or daddy's basement eating great value cheese puffs and drinking box wine with intentions of being a social media superstar, he was just like ripping these people, saying that 99.999% of what has been posted to social media is complete crap, which we do know that a lot of the times that is the case. However, a lot of it seems to be aligning and pretty parallel with the actual facts of the case. And now that more details had come out about the crime, the community did not agree with what Sheriff Rice had to say. September 16th, Dallas County Sheriff's deputies and FBI agents served a warrant at the home of James Phelps looking for 33-year-old Cassidy Rainwater in a rural area about three and a half hours southeast of Kansas City. The missing woman was last seen in July.

Two days later, the sheriff's office announced 58-year-old James Phelps had been arrested for her kidnapping. Three days after that, Timothy Norton would face the same charge. The sheriff said additional details couldn't be released because of the extreme nature of the crime, leading to speculation on how she died. There were too many rumors, and they were so bizarre, there was no way for it not to be true. In October, Sheriff Rice posted addressing what he called fake news, blasting bloggers eating cheese puffs and drinking boxed wine, saying 99.999% of the rumors on social media were, quote, crap.

Today, court documents reveal September 16th the FBI received photos of Cassidy Rainwater in a cage, partially nude and bound to a device us body. That same day, the the search, they found th of rainwater's death in a 24th. They also found mes and Norton planning the m Norton confessed to invest

her. The sheriff wasn't i to address concerns from the community about how t was handled. It definitely gave us a false sense of security where we all felt like it was safe to go about our business and everything was fine and that all these rumors were false and totally blown out of proportion and it really makes you question what else is going on that we don't know about. I mean, we're all scared. Everybody is. The sheriff's office said through a post today, we have not located any evidence that would lead us to believe that there are other victims associated with Phelps and Norton at this time,

but called it an ongoing investigation. The woman in the video we just watched, Katie Heflin, owns a small store about three miles from James Cabin on Moon Valley Road. In another interview she was not on video for, she told a different news outlet that the sheriff's department has been completely incompetent through this entire thing, and she was quoted saying, Sheriff Rice is the one who started that rumor mill, and it was his detectives that leaked everything in the beginning, and now some of the rumors about what happened to Cassidy appear to have been accurate. As a community as a whole right now, we feel that we have been lied to. A lot of people are really upset. I've got cameras that point onto Moon Valley Road, and they've

asked me for copies of my camera footage in the past when properties across the street had been burglarized, but they didn't once call to ask on the day of the fire or after to see if they could get footage to see who had pulled down that road and who possibly started the fire. Now, take what you want with that, but there are people out there saying that there's a bit of a conspiracy happening here and that the fire that was set that was deliberate was to destroy evidence. Now, I'm not saying the cops were in on this thing by any stretch, whether some people believe that or not, but more so because they don't want the details of this horrific crime to come out and to be public knowledge and to show that it went under their radar. Not much is known about Cassidy's personal life or what exactly led her to be in Lebanon,

Missouri before her horrific passing. She had little to no presence on social media. On Cassidy's Facebook and Pinterest profiles, she only had two pictures that were public. So it's interesting that James had brought up Cassidy mentioning going to Colorado to police, because according to her Facebook, that's where she was living at the time. Although now we know that that was not the case. Of the few things we do know, the first is that the parcel of land adjacent to James' property belonged to her grandfather, Bill Rainwater, but since his passing, it's now held in a trust. We don't know if anyone is living on that land. None of her immediate family had come out to speak on her behalf throughout any of this either. The second thing we know is that she has at least one biological child, a 16-year-old son,

of which she does not have custody of. Her son has been raised by his adoptive parents, and it's unclear if she has any type of relationship with him. The child's biological father, a man only named online as Ben, was informed by the child's adoptive parents of Cassidy's disappearance. Ben and Cassidy met when she lived in Harrisville, Missouri, where she attended high school. They were never married, but remained friends and communicated often. Their son lives with his adopted family outside of the area. Ben said it was rare for Cassidy to disappear, but he only talked to her a few times a year, and so he wasn't really sure what to make of it. The last time they spoke was in May of 2019,

and he admitted that Cassidy struggled at times. Ben said he always worried about her because of her past and that she was kind of in a bad way. In their last conversation, Ben offered to help Cassidy because he thought that she was homeless and trying to take care of another child to who he is not biologically related. And he told her, come to Kansas City, we'll get things figured out. And Ben believed that she was hoping to get her life back together. So who is Cassidy's second child? And where is this child now? It turns out that Cassidy was actually married at the time of her death. Her estranged husband, Zach Paul, said that they fell in love hard and fast around 2009, but ultimately ended things in 2012. They had one child and only referred to online by the initials PP, and they remained legally married because they could not

