Small Town Murder - #540 - Ghost Hunter - Everson, Washington
Episode Date: November 1, 2024This week, in Everson, Washington, a strange tale unfolds when a woman, with a history of murder in her background, shoots her boyfriend, while he's in bed, watching tv. Her story is that the...y were discussing the possibility of ghosts, which prompted her to grab a shotgun, and the next thing you know, he's dead, and the ghosts are free to go about their business. The question is, will anyone believe her stoiry about ghosts & accidents???Along the way, we find out that you may not want "Nooksack Valley" in your mailing address, that once you commit one murder, it's a hard to say your next killing was an accident, and when you are accused of murder, try not to blame it it on some kind possible ghost attack!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.comGo to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to small town murder express.
Yeah. Oh, yay. Indeed. Jimmy. Yay. Indeed. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.
Yay and choo choo.
Oh yay indeed Jimmy.
Yay indeed.
My name is James Petragallo.
I'm here with my co-host.
I'm Jimmy Wissman.
Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another exciting edition of Small Town
Murder Express.
As we know we stuff 10 pounds of murder in a 2 pound episode.
And we are coming strong today with some wild stuff. There's ghosts involved
Oh shit, it's Halloween. Why not? Let's throw that in there, too
Not real ghosts, but you know, we'll take we'll get into all that before we do though. Hey, I believe in ghosts before we do
I would like to definitely say head over to shut up and give me murder calm
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This week we're going to talk about for crime and sports, we're going to talk about the
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Those texts, wow.
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And then for Small Town Murder, we're going to finish up the Ted Bundy psychological assessment
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What a doctor trying to figure out is Ted Bundy psychological assessment from 1976. What a doctor trying to figure
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So check that out.
That said, I think it's time to get into this.
Here we go.
Everybody, let's do this.
I think it's time to shout.
Come on, everybody.
Let's do it.
From the treetops, let's all take a deep breath,
arms to the sky, let's do it from the treetops. Let's all take a deep breath arms to the sky. Let's all shout
Let's do this everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip. Shall we? Yeah, we are going to Washington this week Washington State
Northwest love it. This is northwestern Washington even so northwestern northwestern
North west of the northwest indeed. It's about an hour 45 to Seattle
It's kind of east northeast of Seattle about two and a half hours to Lopez Island, Washington, which was our last
Washington episode turning a husband into flowers was the name of that one.
You can kind of imagine what happened there.
It's a crazy episode.
The county is Whatcom County.
What?
Whatcom, which sounds like a bad stadium name.
Yeah.
Like, oh, you're going to Whatcom?
Yeah, yeah, the 49ers are playing over at Whatcom.
Yeah, it sounds good.
What the hell?
It's a discount, discount cell carrier, Whatcom. Whatcom. Yeah. Come on in here. You go, what?
What? Because it doesn't work. Uh,
area code three six Oh population here.
2859 people in this.
That's a small area and a bunch of little weird small towns.
The median household income here is $63,958, which is
slightly below the national average. But the median home cost is well above the national
average. So it's tough, tough going here. Median home cost $431,100, which is steep.
Little bit of history here. Everson was named to honor a local pioneer. This guy, this is his name. I looked it up
several places. Ever Everson is his name. Is that right? They just said, we can't think
of anything. We'll just name him the first four letters of our last name. Ever Everson.
Ever Everson, not Everrit Everson, Ever Everson. He's the first, you know, settler, European settler here, north of the Nooksack
River. Nooksack. Definitely sounds like slang for taint. Nooksack. It's in between Massack
and the Butthole. Nooksack River. Everson was incorporated in 1929. In February 2009, a citizens group and local officials proposed consolidating
Everson and Nooksack into a single city.
And hang at what?
That's the great part of this, obviously. They shared several municipal services at
the time and a combined government would provide cost savings. So why not? But the Bellingham Herald
compared the merger to that of the four towns that formed Bellingham in 1903. So they were
like, this could work. Names for the proposed new city include the worst possible name Nooksack
Valley, which definitely sounds like taint at that point, right? Yeah. The Nooksack Valley.
Yeah. She was licking me
down in my nook sack valley. You'd be like oh she's a freaky one. All right. The proposal
was dropped after a unanimous vote by the nook sack city council not to move forward
because the people didn't want it. But then they'll complain about paying taxes even though
they were given an option to be less but they're like we don't want to be called the nook
sack valley. I can't. I can't write that on things. That's not as my address reviews of this town a little bit here
Here's five stars. I've grown up all my life here and still live here today
Have lived here all my life would be a fine way to say that two sentences you could have done in one
Consolidation it's the perfect little big town little big town. There's 2,800 people
It's a little little town. That's little
But down as a band but would fool a lot with saying big at all
Yeah, it's yeah, it's comfy and isn't too far from the bigger surrounding cities
Okay, here's a review another one here. This one is one star Everson is a true small town okay
that's good on this show then there's one small grocery store a drug store a
dentist an eye doctor and a physician okay there's a couple of small
restaurants local restaurants but no mainstream restaurants other than Little
Caesar's that's the best chain restaurant you've got Little Caesar's
oh my god the best chain restaurant they have's the best chain restaurant you've got? Little Caesars. Oh my god.
