SERIALously - 99: A Horrific Murder: Dad Helps Son Move Dismembered Woman's Body

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

When Ashley didn’t answer multiple calls or texts, her mom thought it was weird because signing the lease for the new place was of course really important and something that Ashley had been excited about. Plus, she never just ignored her moms calls, especially if they had plans. So her mom decided to try to get ahold of some of her friends to see what was going on, like maybe her phone was dead, maybe she overslept after being out all night - but Ashley’s friends said they hadn’t been with her the night before, and that she had gone to hang out with Jared that night. Her mom asked around until she found Jared’s number, and then she called him. Except, Jared didn’t answer… because Ashley was no longer alive.  PDS: Go to https://www.pdsdebt.com/save to get your free debt assessment today Nuts.com Go to https://www.nuts.com/ae to get a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29  Shopify  Go to https://www.shopify.com/serialously to get a one-dollar-per-month trial period  Apostrophe Go to https://www.apostrophe.com/ae and use code AE to get your first visit for only $5!  Shop the Merch: www.shop10tolife.com    Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast      Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/     Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise     All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_     SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/     About Me: https://annieelise.com/     For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]  Audio Credits: Wood TV8: https://www.youtube.com/@WOODTV MLive: https://www.youtube.com/@mlive LPR Presents: https://www.youtube.com/@LPRPresents

Your dad said he turned you into the police. Did he turn you into police? I can't do this. I'm sorry, I can't do this. I'm sorry. I apologize, I can't do this right now. Do you have anything else to say to Ashley's mom? hey true crime besties welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. We are going to be breaking down another horrific true crime case today. It's honestly one of the more brutal ones when it comes to friendship, relationship, trying to cover your tracks. I mean, it's pretty, pretty awful. So I do want to just give a little bit of a warning ahead of time that this one is definitely going to be challenging to listen to. Because the victim in today's case, Ashley Young, was the type of friend and the type of young woman that anybody would want to be friends with. She was fun. She was forgiving. She always tried to find the absolute good in everyone, even if they didn't deserve it.

So when an old friend came back into her life after breaking her trust, Ashley was cautious, but she was willing to give them another chance. That's just the kind of person that she was. But she had no way of knowing that this person would break her trust again, and this time in the most unforgivable way possible. 31-year-old Ashley Young was born on January 14th, 1987 in Grand Haven, Michigan. Ashley's mom, Christine, had always been told by doctors that she could never have any children. So when she surprisingly got pregnant, she saw Ashley as her miracle baby. Unfortunately, though, despite this miraculous birth, Ashley's parents didn't end up working out, and they ultimately ended up divorcing.

And this split really resulted in Ashley becoming very close with her mother, Christine. And this split really resulted in Ashley becoming very close with her mother, Christine. So close, in fact, that they became almost like best friends. They had more of this best friend type relationship than a true mother and daughter traditional relationship. Christine eventually met and remarried another woman named Dana, and Dana had children of her own from a previous relationship. So together, they made a very happy blended family with now Ashley's two stepbrothers, Andrew and Adrian. Now, as I was saying, everyone who knew Ashley knew that she just radiated positivity. Every single photo you see of her, she has this absolute big smile on her face, a smile that was almost kind of just infectious. So after Ashley graduated from high school in 2005,

she immediately started working at a group home for special needs adults, where her kindness and her empathies for other really just kind of grew stronger. Now when she finally saved enough money up to move out, Ashley ended up getting her own apartment, and she also began attending a local community college as an undergraduate. You see, her hope was to transfer to a bigger university to study language and one day become an interpreter. So after graduating and beginning community college, a few years passed, and around 2012 to 2013, Ashley was around 26 years old, and this is when she met a guy named Jared Chance. Now, it's not entirely clear, but she either met him at work or through somebody at

work. And Jared was a couple of years younger than Ashley and didn't live too far from where she lived. Jared grew up with his younger brother Conrad in Illinois and then later moved to Holland, Michigan, which is about 20 miles from Grand Haven where Ashley lived. Jared was raised by both his mom and dad, and his dad James had been a police officer for about 20 years before he ended up ultimately retiring as a sergeant the year that Jared was born. Jared was said to have a pretty stoic demeanor and almost like a wannabe type tough guy attitude, which apparently just came off as awkward. But Ashley loved getting to know new people, and this was no different with Jared. So she decided she wanted to get to know him