afford to get a divorce. Zach also confirmed that the woman who initially reported Cassidy as missing, Cora Terry, was Cassidy's aunt by marriage. He said that the relationship between Cora and Cassidy was more of a grandmother and granddaughter type of dynamic. Paul said an incident happened at the beginning of 2021, where the DFS had placed PP, the young child, in Cora's custody. Zach said the last time he heard from Cassidy was in mid-July, following a supervised DFS visit that Cassidy had with their son. This fits the timeline that Cora gave when she reported Cassidy as missing. Regarding their son, Zach said he had moved to Oregon in 2013 and was trying to work with DFS to get his son back. Cassidy didn't want Zach to

know that P had actually been taken away from her. Zach said there was nothing that he could do in Oregon, so he moved back to Missouri in late July. He also said that Cassidy was displeased after finding out that Zach was working with DFS. Since Cassidy's passing, Zach says he has been working on getting custody of their son and is trying to protect him. He doesn't want his son to grow up and see bad things about his mom, which is pretty understandable, but it's also unclear what bad things he's exactly referring to. Was Zach referring to the same bad ways that Ben had mentioned previously about Cassidy being in? Was she involved in some nefarious activities before

her death? Or is he simply talking about the horrific things done to her at her death? It's unclear. Cassidy also isn't the only member of her family to go missing. Cassidy's mother, Tracy Wawasuk, also mysteriously disappeared on April 13, 2007, near Lebanon, Missouri. Tracy was 43 years old when she disappeared, and Cassidy was around 19 years old. According to police, Tracy's boyfriend said that he didn't know where she disappeared, and Cassidy was around at 19 years old. According to police, Tracy's boyfriend said that he didn't know where she was, but that she may have gone looking for arrowheads. About a year later, in May 2008, her remains were found scattered in a field 30 miles from where Cassidy's remains were found. Rainwater's mother, Tracy Wawosik, went missing in 2007. Her bones were later found scattered across a field near Lebanon a year

later. Here's what the then Laclede County Sheriff told Cullerton in 2008. It was unusual. Some of the statements made by people, but we'll just have to go on with the new evidence we have, see where that leads us. Wasik's disappearance was reported by Colour 10 as suspicious. Speaking with a Laclede County coroner this afternoon, Steve Morrell tells me it's still an open case. He says he doesn't believe there's any link between Cassidy's disappearance and her mother's death. Tracy's remains were found by a farmer who reported that he found bones, some clothes and a shoe while spreading fertilizer on his property. So it seems like the boyfriend may have known exactly where she was because Tracy's bones were found scattered in a field right next to his house. Her death was ruled suspicious, but no arrests had ever been made,

and the case is actually still open. According to a Facebook post dated August 2008, the county sheriff said that Tracy's death investigation was being used for political mudslinging. Sheriff Richard Rinkle noted that anthropologists investigating the case never found any trauma on the bones and pretty much left it at that, never looking any further into it. It seems like even back in 2008, the community was unhappy without having these answers. It felt like law enforcement should have looked into this much further. And can you blame them though? A woman died and we don't know how, we don't know why, but you know what? Let's go back to business as usual,

even though she was found right next to the boyfriend's property. I don't know. It sounds like the sheriff in this area just doesn't like noise or speculation surrounding missing women whose remains are later found in these small counties. It's beyond bizarre. Tracy's then-boyfriend passed away in February 2021, five months before Cassidy's disappearance. While the disappearances and deaths of this poor mother and daughter may very well be unrelated, it does make me wonder what exactly their lives were like. Who were the people surrounding them? Why do the sheriffs seem to have wanted to keep things as quiet as possible in both cases? If you remember, initially back in October, before Tim and James were charged with Cassidy's murder,

Sheriff Scott Rice tried very hard to shut down the rumors that, if true, could make his county look pretty freaking bad. There are just a lot of things here that really don't add up, and it's also a little bit bothersome that Sheriff Rice has almost condemned the public for any opinions or questions while simultaneously expecting all of his statements to be the end-all be-all of any comments or any concerns about what's going on. And I don't know about you, but if this was happening in my community, I'd be asking questions too. I'd be concerned as well if I heard that like my neighbor had a meat of a human dated in his refrigerator. Like, come on. So after being charged with murder, kidnapping, and abandonment of a corpse in the death of Cassidy Rainwater, Tim and James

separately appeared at their court appearances. On November 19th, 2021, James appeared at the Dallas County Courthouse. During his court appearance, the prosecuting attorney, Jonathan Barker, told the court even more chilling details. He said that James and Tim would go to Walmart and pick out potential victims and try to lure other ones online. He also told the between the ages of 12 an interest to them. Dallas once again said they had

victims. Still, prosecute release could lead to mor denied James Bond appeari first time since being charged in mid-September. James Phelps was escorted into a Dallas County courtroom and asked if his defense was aware of the new first degree murder charge filed against him. The judge quickly took up his attorney's motion to set a bond with Phelps public defender arguing Phelps is not a flight risk having spent most of his life in the area. Mr. Phelps does have significant ties to the community. He is a lifelong resident of the area, with the exception of a brief stint in the military.