The best chain restaurant they have is the worst chain restaurant on the planet.
In the country.
In the country where they're like, it's just $5.
I don't know, just take it.
It's a $5 hot and ready.
They call it hot and ready.
This doesn't look very good.
Yeah, it's $5.
What do you expect?
Eat it.
It's hot and ready.
Nowhere in that does it say delicious.
No, it doesn't say hot and tasty. It's hot and ready. Nowhere in that does it say delicious. No, it doesn't say hot and tasty.
It says hot and ready.
Is it hot?
Yes.
Is it in your hands?
It is.
Get out.
Five bucks, motherfucker.
Take a step aside.
So this guy goes on, everyone knows everyone.
It's a five minute drive to wherever you need to be.
The schools, Nooksack in parentheses, are decent. You get more house for your money
than in Bellingham's. Apparently Bellingham is even more expensive than this.
That's where it's outrageous.
Yep. You're 15 minutes from the Canadian border and 20 to 30 minutes from shopping
in Bellingham. There's not a lot to do, but it's quiet and a simple way of life, but
it rains in all caps. And then it rains some more, and then it rains some more. Get used to it.
Welcome to Washington. And this was on a different site that has people that you can agree and
disagree with the reviews. 282 agree, 269 disagree. So I have no idea. Wow. It's right at the-
The country is divided. Divided. We're very divided. Are they disagreeing with the fact that it rains?
I don't know. Are they saying there's more restaurants than this guy found?
I don't know what you're disagreeing with.
Where's the discretion here?
Don't get it.
Things to do?
Oh boy, the Everson Summer Festival.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, if it stops raining for a couple of days, we're going to have this.
There's a three on three basketball tournament.
That's fun.
The first day also includes live music.
Dakota Black will be performing.
Right.
Don't know who that is, but I can guess
what kind of music they play.
Just gonna guess. Based on those two words together, yeah.
The word Dakota in there really sends it strong.
This Saturday they'll have a pancake breakfast.
They have the Everson Auto Parts car show and shine.
Just shine your car up.
A lunch barbecue.
Round two of the three on three tournament.
I don't know if that's the championship round or what here.
There's a book sale.
The grand marshals of the parade are the Scott Mitchell family.
Okay.
Scott Mitchell, Is that right?
The old quarterback for the Lions?
The lefty?
Number 19 there?
He's welcome.
He's in there.
Kids games and then there is also live music.
Hot Wally will be playing.
Hot Wally's in town.
Hell yeah, boy.
Yeah.
I want the ugly one better.
If you get Hot Wally and Dakota Black together,
they will have some awesome kids,
let me tell you something.
So that said, let's talk about some murder here.
Here we go, yeah.
Let's do this, we know what we're doing.
Let's start out with a lady, let's talk about.
Linda Rae Holman, we're gonna start with here.
And we'll find out a little bit more
about her childhood life,
because she's a rough wife. She's in foster homes. And yeah, so she's got some problems. And
I didn't really even need to tell you that if I tell you about her adult life, you go,
Oh, she had a lot of problems when she was a kid. Yeah, we'll talk about this. She's
born in 1963. By 1986. She has a daughter named Daisy, Daisy Holman. And then by 1988, she has another
kid named Travis. We'll hear a lot from Travis here later on. Travis has a real interesting
life. They both do, but Travis talks about it. His, the son here, Travis, like I said,
born in 88. December 13th, 1991, the children's father dies. Oh no. Apparently he had a heart
condition that was ongoing. He's a young guy too. It wasn't even 40 years old or whatever, but
had a heart condition that was ongoing and the father died. So Travis, the son, said that he
and his sister Daisy had a pretty complicated childhood because of
his mom being kind of not stable. She's a single mom, yeah. And she's very not stable. He called her a
wild child but said that she did care for him and his and his sister so it
wasn't like she hated them or was mean to them. She was sweet to them. She was
just kind of unreliable. He said, I remember she did a lot of partying. He
said, for instance, she
had a muscle car and I remember us doing donuts in it. We don't know what the hell she's got,
but she's sounds like a cool chick. She's got a muscle car. She's doing donuts with
the kids hanging out the window. There's no mom. That's mom doing that. No car seats in
there either. You know, they're just like, she goes, hang on kids either you know they're just like she goes hang on kids and then
yeah they're going dumps the clutch so he said she was an affectionate mother all the time it was i love you and you're special my sister and i felt that we felt loved but she had a difficult
upbringing just like my sister and i ended up having so she did continue the cycle whether she
wanted to or not exactly the same cycle that she had.
And we'll talk about it gets worse for these kids,
which sucks.
She meets a young man here in the early 90s
after her kid's father dies.
Linda meets a young man named Travis, another Travis.
Is that right?
Not her son, but a different Travis, yeah.
It happens.