and she struck up a conversation with him. Now, Jared and Ashley, though, were about as opposite as two people could possibly be. Jared being in constant trouble with the law, having a tumultuous family life, and not having very many friends. But apparently, the saying is true that opposites attract, because Ashley's bubbly and outgoing personality was the complete opposite of Jared's, and it softened him a little bit. So, they eventually started hanging out together. The problem with this was that everybody in Ashley's was the complete opposite of Jared's, and it softened him a little bit. So they eventually started hanging out together. The problem with this was that everybody in Ashley's life did not like the idea of her hanging out with Jared. They didn't like this guy. Something didn't feel right. And they especially didn't love that she was spending so much time with him now. He was just

kind of bad news, and everybody knew that. And despite his father's longtime career in law enforcement and being a sergeant, he and his wife Barbara weren't able to keep Jared out of trouble growing up. He just kind of had this core characteristic about him where he was just a troubled kid, a troubled teen, and even a troubled adult. From grade school until adulthood, Jared was known by the majority of his peers as a bully, and people said that he was crazy, that he was wild, and had an extremely short fuse, and also an unpredictable temper. Now, a couple friends said that he would go from being really nice to then just randomly having a major attitude for seemingly no reason at all. He would get into fights at school and also at home where he would actually beat up his little brother Conrad, who compared to Jared was very calm and very mild mannered.

Now, speaking of Conrad, he was also known to be the quiet one, and he was a little bit of what you would describe as, I don't know, a classic pothead. He kept to himself. He was very quiet. He kind of did his own thing. And with that, he had just, you know, an overall even keel, chill personality. And unlike Jared, Conrad didn't ever really get into much trouble. So while weed was definitely illegal at the time, it still somewhat paled in comparison to the kind of trouble and things that Jared was getting into. In high school, Jared started drinking excessively and even stealing alcohol from convenience stores. And he unfortunately wasn't one of those like good time drunk people either. He had a very horrible temper and his behavior started to get him in trouble with the law. There were even several instances where his parents had

to call the police on Jared, either for destroying the property at their house, for threatening his own parents. And on one of those calls, Jared actually head butted the officer in the face. I mean, clearly down a very rebellious and dangerous path, right? Then on another house call that was made when the police were called, Jared actually punched the officer who was trying to arrest him. And the officer had to tase him three times just to get him to calm down and get him in handcuffs. It also didn't start and end with just his parents making these calls. His younger brother Conrad had to call the police on him as well before because Jared had attacked him once with a stick and another time he had

actually been trying to burn him with a blowtorch. Jared even threatened to put the blowtorch down his own throat at one point during this altercation. Just again, very clearly a dangerous and combative person to be around, and at such a young age, very, very alarming. Now, it wasn't just these violent and intense and dangerous outbursts that were cause for concern, which seemed to cause him to have even more bizarre episodes. Like one time when he called 911 because he thought he saw men in camouflage with rifles in his backyard. There were also numerous times that Jared had to be revived from potential overdosing, once by firefighters with Narcan and another by his mom who thankfully worked at a hospital and gave him CPR. He had a very toxic relationship with his girlfriends too

and once was arrested for crawling through the doggy door of an ex's house. So you can see that Jared's life was pretty messy, but by all accounts it seemed like it was his own doing, as there haven't been any reports of any sort of childhood trauma or even any significant events that could explain his behavior growing up. We of course know that doesn't mean that something never happened, but everyone who knew him personally has said that he was just honestly a jerk for no reason. With all of these issues that he had and all these violent tendencies and outbursts, Jared didn't really have many close friends, and he would burn bridges with any of the friends that

he did have. So even though people warned Ashley about him, she really just wanted to prove them wrong. She wanted to find the good in him. She wanted to try to bring out the best in him. And she was kind of hopeful that she could show people that if he had good people in his life, he could change. He could become a good person as well. However, even after going out of her way to be nice to him, hang out with him, and just be a friend, Jared just couldn't help himself. And he actually ended up ruining his friendship with Ashley too. I personally have struggled with some form of debt for as long as I can remember. I finally have started getting a grasp on it, but I remember when I would lose sleep and be physically sick to my stomach worrying about how I was going to pay off my debt. How many of you wish that there was a better solution to paying off your debt? Well, today's sponsor, PDS Debt,