And he did live in St. Louis for about three years. Attorney Sam Gearhart says Phelps had only faced charges of writing bad checks and illegal hunting in the past, but prosecutors argue Phelps poses a danger to the community, especially those that are caring for Cassidy Rainwater's children. The state's position is he probably needs to be held accountable for the community's safety. Prosecuting attorney Jonathan Barker tells the court Phelps co-defendant Timothy Norton confessed to deputies he and Phelps would search for potential victims online and at a local Walmart. There's evidence in this case that this particular defendant online is talking with potential victims that he's attempting to persuade to appear at his location or to make themselves available to be picked up by himself

or co-defendant to be brought back to his location where he discusses with them that he will in fact harm them or kill them. He waived his preliminary hearing in July of 2022 and entered a not guilty plea. On September 9th, 2022, prosecutors announced they intend to seek the death penalty against James, and his next court date is set for January 2023. Tim Norton had his court appearance on November 23, 2021. He appeared in court via video chat and said very little, answering just yes or no questions. He too waived his preliminary hearing, and he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. At his next hearing,

on February 9, 2022, prosecutors filed a motion for a protective order for new evidence that they had recovered, and Tim allegedly had a file at his home containing underage photography that they described as very violent in nature. In April of 2022, Tim appeared again briefly in court, and his next scheduled criminal hearing was pushed to July. In July, he appeared again and re-entered his not-guilty plea, and his next court date is also set for January 2023. James and Tim were both living together when they horrifically killed Cassidy Rainwater. But let's dig a little deeper into their relationship. Tim and James have a long history, dating back to high school or even earlier. James, who's 58, and Tim, who's 56, have remained friends since, and they are actually so

close that they even refer to each other as family. After high school, Timothy joined the Marines and was even married twice. James enlisted in the army and also got married. Both of their marriages ended in divorce, but it seems like after high school, they led seemingly normal lives for quite some time. Both men's address records list the Moon Valley Road home since the early 90s. James is also listed as an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church as of 2019. He also has a Facebook profile. So my question is, when did things change?

When did these two ex-military best friends get involved in the most gruesome and horrific acts that can be done to another human being? Were the local rumors of cannibalism and selling meat for decades true? Did these photos circulate in places other than the dark web? We don't know, but whatever has been going on did not happen overnight, so maybe their arrest is something that had been a long time coming. Is it also just a coincidence that the locals seemed to have the men figured out from the very beginning? Do other locals know more and are they maybe afraid to speak? As I mentioned, Lebanon, Missouri is a tiny town. It's clearly a small community, the kind of place where everybody knows everyone. This trial could potentially shake up this small town, in a big way,

maybe more significantly than some people would want it to. Of course, I'm just speculating here and asking questions, but I want to know what you guys think. And I can't help but think about what Cassidy's last moments on earth were like. It's absolutely agonizing to imagine the horrifying, inhumane, and unspeakable things that these sick, twisted, gross freaks did to her. Cassidy deserves justice, and her family deserves some type of closure. In January of 2023, James Phelps filed a motion for a change of venue. The hearing for that to be decided was set for April 2023. Now, at this point, James's trial was scheduled for the fall of 2024 and was expected to last for three weeks. As I mentioned earlier, Timothy Norton had pled not guilty, but eventually confessed to the FBI that he held Cassidy's legs while James strangled her and put a bag over her head. So unsurprisingly, in April of 2023, James Phelps took an Alford plea instead of going forward with a motion to change venue. An Alford plea is a guilty plea in which a defendant maintains

their innocence but admits that the prosecution's evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict if brought to trial. I don't think he did this out of the kindness of his heart or to spare the county any trial expenses. Personally, I believe he did this because he was screwed and he knew it, but that's just my opinion. So the judge sentenced James to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Despite his confession to the FBI, Timothy was still heading to trial and pleading not guilty. However, after James's Alford plea in April, Tim changed his plea to guilty in June of 2023. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole as well. And thank God, because now both of these sick freaks

will be put away forever. I'm really glad you deserved to die. And I'm ready for that. Timothy Norton said those words just moments after the end of his court hearing in Dallas County. Until now, he'd been in the Greene County Jail, separate from the other murderer in this case, James Phelps. Even by accident, it's not right to take a life. You know, everybody harps at me, you know, I'm a monster, I'm a monster, I'm a monster. They don't know who I am. Cassidy Rainwater was reported missing in August of 2021 by a family member. They traced her to James Phelps' house on Moon Valley Road, where they found Rainwater's body. Detectives traced messages between Phelps and Norton.