In certain trash circles, Travis is a very popular name
It really it's a very popular
I knew two kids named Travis growing up. They were both total scumbags. That's the funny part
Total scumbags. I know I know several
mullets well past the time of mullets
Things like that. They're very I've got two friends named Travis right now that both have sons both their kids have mullets, things like that. They're very... I've got two friends named Travis right now that both have sons, both their kids have
mullets.
Yep, that's what it is.
The one kid I knew named Travis smoked cigarettes when he was 10.
He was smoking.
That tells you a lot.
Travis is an early smoker, for sure.
Travis knows how to pack cigarettes at night.
Totally.
He knows how to roll them.
He's like, just, I don't need,
just get me some of the job stuff. I'll roll it myself. I don't even need. Just grab me
some top. Grab me some top. That's all I need. He said, this is Travis Cargile. C-A-R-G-I-L-E.
Cargile, however you want to say it. Cargile. He's born in 1973, so he's 10 years younger than Linda. No shit.
But they hook on up, yeah. And they are like quite the mess of a couple, as we'll find
out here. In 1994, they've been together for a couple of years now, they come across
a guy named Floyd Robert England, like Freddie Krueger. Like Freddie Krueger, except doesn't
Robert England have a U in his name? This is England, like the Krueger, except doesn't Robert England have a U in his name?
U.
This is England like the country.
Floyd Robert England, he's 59 years old, Floyd is at this point, so well older than them.
Yeah, she's 31, he's 21, Travis.
They hang out, they end up meeting him at a bar.
And here, this is from Floyd Robert England's son, describes Floyd a little bit.
He says, my dad came from a moonshining family in southern Missouri and he liked to drink.
All right, that sounds fun.
I'm on board so far.
But he was a happy drunk and quite entertaining.
That's great.
I love a happy drunk.
I hate a mean drunk.
I hate the Sarah Boone drunk.
That's my name so I'm wearing it out.
I don't like that.
He was a captivating storyteller
and befriended folks everywhere he went.
He was living in Conway during this time in 1994,
doing work for whoever needed a handyman.
He was a very talented Finnish carpenter.
He and his father had milled all the lumber
and did all the interior work at the bar
for the bar at FX McRory's in downtown Seattle years ago. He was very proud of that bar and
frequented it often as he did many other bars wherever he was living. He liked the drink.
So he says, Dad met a young couple in a bar one day after he'd been paid cash for a big job he'd done. Okay, the couple, Linda
Holman and Travis Cargile, were a bit low on cash and saw all the hundred dollar
bills my dad was flashing. Linda had promised her son a hundred dollar bill
for his birthday so she started scheming on how to fulfill that promise.
Wow! To try to get little Travis, who's about six years old at this point a hundred dollar bill here
Show him show him what a hundo looks like. That's it
So what really happened only they know but the story they told went something like this. Okay
They met this is Travis and Linda met Robert or Floyd Robert England and he bought them a few drinks
Yeah, I guess they were talking and he bought them a few drinks. Yeah, I guess
they were talking and he was buying drinks for people. They decided
to go bar hopping together and along the way Linda said she needed to stop in the
woods to relieve herself. She said please pull over and take a leak. It was her
plan to quote roll him. You're gonna take all his money. Shove him out of his van,
take his wallet and vehicle
and leave him in the woods. But things didn't exactly work out like that. By the way, from
what it says later on, it seems like he was living in this van, by the way, Floyd Robert
England. Really? Yes, he lived in this van and like traveled to different places to work.
That's what he was doing. So he goes on to say, my dad's driver's license
was revoked for a previous drunk driving ticket. So he let other people drive as often as possible,
probably especially after drinking. Travis was driving and when they turned up a dirt
road out near concrete, they supposedly hit a deer in the dirt road near concrete. Concrete's
a town. They supposedly hit a deer. Dad loved to hunt and always had guns with him. He grabbed his rifle and
was gonna put the deer out of his misery, but he decided to instead to let Travis
do it. Travis said, I'll take care of it. Don't worry about that. With dad sitting
in the passenger seat, Travis took the rifle and as he stepped out of the van,
turned the gun on my dad and pulled the trigger. Oh
Shit. Yep. He died instantly just fucking up close rifle shot boom right in the chest
They drug him out of his van took his wallet and headed up to Canada after Linda stopped to give her son a hundred dollar bill
Holy shit, how awful would little Travis feel about that that hundred dollar bill is probably so special to him
Has fucking blood on it mom had to kill for this money literally shot a man in his own van
In his own van fucking scummy shit
So November 30th 1994. This is a few days later. They are captured
Here they're captured after reentering. They took off to Canada. They are captured here. They're captured after re-entering.
They took off to Canada. They got up there and got across. They got across the border
but they're caught coming back across from Canada because they didn't have any money.
I think they probably ran out of money. They said that Linda and Travis were arrested on
first degree murder warrants as they tried to return to the United States from Canada
at the Sumas border crossing.