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so that he could get money for alcohol and drugs. So after that, Ashley realized that he really was just a lost cause, that everybody was right about him, that she should have taken their warnings. Because of all of the people to steal from, he chose one of the only friends who actually cared about him, who was trying to help him, and who trusted him. So after that, the bridge was burned, and Ashley didn't talk to Jared again for years. Five years passed, and in 2018, Ashley got a new job at a call center in Kalamazoo, where she could work flexible shifts and still attend classes at that community college. So for some reason, a mutual friend told Ashley that she should reach out to Jared, because apparently he was going through a rough time again. Now I'm not sure what made that Ashley's problem, but I guess people figured that she had tried to help him out once before. Being the kind-hearted person that she was, maybe she would

try to find the good and help him out again. Especially because Ashley seemed to have compassion for everybody. So maybe she'd have compassion for one of the biggest jerks alive. Who knows? So Ashley took this friend's advice and she ended up friending Jared on social media, and they started talking again. Now Ashley was dealing with a little bit of a rough patch of her own. She had been in a relationship recently, and they were going through a pretty rough breakup. So even though Ashley wasn't interested in Jared romantically or wanting to date him in any sort of way, now that she had all of this free time on her hands because her relationship had ended, Ashley wasn't interested in Jared romantically or wanting to date him in any sort of way,

now that she had all of this free time on her hands because her relationship had ended, she had more time to rekindle their friendship. With Ashley and her mom Christine being so close, Ashley of course told her mom about possibly hanging out with Jared again. And as you can probably guess, Christine was not into the idea whatsoever, especially considering the way he had completely taken advantage of Ashley's kindness and trust before. But now that Ashley was 31 years old, Christine really couldn't tell her what to do. She could make suggestions, of course, and give her advice, but she couldn't forbid her from seeing anybody. So she just told her to be cautious. By this point, Jared was around 29 years old, and he had moved out of his parents' house and into his own apartment in Grand Rapids.

Ashley saw this as a good sign, thinking that maybe he's getting his life together finally. But Jared was still partying regularly, and in November of 2018, he accidentally drove his car into a ditch after driving home from a strip club. So instead of calling the police or his parents, Jared called Ashley. He asked her if she would come and pick him up and take him home. Ashley agreed, and the two of them continued hanging out regularly after that. Then on Wednesday, November 28th, Ashley headed over to Jared's house because they had plans to go and get drinks together later that night. Jared's apartment was in a house that is split with two separate units. One unit is on the top floor and the other unit is on the bottom floor. So Ashley parked in front of the house and then she went up to the

door. Now Jared's neighbor, or I guess you could say housemate, but lived separately in the separate unit, let Ashley inside and he said that Jared was upstairs. So she and Jared start hanging out for a little while and then Jared actually asked that downstairs neighbor Mario if he wanted to join and come upstairs and hang out with them. Mario agreed, he went upstairs, they all smoked together apparently for a little while, and then it was time to kick the night off and go out. So after that, Jared and Ashley made their way to a hookah lounge, and then later to a local little bar called Mulligan's Pub. When they were ready to leave the bar, they decided to make a pit stop on the way back to Jared's house at a local liquor store to maybe just get a couple more

things to drink so that they could drink them back at Jared's house and keep the party going. The next morning, Ashley's mom, Christine, called her to ask her what time that they were meeting up that day because Ashley was actually going to be moving into a new apartment soon, and her mom was going to be the co-signer on that lease. So the plan was to meet up that day, go sign the new lease together, and then go about their day and do whatever they had planned. But when Ashley didn't answer the multiple calls that her mom was making or the text messages, her mom thought it was really weird because signing the lease for this new place was, of course, really important to Ashley, and it was something that had to be done. Plus, she had never just ignored her mom's calls

before, especially if they had concrete plans. So her mom decided to try to get a hold of some of her friends to see what was going on. Like, maybe her phone was dead, or maybe she overslept, maybe she slept over at a friend's house after being out all night, something like that. But Ashley's friends were all saying that she hadn't been with them the night before, and that she had actually gone to hang out with Jared that night. So now armed with this new information, her mom Christine started calling around trying to get Jared's phone number so that she could call him, see what was going on, see if he had heard from Ashley. She found his number and then she called him, because surely he would know where Ashley was if he was the last one with her. But he didn't answer the