It just kind of happened. Things like I told somebody else once, it kind of went sideways. Norton said he and Phelps thought Cassidy had stolen things from them and wanted it back. He claims Phelps strangled Cassidy. Norton was not emotional through his court appearances and says he is still numb. Maybe later tonight when I go to sleep I'll cry. You can talk to my kids. You can talk to my exes. Most of my emotions come out when I'm asleep.

Dallas County Sheriff Scott Rice says he's glad this case is over and has a message for the two in prison. I want them to know that we all wish them a horrible, tormented life in prison. Since I first covered this case, many people have reached out to me and left comments on my YouTube asking my thoughts about if Timothy or James had any connection or any involvement to the Springfield Three. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Springfield Three is an unsolved missing persons case that began on June 7, 1992, when friends Suzanne, also goes by Susie Streeter, and Stacey McCall and Susie's mother, Cheryl Levitt, went missing from in Springfield, Missouri. All of their personal belongings, including their cars, purses, were left behind. There were no signs of a struggle, except a broken porch light globe. Police at the time

immediately suspected foul play and began their investigation, and the details of this case are very complex and there is a lot of information. So while I can't go over everything in that case on this episode, at one point in the initial investigation, police were searching for two stolen vehicles that they believed may have been seen around the time of Susie, Stacey, and Cheryl's disappearance. One vehicle was a 1987 burgundy Toyota, and the other was a 1985 navy blue Dodge Motorhome without a license plate. So when I first had researched Cassidy Rainwater's case, I found a few forms that suggested that one of the abandoned vehicles on James' property looked very similar to a navy blue motorhome slash van situation, so people began to wonder if they did have a connection. After all, both of these cases were in Missouri, and it seemed

likely that Cassidy was not their first victim. In photos taken of the property by news media, the van was one of the few vehicles essentially decaying on the property. So, it had a missing front grill and rusting metal parts, but you could still see the original dark blue paint. The vehicle looked like it had been sitting in the grass rotting for a really long time. Interestingly, after the initial reports of the three missing women in Springfield began to make waves, the police were flooded with tips, and so were the victims' families. Stacey's mother, Janice McCall, said, and I quote, I remember calls that said that they were cut up into pieces. I remember one that said they were fed to the hogs.

You know, horrifying things for a mom to hear. Even though that never happened in Cassidy's case, it just makes you wonder just how many people are cutting up people into pieces in Missouri and if there is a connection. So when I first covered this Cassidy's case, I chose not to bring this up because honestly, I just didn't want to feed into any rumor mill or conspiracy theory about a decades-long statewide string of murders, which let me just clarify that I do not know if Tim or James are connected in any way. However, since many of you asked my opinion on any possible connection, yes, I am curious to know if the police or the FBI ever looked into that van further to see if it matched the one related to the Springfield 3 or if they ruled Tim or James out completely. It's also possible that neither Tim nor James have any connection to the van and maybe it was someone else's. I don't know. I'm not sure about

the protocol for abandoned vehicles, but it wouldn't surprise me if maybe someone they knew or were friends with owned that van, and then once it broke down or once it was seen near a crime, maybe the friend just asked to keep it there. I have no idea. But it's certainly interesting and also reminds me of the fire that took place on James's property once he and Timothy were arrested. Were there more people involved than just James and Tim? Was that fire set up by someone on the outside? Maybe even someone on the inside? Are the rumors heard by many locals about a large group of men selling human meat in that area true? that are being investigated by the FBI and have news media crawling everywhere, suddenly blow up overnight, completely desolating the crime scene and any further evidence. And no investigation is done into who did that or how it happened exactly. I don't know, guys. It is very weird. What do you think?

I'm curious to know what you guys think about this case. Do you believe that this was an isolated incident, or do you believe that there are more victims out there? Personally, it's my belief that there are more. This doesn't feel like a one-trick pony kind of situation to me. It feels meticulous and calculated, and I would imagine that it's not their first rodeo. Also, if they were in fact selling things on the dark web, I would imagine that they realized that there was money in this

because they had a previous history of doing so. But again, that is just my opinion. I'm curious to know what your thoughts are. All right, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in to another bonus episode with me. Like I said at the top of this episode, make sure you're following the podcast so that you don't miss any more bonus episodes in the future.

And if you would be so kind as to just quickly rate this podcast review it it takes 30 seconds max to leave a review and it really does help the algorithm and help push this podcast out to more people so that these victims stories get heard which we know is the goal so thank you guys so much for tuning in to another bonus episode and i will will be talking to you again very, very soon. All right, it's me, Annie, signing off. Thank you. you