So they are accused obviously of killing him. They said that this was a 1976 Ford Econoline van that poor Floyd lived in. Jesus Christ, that is fucking horrible. But yeah, the sheriff's department
just went to several different bars and said, you've seen this guy and they all went, yeah,
he was with the younger couple, these two people. And wasn't real hard to track them down. Yeah, it's a quick trace
Yeah, so they're both gonna be sentenced to prison
But Linda is out within three years
For murder for fuck. Well, she was convicted of robbery and manslaughter
Which still seems like you do more than three years for that in the 90s,
especially this isn't like the 70s.
Yeah.
Now, Travis pleads guilty to first degree murder and he is sentenced to, I guess you
sir, may fuck off 25 years in prison with community custody to follow.
So even if he does all of his time, he's still going to have some sort of like a parole type
of situation. So he will not get his first parole hearing until 2015. Yeah.
Which is a pretty good 20 years away from now. It's a stretch. Now, son Travis, we'll
talk about him again. We'll put Travis, we'll put murder Travis on the shelf for a minute.
He'll be back later. Don't worry. But we'll put him on the shelf.
Oh absolutely, we're gonna hear a lot of fun from Travis.
He's a dangerous man, Travis.
Twenty-something years in prison does him no chill.
It just does not put any chill on him whatsoever.
And do anything.
Nope, nope.
Some people you can let them out and they won't hurt anybody again.
He's not one of them apparently. So Linda must have been out by 97 or 98
because she meets a new man.
And we know they were together around then.
His name is Mark McCollum
and he is born April 4th, 1961,
so he's about two years older than her.
And one night, I guess it was 1998,
Linda went out for a night at the bar and met Mark
and brought him back to the family home in Kendall.
Where her kids were, by the way,
because she still has her kids with her at this point.
Daisy and Travis are both there.
This guy, she's like,
I brought your new stepdaddy home from the bar.
One night stand.
One night stand, but he's not going anywhere.
Just like he's moving in now.
Fucking someone you just met is a commitment, but to say you just met them and you're like,
not only will I fuck you, please stay, go home and get your shit and come back is a
lot.
These are my kids.
Ballsy.
Yeah.
Get a U-Haul.
Yeah.
These are my kids.
Mind if they call you dad?
Okay. Let's run call you dad? Okay.
Let's run a U-Haul.
So they dated for a few months, Mark and Linda, and then out of nowhere, she just abandoned
her two children.
She just left?
She just not, she didn't drop them off at her mom's house and take off.
She left them at the apartment and just moved out and left the kids there.
What? It's 1998. They're like 12 and 10 and she just left them there
Yeah to move to Deming Washington or Domingue or whatever the fuck it is so this
Travis said she came home after being away for a week or so
So he's proud. Oh god
Finally mom's back and so she just packed up her
duffel bag and then never came out, never came back. What she came home after a week.
Hi kids. How you doing? Packed up all her shit and left and then just never came back.
Just left them there. She left for a week to see if they'd still survive. She's like,
you did it for a week. You'll be all right for the rest of your lives. Y'all are alive
still so it's all good
She figured eventually she didn't call somebody she has relatives and family
She didn't call any of them and say I got problems. Please go take care of my kid nothing
She just left. He said we spent four months fending for ourselves alone twelve and ten
They didn't know what to do
They didn't know what to do they end up doing she said when she left we went months without contact with anybody
They didn't talk to anybody in their family
They just acted like she was home and went to school and came home and acted like they had a mom
Very they just thought that eventually she'd come back probably
Wow, and he said and eventually our auntie and uncle came to collect us. Yeah. They just she just left them there for four months. Fucking wow.
So Travis and Daisy still continued to have a relationship with their mom after
this. Is that right? And they'd see her once or twice a year. She just left them
just fucking abandoned them. That is look it a being a parent is hard and all that but it's hard to judge people but that is a bad mother
That's fucking bad. I'm sorry
I never thought that you could just leave your kids and just go somewhere and not come back
I know that never even crossed my mind as an option
Wow, yeah, my dad left but I mean I saw mom, so it was fine. He didn't leave you alone.
No, he left me with my mom.
Yeah, that's okay.
This is fucking crazy.
This is just, I'll just leave the kids here alone.
What was gonna happen like when rent came due or something?
I mean, how'd they pay the electric bill?
What are we talking about?
In a few hours, shit, it's 98, they've seen Home Alone,
they know how to do it.
I just see the kids start in front of the checkbook with the bills out going, how do
we do this?
I don't know, we're going to do it.
Calculator there.
It's a 10 year old sister, you're going to have to get a job, we're fucked.
This isn't balancing.
You know my kicks cost, club of buffs, you like those things?
This is way worse than Mom the Babysitter, don't tell Mom the Babysitter's dead.
At least there was a 17 year old in charge of that situation.
You get a boyfriend at Clown Dog?
I'm hungry.
Please Daisy go to Clown Dog.
Would you?
So they end up being brought up by their aunt and uncle, see and mom once or twice a year.
And Travis is so understanding.
He says this young Travis, son Travis says, even though my mom struggled with alcoholism
and likely PTSD from her childhood in foster homes and the trauma of like that, I said
she was a very affectionate, loving mother.
How do you say that?
From a distance, we'll just say.
From a distance.