phone, so she left him a voicemail, and on the voicemail, she said, hello, Jared. My name is Christine Young. I am looking for my daughter. She was last with you. Is she with you? She needs to contact me. Tell her I'm going to contact the police to do a missing persons report. Now, something about her saying that she was going to contact the police must have spooked Jared because he promptly responded to Christine. He sent her a text message back saying that he had just spoken to Ashley and that she should be calling her any minute. So her mom waited for a few minutes and then messaged Jared again, this time saying, I haven't heard from her. Is she at work? Jared replied, I don't know. She was

acting kind of weird like she couldn't talk for long. I think she might be with her ex-boyfriend, but who knows? I just told her to call her mom ASAP. He then messaged again and said, I asked her why she didn't tell me that she was supposed to meet her mom, but she said she forgot and that she was going to call. I told her everyone's texting me looking for you, dude. So Christine asked Jared to give her the phone number that Christine had called him from, but all of the numbers that he gave were out of service, and none of them worked. He gave a bunch of excuses about why the numbers didn't work, but then finally gave her the number to a person named Demetrius, and he said Demetrius may know where Ashley is. Now, unbeknownst to Ashley's mom Christine, during this conversation that he was having with her, he was texting Demetrius on the side, and he was telling him that if Christine called him looking for Ashley, to say that she came by to use his phone and then left.

Demetrius agreed to this at first, but when Christine called him, he ended up immediately telling her the truth, which was that he hadn't seen Ashley, and had actually never even met her. her the truth, which was that he hadn't seen Ashley and had actually never even met her. Then when Jared found out that Demetrius didn't play along, he pretty much cussed him out, called him, was furious, saying, you just screwed me, and told him to delete the messages between them. Demetrius was confused and wondering what Jared was trying to drag him into, what was going on. But thankfully, he saw that something was fishy, something didn't smell right, so he just stayed out of it and told the truth. Two days had passed, and by November 30th, there was still no sign of Ashley. And her mom, Christine, was becoming absolutely frantic because nobody had spoken with her.

At this point, Christine knew that Jared was lying. She just didn't know why. He claimed that he would never lie or ever do anything to Ashley. But based on his past behavior, Christine knew that that wasn't the truth, so she ended up calling the police to report Ashley as missing. However, the police told her that since Ashley was technically an adult, her not answering the phone for a day or two didn't constitute her as missing. But Christine knew that something was wrong,

and she wasn't going to just wait around to see what happened. So she decided to take matters into her own hands. So she headed to the bars that Jared had told her that he and Ashley had gone to that night when they hung out. She asked the manager of this pub for the security camera footage, and he actually agreed, which is honestly amazing because so often we see businesses being very uncooperative and waiting for the warrant, waiting for the police to get involved. But they willingly showed her mom the footage. And in the footage, Christine could see Ashley and Jared, and she saw them leave together.

During the search, while waiting for answers, Christine and Ashley's friends and family decided to make flyers and also posts on Facebook, asking for anyone to come forward if they had spoken to Ashley or knew where she was. They also decided to take the investigation portion into their own hands, and since they knew that she had been hanging out with Jared that night, they decided to go and look around his apartment complex, look around the building, see if they could find any clues. So a couple of days later, on December 2nd, four days into Ashley being missing, her friends and family started poking through the trash

outside of Jared's apartment. As they were digging around, that downstairs neighbor, Mario, saw them, and he was curious about what was going on and what they were doing, so he came out. So he went outside to talk to them, and they told him that they were looking for Ashley, and also that they disturbingly had found a saw blade in the trash can. Now apparently earlier that day, Mario and his girlfriend had started to notice a sewage type smell coming from the basement, but they had just tried to ignore it. But now with people outside saying that their friend Ashley is missing, and they found a saw blade, Mario got back inside and he started getting a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and felt like maybe it was important that he go and check the basement. The basement below the two units was always locked and off limits to the tenants,

but Mario got in through an outside door. As he inched closer and closer, the smell only got stronger. As the odor continued to overwhelm him, he kept walking until he stopped in his tracks when he noticed there was a tarp laying on the floor. And not only that, but it appeared to have blood seeping out from underneath it. Mario was shocked and confused, quickly post to come here ASAP. Alright, so it's going to be lower level, partner? Yes, it's 92.3. Okay, yup.

Did she say how long her friends have been missing? No, she didn't. She just left, but please tell somebody right now because I don't know what it is, but it looks like blood and we can't pump it and I'm not going to touch the top or anything like that. Do you know where the tenant is that was down there? No, no I don't. Probably he's scared. I don't know. I told my girlfriend that he looks like he's moving. He's moving stuff out of his house. So I need the trash can with the shoes on the back porch. Okay, you said it was a tarp covering and I don't know how it was blood? Yeah, I don't know what it is.

It's obviously the top of the bottom of the stairs. It looked like there was blood leaking out of it. When police arrived to Mario and Jared's apartment building, he started to briefly explain again what was going on. Mario had also recalled Jared saying some pretty weird things in the past, like how he knew how to kill someone and not get caught. And he also recalled Jared making him feel very uncomfortable by messing around with his guns right out in the open.

Mario also apparently remembered seeing Ashley's car right out in the open. Mario also apparently remembered seeing Ashley's car parked out in front of their building, but he also remembered that Jared had asked Mario for help to get inside the car, saying that Ashley's keys were locked inside. So Mario helped him get the door open so that he could retrieve the keys, and then he said he didn't see the car ever again after that. Now, as all of this information was coming out and this conversation was taking place, an officer went down into the basement and found the tarp, and when he lifted it, what he found was way worse than they ever expected. Under the tarp was a female torso with no arms, no legs, no neck, and no head.

When crime scene investigation arrived, they found hundreds of unspent bullets and two spent.22 caliber bullets that were hidden away in the basement's furnace. Now here is where the story gets really interesting, and you start to see Jared putting the wheels in motion to potentially cover his tracks. The day before, the police made this discovery in the basement, and Jared actually made a call to his family, and he asked them to come and pick him up. He apparently didn't have a car at this point, so they drove from their home in Holland to Grand Rapids to bring him back home with them. When the family arrived, Jared's brother Conrad saw his brother move several things from

his apartment and into the trunk of their car. He then asked for help picking up a box that had a black plastic bag inside of it, and he loaded up a bucket, a mop, and a few other things. After they left, Jared asked them to stop at his friend's car so that he could grab a couple of things out of it. And they really didn't think anything of it since he didn't have a car of his own. Maybe he was storing some things in his friend's car. So they drove to a parking lot, and Jared started grabbing these items out of the car, which ended up being Ashley's car, and then he loaded up all of the items into his family's car's trunk. On the way home, they made a few more stops before arriving back at Jared's parents' house. His brother Conrad said that from the time they picked Jared up, he had this really weird and almost disturbed look on

his face. At home, Jared started a bonfire in the backyard and was alone for a little while before his younger brother Conrad decided to go and ask him what was wrong. And at that point, Jared confessed to his younger brother that he had killed Ashley Young and that he had cut up her body. Conrad told him, you need to go inside immediately and tell mom and dad what's going on. Tell them what happened. And Jared listened. So he went inside and they all sat in the kitchen as Jared confessed what he had done. That he had murdered a 31-year-old woman, dismembered her body, and tried to cover it up.

Now, I don't know why they waited, but they did wait a full day. And the very next day, James, Jared's dad, took him to the police station. a full day, and the very next day, James, Jared's dad, took him to the police station. They walked up to the front desk, and Jared said that he might have information about a missing woman named Ashley Young. Now, there are some discrepancies about what was said next, but according to Jared and his dad, the officer told him that he needed to take the information to the Kalamazoo Police Department, because that's where Ashley was reported missing from. However, the officers at the station said that they offered to speak with Jared about what he knew, but that his dad, James, ultimately said he's not going to speak without a lawyer and demanded that a lawyer be

present. To which apparently the police responded, well, he's not under arrest, so if he brings a lawyer, we can't talk to him. Now, I guess all of this must have frustrated Jared or something because he apparently then turned around to leave and his dad, James, apparently told the officer that letting his son go would be the biggest mistake of their career, literally allowing a dangerous murderer back out onto the streets. James ended up driving his son back to his apartment building and also made him take some of those items that he had brought over to his family's home back with him to his house. His dad just didn't want those items in his house anymore. Now that same day that they went to the police department and now were driving back to Jared's apartment to drop all of that stuff back off at, that was the same day that the police discovered

the torso in the basement, which this discovery ultimately allowed the police to get a search warrant for the rest of Jared's apartment. But before they even got inside to search the apartment, right outside Jared's back door on the patio, police located a mop and a black trash can. The trash can contained two saw blades, a boot, a bathtub drain cover, more trash bags, a bottle of ammonia, gloves, a pair of pants with Jared's name on them, and a roll of plastic wrap. And in the yard, they found three shower curtain rings that matched the set that was inside Jared's bathroom. On the landing of the stairs leading up to Jared's apartment, there was also a pair of women's boots, a fan box, a purple tote bag, and a cardboard box. The cardboard box had a shipping label with Jared's