Golly, yeah.
But over time here, they lose contact with mom.
Once or twice a year for a while,
and over time it's just no more.
So March 6th, 2007, we've catched back up with Linda here,
and from what I understand, she's arrested
a whole lot of times for a whole lot of stuff.
I'm sure, yeah.
She does math, she's fuckin', you know,
drinking and driving, she's stealing.
So I only found a few though.
On March 6th, 2007, she had a banner day.
She's arrested not only for marijuana possession, which who cares, and possession of drug paraphernalia,
but also making a false settlement to a pub servant.
What is that?
I think that's, I guess, not paying your bill at the bar.
That's saying, here's a dollar, that's all I got.
Not paying your bar tab, I guess, or paying with a check or something that didn't clear,
I don't know.
And also obstructing a law enforcement officer that day as well.
Okay, I'm not arrested, I paid with an apple.
Seems like that was the problem, cops caught up to him and they searched her and went,
oh, you also have weed on you,
is probably where it went there.
So that's kind of all there is.
Now by 2009, 2010 here,
she's still with Mark McCollum, by the way.
The guy she abandoned her kids for.
And he must have hated kids, boy, cause.
No shit. Cause if you went out with a woman, you know
She had two kids at home and then she just moved out moved in with you wouldn't you be like, hey, where's your kids?
What'd you do with them? Yeah, he's got a bit fuck you can just leave them behind shit
I mean he must have said you're come come with me, but you care kids can't come
I'm not fucking welcome. I'm not dealing with these kids and she was like, okay, that's wow. I don't have kids for a reason
So they live at the in the 5900 block of Lawrence Road
Which is outside of Everson and actually down more near Nugent's corner. Yeah where
Watch a cat on a swivel cuz there's gunfire going off a lot at Nugent's corner
Yeah, there's a lot of cat scratch fever.
A lot of cat scratch fever happening here.
So that's where they live.
Nugent's Corner, though, is so small,
there's not really much town stuff to it.
So January 4th, 2010, there's an article.
Remember Travis, our murderer from the beginning there?
Travis is now a quilter.
What, in jail?
He makes quilts in prison.
There's a big article about him, and it says prison can change a man.
It turned Travis Cargile into a quilter.
Yeah.
Apparently there's a guy at the prison, the recreation guy who started a quilting program
about two years ago, putting the sewing machines in the hobby shop back to good use.
Sure.
They say Cargile serving 25 years at the Monroe Correctional Complex for first degree
murder, he could watch TV, shoot hoops, or walk around the prison yard during his recreation
time.
Instead, he goes to the hobby shop and quilts with a half dozen other roommates.
Wow.
Inmates, not roommates.
Same thing.
He says, it's forced roommates.
That's what that is.
Forced cohabitation.
He said, it's very constructive. I don't think anyone who comes in here leaves mad.
It's kinda hard. I'd be so mad because I'd suck at quilting.
I'd believe mad because I have early
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The quilting program at the Monroe Prison has attracted a small but loyal following
of inmates.
Program organizer says there's really no tangible benefit for them other than the emotional
satisfaction of coming in and doing work.
It's not like they're getting extra good time for this.
Travis has made about 50 quilts since he's joined the program.
He was sewing together squares of thin pink and blue cloth as he spoke to the other people.
Cargile takes anger management courses as part of his rehabilitation therapy.
He said quilting should be part of the treatment.
He said, it gets me out of here. It's a no stress zone. Out of his head he says, he points to his head.
Program also can help prisoners rebuild bridges with the outside world. For every
ten or so quilts a prisoner completes, an inmate can send one to a family member.
So you get to keep one. So it's like a punch card. When I was a kid and I first started selling
drugs, when you sell them for somebody you get ten bags
You sell nine and you can keep one and sell it or use do whatever the fuck you want
But that's basically what they're doing here. You guys understand this program. Don't you except with quilts now?
Yeah, not meth so cargo mailed one to a niece another to a cousin his family was shocked by the packages
What are you doing? They asked positive things he said
by the packages. What are you doing? They asked. Positive things he said. Positive things. They said the prison-made quilts need homes so they maintain
contact with groups like Project Linus and East Bay Baby Corner. The nonprofit
groups distribute blankets to those in need. That's nice. Project Linus, I like that.
That's a penis character. That drags the blanket behind them. The prisoners
churn out hundreds of quilts.
One of their designs used old blue denim and bright red corduroy.
The tough cloth and stark collars made for an eye-popping design.
That's not a soft quilt.
You don't give that to a baby.
Here kid, use these old jeans.
Rub that jean on your cheek and see how soft it is.
Nothing softer than corduroy.
Cuddle up with this fucking Jordan.
Jesus, that's so weird.
While the inmates finish products as always a respectable blanket, their work area is
far removed from your grandmother's quilting circle.
Rotary wheels, the hand-held blades that cut cloth and look like pizza slicers, are kept
in locked cabinets behind a solid red line. That entire area is out of bounds to prisoners.
And of course...
Yeah, because you could fucking break out with that shit.