name and address. Inside the box was a plastic bag, and inside the bag were two female legs without feet. Also, there were two female arms without hands. Inside the purple tote bag was a pair of shoes, a prescription medicine bottle with Ashley's name on it, and more of those plastic shower curtain rings. Inside the fan box was a roll of duct tape and a black plastic trash bag with stained bedding and women's clothing. The clothing, the various items in the bags and boxes, and the blades all tested positive for Ashley's DNA. Inside the apartment, police found a large kitchen tile that was stained a dark red color, presumably blood. They also found a knife inside the lid of the toilet in Jared's bathroom, a washcloth with a red stain, and a pair of jeans with a brownish

red stain. The drain of Jared's kitchen sink tested positive for human blood and also contained a piece of human tissue. Jared's washing machine, a hoodie, and a bath mat also tested positive for human blood, and it was later determined to match Ashley's DNA. Jared had been asleep when the police had entered his apartment, and then they quickly yanked his ass out of bed and arrested him. Police on the search warrant! Come to the door! We're going to... Okay, the tarp is laying on the stairs, about the last three stairs. Come on down. Hands on top of your head. We're going to call him right into that kitchen.

Hands on your head! What's your name? We're gonna call him right into that kitchen. Alright? Hands on your ass! What's your name? What's your last name? George. George Chance? Yeah. He's not been searched. He is not?

No. Okay. Alright then. We're gonna run. This is the one. Okay. Oh, you got it. Yeah, you got it.

You're close. Run quick Pete. Oh, you got it. You got it. You're closing. Don't switch feet. Putting the seatbelt down here, right? Now, since there was obviously still so much missing, investigators made their way to Jared's parents' house, where they ended up finding a shower curtain in the garage. And this shower curtain had very clearly come from Jared's apartment because his shower curtain had been ripped down,

leaving behind those shower rings that they had previously found. Police also found a small skill saw underneath the couch in the living room, also a washcloth in the basement that was covered in blood. In the trunk of his parents' car, police found an empty bottle of ammonia, a box of gloves, and some bags, all with the label Miss Tracy's Party Store, which I'm not sure why you would need to go to a party store to get ammonia and gloves and what kind of parties being had there, but Ms. Tracy's was located near Jared's apartment in Grand Rapids. Police then obtained surveillance video from that party store,

which showed Jared buying several of the items that were located in the trunk between November 29th and December 1st. There was also footage of him throwing a bag away in the trash can in front of the store. The police searched the dumpsters at Ms Miss Tracy's and located that bag, which happened to contain more prescription bottles with Ashley's name on it, a purse with her driver's license and school ID, stained jeans and a hoodie that appeared to have a large blood stain concentrated in the hood area, and other key pieces of evidence. Ashley's car was also later located parked on a

random street away from Jared's apartment. James Chance was charged with second-degree murder, mutilation of a dead body, concealing a death, and three counts of tampering with evidence. But this was far from over. When I first started podcasting, an online store was honestly the furthest thing from my mind, but now we already launched season two, I'm getting ready for season three, and it's so easy thanks to Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business, from the launch your online shop stage to the first real-life store stage, all the way to the did-we-just-hit-a-million- dollar stage shopify is there to help you grow whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits shopify helps you sell

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use our code AE. That's a savings of $15. The code is only available to our listeners too. So to get started, go to apostrophe.com slash AE and click get started. Then use our code AE at sign up and you'll get your first visit for only $5. Thank you to Apostrophe for sponsoring this episode. As you can imagine, Ashley's family, especially her mother Christine, who she was so close to, were just absolutely devastated. And words don't even begin to describe how they were feeling. There was a mixture of grief, sadness, anger, hate, confusion, and other than justice for her daughter, all Christine wanted to know was where was the rest of Ashley's body? Where was her head, her hands, her feet?

How could she possibly come to terms with this and bury her daughter and grieve her daughter if part of her daughter was still out there missing? Her head, hands, and feet were all still missing, and Jared, meanwhile, was acting like he didn't even know how his friend's torso ended up in his basement. It was more than obvious to everybody that Jared killed Ashley. But as expected, he was not willing to take responsibility for his actions, not in the slightest. He was even given the opportunity for a plea deal that would only require him to serve 30 years. This if he just told the truth about what happened, that would only require him to serve 30 years. This if he

just told the truth about what happened, and if he led Christine to where he disposed of the rest of Ashley's body. But he didn't take it. The trial was delayed until September 2019, and with no neck and no head, the medical examiner wasn't able to identify what the cause of death was. However, the prosecution posed a scenario of either Jared hitting Ashley in the head repeatedly, which caused her death, or shooting her in the head, which would explain that large concentrated blood stain on the hoodie and also the two spent shell casings that were found in the basement. To further bolster this theory, Jared's brother Conrad testified that his brother had messed around with his gun before, had even put it to his head and pulled the trigger without even checking to

see if it was loaded first. The neighbor Mario also spoke in court about a time when Jared just had his gun out on the table and was just casually spinning it around. So I guess it is possible that while being drunk or possibly high or whatever else they were doing and while messing around and just being stupid, the gun could have accidentally gone off and maybe he accidentally shot Ashley. But it was said that the bloodstain indicated more than just an accident. And also, you don't just accidentally dismember somebody's body afterward. So it was speculated that Jared had decided to remove her neck and head to conceal her cause of death, but I also think that it could be safe to assume that he hid her head, her hands, and her feet to avoid her being identified.

No fingerprints, no dental records, and then of course also no definitive cause of death. The defense didn't really have much to work with, but they posed the possibility of Ashley accidentally shooting herself, having an accident, an overdose, or something like that. One of those many scenarios. And then Jared panicking and wanting to dispose of her body so that he wouldn't get in any sort of trouble. If they were in fact high, if it was his gun, whatever the reason. That this was not a crime that he committed, he just helped with the cover-up.

But nobody was really buying this. And after only a week-long trial and a few hours of deliberations, the jury found Jared guilty on all charges. But truthfully, the sentencing was the best part. When I was 18, I was told I would never have children by a doctor. I thank God he gave me the gift of Ashley. Even though it was for a very short period of time, God gave me that gift. You had no right to take her from me. Yes, I hate you. I want to rip you limb from limb and discard you like trash, like what you did to Ashley. Brothers, your parents, your sisters, your girlfriend come to see you. Do they hug you? Do they? This is what's left of my daughter. If I want to hug, I have to hug a box and close my eyes and pretend that she is hugging me back.

Do you remember texting me? I would never, never do anything to hurt her. I swear on my life. Ashley is my bride and guy. Do you remember that? Do you? Ashley was really dead. It is never.

When you text that to me, you have no remorse, none for your actions. God will punish you more than anything I could ever do. There is no justice here. I cannot have my daughter Ashley back with me. But we will not let her spirit die. but we will not let her spirit die. So Jared was given a minimum of 100 years and a maximum of 200 years in prison, which will ensure that he isn't eligible for parole until he's 130 years old.

But here's where things start to get a little bit tricky, and possibly indicate that more people were involved in this. After Jared's trial, there were still two more people who had potential involvement in the concealment and the cover-up of Ashley's murder. These two people were Barbara and James Chance, Jared's parents. The prosecution argued that his parents knew what was in the boxes before they even came to pick him up, and that they willingly made several stops along the way so that he could discard the body parts on the way home. It is also believed that with James, his father, having a law enforcement background, a very extensive law enforcement background, that he knew that without the head and the neck, they wouldn't be able to determine a cause of death.

And that he might have felt like he couldn't be charged with murder if they didn't know exactly how she died. However, the defense said that by James taking him to the police station himself, it shows that he didn't have any intent to try to conceal the murder. Nothing that indicates that Mr. Chance was trying to help his son avoid anything. Even the testimony of Sergeant Curley. Yeah, he was worried about his son. Yeah, I want to make sure my son gets a fair shake. I want to make sure he has a lawyer. I want to make sure he gets a fair trial. That's what he was worried about. He didn't tell Sergeant Hurley, well, actually, I wanted him to avoid the whole thing altogether and help him escape to Costa Rica. Because that's not what he does. He's a really terrible accessory after the fact,

because what he does is bring the person he's supposed to be helping avoid arrest back to the scene of the crime where everybody knows he lives, Jared that is, and puts the evidence back there. What is that? That's accessory after fact? That's helping him avoid arrest? That's helping him avoid punishment? That's helping him avoid trial, discovery? No. The prosecution argued that him going to the police station was just part of the big, grand scheme, the big plan to make it look like he was concerned and like his son was innocent, that he knew that the moment he said that Jared needed a lawyer, that they wouldn't be able to talk to him. Christine and the prosecution argued that even if they were turned away at this police station, James should have called and told the police what his son had done, or insisted for