Well, yeah, they also said that they must inspect fabric donations for contraband so
prisoners can't bring something sharp back to their cells.
The one guy said people will leave safety pins in the cloth.
That's actually something we always have to look out for.
Wow.
Because this guy's going to go from making a quilt to murdering someone with a safety pin
That's this is the people you're dealing with
Yeah
So the relationship between Linda and McCollum here mark McCollum starts to kind of have to hit a snag here in this time period
McCollum's mother said that the relationship was bad and had gotten worse at the end of 2009
beginning of 2010. Apparently Mark often stayed at his mother's house which by
the way was like right across the street right by the house that they lived in
that Linda and Mark lived in. He would stay there just to be able to get some
sleep because if he had to get up early for work because Linda was all over the
place. Wouldn't let him sleep.
When McCollum was at his mother's house, Linda would come over and knock on the door
or repeatedly call the mother's house.
She's a lot.
She's a lot.
She's on meth is what it is, I feel like.
That's meth behavior.
Is she there?
Is she still there?
The calls became so frequent that McCollum's mother had to unplug her telephone.
She couldn't stop anymore.
It's too much.
Some nights McCollum left his mother's house and stayed at a hotel because of the knocks
and calls. So this poor lady drives this poor woman from her home. The mother also said
that when McCollum was with her, Holman would turn the volume up on McCollum's stereo so
high that McCollum would wake him
up from another house.
He'd have to get up, put his shit on, go over there and turn it down so the speakers wouldn't
blow out.
But she would do that to get his attention to make him come home.
Wow.
McCollum's younger brother also said that when McCollum was with his mother or his brother,
Linda would turn the volume up again on the speakers to the point where McCollum was with his mother or his brother, Linda would turn the
volume up again on the speakers to the point where McCollum would fear the speakers were
going to blow and be forced to return home to turn down the stereo volume.
Golly man, what's her fucking problem?
She's a fucking mess dude, she's an issue.
Now there's February 14th, 2010, so Valentine's Day, very romantic.
Yeah, good day.
Three messages Linda leaves on McCollum's mother's answering machine.
Here, this day.
First is, hey Shirley, I need you to please call the cops here because I don't know.
Mark obviously didn't approve or anything, but I want to report a stolen vehicle in the
shop and all of, and then you can't hear unintelligible
So can you call the cops on me or anything? So can you call the cops on me or anything? Hello?
Okay, this is the same message by the way hello, okay?
Hey sure hello, okay
Yeah, hello She sounds like one of those Tourette's people. Yeah.
Hello.
Okay.
On Instagram.
Well, I'm going to call them on my own.
I don't have a problem with that.
And you know what?
You're involved in that because you got your car in there and you're that.
You're involved.
You're protecting stolen fucking goods.
So is Mark.
Hello.
Okay.
Hello.
Okay.
The second message was, hello, okay. She said, well, I'm not
promising or threatening. I'm promising. Matter of fact, I'm not threatening. That's how she
starts out. I'm not promising or threatening. Well, I am promising. Hello. Okay, let me start over. Let me reset.
Hello, okay.
Because by morning I want Mark's shit out of here because I'm calling the cops in here
and you better call them on me first because I really do want the cops here.
So whoever's brave enough, bring it on little boys.
Why is she calling?
What are you talking about?
Just call the cops lady.
Then she says, Mark you started this, I'll finish it.
Happy fucking V day.
Hello, okay.
Sorry, happy V fucking day she says.
V fucking day.
Valentine's day, V fucking day.
Hello, okay.
She is so much fun.
And then her third message and final message is, well Shirley.
And don't call me Shirley.
I'm glad that I don't qualify this family, but since you couldn't call the cops, I did.
And I suppose that you and Mark don't have time to hide the car, but thanks
Okay
You left this on an answer machine. They're not home. They're not there. They are they are they're standing there staring at the answering machine and
Terror standing around ago. What do we do? She's a crazy. I don't this is crazy, right?
So apparently the car to which she's referring was a car that McCollum's brother owned and
stored in a garage near McCollum and Holman's home.
The brother said that he owned the car, it wasn't stolen, nothing was stolen, it's been
registered to him for years and what the fuck is she talking about?
She's just crazy making crazy phone calls.
It gets crazier.
February 16th, 2010.
Two days later. Two days later.
This is the Whatcom County Sheriff's Deputy.
Peter Stephenson is dispatched to a 911 call
to investigate a shooting at a house that they shared.
This is Linda and Mark's house.
When the deputy arrived at the scene,
Linda and three other people are standing outside the house,
none of which are Mark, by the way, that're standing out there. The deputy spoke with Linda at the
crime scene here, we'll find out will be a crime scene. She told him that she and McCollum
had been together for about 13 years and that their relationship was strained and the cop
said why and she said, well, he works overtime. Hello. Okay. Hello, okay, he works overtime.
Does no one understand this?
He works, you know, he's paying bills and stuff.
The man works his ass off.
Our relationship is fucked.
It's terrible.
He goes to his mom's to sleep before work like he needs sleep to work overtime.