them to speak to Jared without a lawyer present. Also, since there were gloves and ammonia, some people suspect that Barbara and James might have actually had a bigger hand in dismembering Ashley's body, and that maybe the reason they wanted to get rid of the hands is because they had some sort of evidence that could possibly incriminate them. Ultimately, Jared's mom Barbara pled no contest, and she was sentenced to 45 days for perjury and for being an accessory after the fact, and his dad James was sentenced to 30 days for being an accessory after the fact. They were both also given a year of house arrest, but Ashley's mom, Christine, and the rest of Ashley's family didn't feel like that was enough. Today, Judge Denfield failed Ashley.

In people versus James Chance. The judge decided on less than a year behind bars for both James, who's a former police officer, and his wife, Barbara Chance. officer and his wife, Barbara Chance. If you help or you know of something that happened, a crime, and you don't do anything about it, you're just as guilty as Jared, just as guilty as the person who committed it. But that wasn't served today. To this day, Jared still has not revealed where he hid the rest of Ashley's body, which is all her family really wants to know to be able to lay her to rest, to heal, to move forward. Now, what's interesting, though, is after this interview that he did, people say that based on his demeanor, they believe that Jared actually does want to say where Ashley is, but feels like he can't because it could get his parents into trouble.

So I'm going to play this for you and tell me what you think. Your dad said he turned you into the police. Did he turn you into police? I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm sorry, I can't do this. I'm sorry, Ashley Brown. I sorry. I can't do this. I'm sorry, Ashley Brown. I apologize. I can't do this right now. Do you have anything else to say to Ashley's mom? What could possibly have been the reason that Jared would have done this? Because there was no evidence of a sexual assault or anything like that taking place at all.

So did he just lose his temper for some reason? Nothing about this horrific murder makes any sense at all. And based on Barbara and James' emotionless statements, you can just tell that no one in that family has any remorse for what happened to Ashley. I'm just so sorry everything happened and I wish if I could change it, I'm just so sorry everything happened. I wish if I could change it, I would. I would do anything to undo what's been done. Very sorry. I can't imagine something like this happening to your child and the sick bastard who did it is still having some sort of control over the situation,

not allowing you to have closure. And by not telling her family where he disposed of Ashley, it truly shows how evil he is. And honestly, if his parents know more than what they have all let on and what they have said, they are just as evil as he is in my opinion. Christine and Ashley's family have raised a reward to try to raise money for anyone who might know where Jared frequented, where he might have taken the rest of Ashley's body, any sort of tips or leads that can help them ultimately find the rest of the missing pieces of Ashley so, again, they can begin to heal and lay her to rest. This is a very interesting and fascinating case, and I'm really curious to know what you guys think about Jared's parents'

potential involvement. Do you think they know more than they're saying? Do you think that they know where the rest of Ashley's body is? Now, at this point, Jared's already been convicted, so it's not like the cause of death would really affect his sentencing or the ruling or any of that things. However, if they do have that knowledge, it could potentially incriminate them further to where possibly more charges would go against them. And again, with James retiring as a sergeant after a 20-year law enforcement career, does he have some knowledge knowing what could come down the pike if that information is revealed, and that's why they're being so secretive? And does Jared want to get it off his chest like a lot of people started to feel after that interview,

but he can't because he's trying to protect his parents. I'm really interested to know what you guys think about this case. And aside from all of that piece of it, what the heck was the motive here? Were they just drunk? Was he trying to hit on her and she declined his advances and that sent him into a tailspin? Again, there was no evidence of any sort of sexual assault taking place. It is just so insane to me. It is one of those cases, the ones where it's hard for you to understand the why behind it, where there's still so many open-ended questions. Those are the ones that always really get under my skin and fascinate me because there really is no resolution in the slightest. So again, I want to know what you guys think about this. So let me know in the review section over on Apple Podcasts or in the Q&A section on Spotify.

I just really hope that one day Ashley's family will get to bring all of her home so that they can finally have some peace. Thanks for tuning in to another episode with me, guys. I love talking to you about these true crime cases and breaking it down with you just here with my besties talking true crime I appreciate you guys listening and your support and I will be talking with you again very very soon All right until the next one guys stay safe, and I will talk with you soon. Bye