She said that McCollum had had February 15th,
the day before, the day after the phone calls
and before this, off from work.
So they went to a casino where they gambled,
ate pizza and drank beer.
That's a fine day I guess.
They went, I'm not into gambling much,
but pizza and beer signed me up.
They went home, not at that casino pizza. No. No, they went home, had more pizza and beer signed me up. They went home, not at that casino pizza. No. No.
They went home, had more pizza and beer. I had casino pizza a couple weeks ago. You remember
that? I told you about it. Yeah. One piece. One piece was the weight of four pizzas. It
was horrible. Five pound slice. Oh, they were so heavy and gross and greasy. Said they went
home, had more pizza and beer and decided to go to bed
Okay. Now Linda says she woke up to use the bathroom and saw Mark watching a science fiction movie
quote unquote She told the deputy here that mark made a comment about killing ghosts. Oh, that's normal. Yeah, that's a
Okay movie if you weren't watching ghostbusters, what the fuck are we talking about?
That would be about busting ghosts not killing them. They didn't kill the ghosts. They just put them in a storage
They trapped them. They put them in ghost jail
and in response
Linda has a stray. He says yes killing ghosts and she says okay, so she takes a shotgun off the rack
That doesn't do it. I don't understand what she's gonna do with that takes it off
the rack she puts the butt of the gun on the floor and put the barrel of the gun
up to her chin you know like someone who blows their brains out yeah and said
well hell I'll just kill myself too okay McCollum told her to put the gun down, you know, like a normal person.
And according to her, according to Linda, when she was putting the gun back on the rack,
she's just, you know, placed it. She said, okay, placed it back on the rack. It went
off. Wow. This is a sensitive gun, man. Yeah. It went off and hit McCollum perfectly. Right
in the chest. Hit Mark. I mean, fucking rat rack
is a great shot. She put it down, bang. Yeah. So Linda told the deputy she saw McCollum's
shirt was becoming soaked with blood and she heard gurgling sounds. That's a death rattle.
That's called a death rattle. By the way, did you notice that this was yesterday this
happened? What? She's talking about yesterday. She, okay. Yeah. And now
she's reporting it. She, after that they go, okay. She said the sound stopped after a few
minutes and she figured he was dead. Yeah. The breathing stopped. She covered him with
a blanket and then called a friend and then drove away with the friend. I gotta go somewhere.
There's a body in my living room. I'd really like to get out of here. So she told the detectives
it was an accident. She was just trying to put it back on the rack, but perfect shot.
Got him right in the right side of his chest at pretty close range. She said she was standing
to his left side when this happened. Okay. Now, deputy searched the inside of the house.
They discover a note beside the bed
in which Mr. McCollum's body had been discovered. This is all in a bedroom, by the way this happened.
The note, it's in her handwriting, handwritten note, and it says, I keep holding back for you and I,
Mark, and then a hand-drawn frowning face. You know, very mature there. I can't keep holding back my emotions for you.
That's one note.
Then on the mirror in the bathroom,
there's another note in her handwriting
that says, one more kiss could mean everything,
but one more lie could end everything.
It's a great poem.
That's wonderful.
She admitted writing this phrase,
but she said it had nothing to do with infidelity
or didn't mean she was mad.
She was just writing stuff.
It's amazing song lyrics.
I was writing-
And pinning it to a bath- I was just writing a Poison song from the 80s.
I was writing part two to Every Rose Has Its Thorn, and this is what came out.
It's pretty solid.
It's pretty solid.
Now, the friend of hers, Valentina Velashenko-
Yep.
Is an acquaintance of both Linda and Mark. She said about
1230 in the afternoon February 16th, which is the day the cop was there the
day after the shooting, that she showed up, Linda showed up at the kidney
dialysis center where she knew that Valentina's fiance was having his
weekly dialysis. So she's, I know where my friends are.
They're getting dialysis.
I'll go bother them with this shit.
They can't move.
They're having their blood filter.
They're hooked up to something.
So Linda was upset and crying and told Valentino that she, quote, did something really bad.
Okay.
That's one way to put it.
So Valentina asked Linda to walk into the parking lot where Linda told her that she
had shot and killed Mark and Linda also told her that the shooting occurred the previous
night but she hadn't called the cops yet.
They're like, okay.
He's scared of that.
Nobody's given him any medical attention.
36 hours.
It's been at least 24 years, so at least 20.
So the obituary, by the way, for Mark,
he's gonna be buried in Nooksack, it looks like.
Wow.
That's one way to do it.
Nice to be in there.
Now that's all going on.
They are going to arrest Linda.
Sure.
Even though she said it was an accident.
They're going, you waited till the next day.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like it.
Doesn't sound accidental.
Let's bring you in.
Now, while this is going on, she's sitting in jail awaiting a resolution to this, there's
an article in the paper about Travis, not son Travis, murderer Travis, now he likes
kitties too.
Cats.
Cats, kitties, yeah.
So now he quilts and he likes kitties.
Soft guy.
He's really turning into a 55-year-old single woman.
He really is.
The prison works.
This is crazy.
So I don't say that so fast.
It's like that's why he's my kind of guy because this prison doesn't work for shit.
Rehabilitated.
So it says behind the barbed wire at the prison in Monroe, a unique program is saving hundreds
of lives through an unusual pairing of convicts and kittens.
Yeah, unusual.
Convict kittens.
The Monroe Corrections Kitten Connections program partners prisoners with Perfect P-U-R-R,
Perfect Pals Rescue Agency in Arlington, saving hundreds of kittens.
Travis Cargill, another convicted murderer, was also selected to take part in this program.
He said, I'm helping an animal that would not have a home and be euthanized and giving
a new chance at life, which is what we look for a new chance at life.
He's like, let this kitten be a metaphor for me.
Let me the fuck out of here.
Offenders must meet stringent requirements to care for kittens in their cells.
They also must be psychologically stable and follow
prison rules. Travis said, I've never had an ambition in life before I knew we could
come here and get cats. Now it's his ambition.
Cats. That's the...
It's his ambition.
I've never had one ever.
To get cats.
Until I learned I can have a cat.
Get cats is the funniest way to put it.
Get cats.
Until I knew I could get cats.
There's cats everywhere.
You can get as many cats as you want.
He said, another inmate said it's something positive when there's not a lot of positive
things here in prison.
This other inmate, Chris Howe, who's serving a sentence of life in prison without parole,
is one of several inmates selected to raise a kitten in a cell.
He said, I just try to make the best of what I've got.
I killed somebody, something I'm not proud of. Wish I would never have done any of my crimes.
But now he's got cats.
Come here mittens.
Come here there.
Jesus. So the tax, this by the way does not cost the taxpayers a penny.
This is a, yes, the perfect pals covers all the costs of care and after spaying or
neutering the kittens puts them up for adoption. So this isn't like that's what they're spending
my money on. It's no, no one's spending money on shit. So even though it's free, a lot of
people don't want the program to continue because they want the prisoners to be miserable.
Yeah, they want them to be miserable. So March of 2011, Linda's got a murder trial. She's
got to do here. Uh oh.
Now the state offered evidence of conflict in the relationship between them and there's
a pre-trial hearing of whether that's going to be able to come into play.
Whether the state can present the fact that they've been having problems, all the stereo
incidents and everything.
They held a hearing on this and concluded that the evidence was admissible to prove
her intent motive and absence of accident and that the evidence was admissible to prove her intent mode of an
absence of accident and that the probative value was substantial and outweighed the prejudicial
value.
So, it's at this point that her son, Travis, finds her when she's awaiting a murder trial.
He was living in Sacramento, California and was becoming increasingly worried about his
mom as the years passed and was curious to see if he could just find her name in a Google
search.
Yeah.
So he searched her.
He said, I Googled the names of a few family members I haven't seen for a while.
I knew my mom had priors.
She was convicted of manslaughter in the 90s.
That's some sentence right there, man.
I knew my mom had priors. I knew my mom had priors.
I knew my mom had priors.
She's got a little manslaughter conviction and you know how it goes.
She's a bad bitch.
What do you want from her?
Whose mom doesn't have a manslaughter conviction in their background, you know?
A few priors.
He said, I typed her name into Google and the first article that popped up was Linda
Holman's arrest.
I thought it was her previous conviction, but when I looked up at the date it said February
16, 2010 and my mind imploded.
Because it was like the week before this happened.
She's doing it all the time.
He said I went to her arraignment.
Really?
And that was the last time I ever saw her.
He said this time I could see her from the other end of the courtroom.
I will never forget the look on her face. It was a combination of
complete happiness to see me but at the same time it was shame. It was also who
the fuck are you? I haven't seen you since you were 13. I don't recognize you
anymore. Who are you dude? So she pleaded guilty to the second charge not to
murder. There's unlawfully possessing a firearm, which she is not allowed to have,
because she does a manslaughter conviction and all.
She's a bad guy.
So there's no doubt that there's guns in the house
where she lives, so she has to plead guilty to that.
But she is saying that absolutely
she did not murder this man.
This is an accident.
So intent is the big thing here.
And the court defines this.
It is undoubtedly the rule that evidence of quarrels between
the victim and the defendant proceeding a crime and the evidence of threats by the defendant
are probative upon the question of the defendant's intent.
Evidence of previous disputes or quarrels between the accused and the deceased is generally
admissible in murder cases, particularly where malice or premeditation is at issue.
Such evidence tends to show the relationship of the parties and their feelings toward one
another and often bears directly upon the state of mind of the accused, with consequent
bearing upon the question of malice and premeditation.
So they're going to let that in.
The prosecution, they argue that he shot, she shot mark because of troubles they were having
not for any other reason no accident they said the relationship had turned rocky and
They and also the prosecutor calls her account of where everybody was physically impossible
He argued that she's lying and was actually standing in the doorway of the bedroom
Putting her slightly to McCollum's
right and that he was sitting upright when she shot him.
She said the wounds are to his right side and she says she was standing on his left.
Put the gun away.
That doesn't, unless the bullets, I want to talk about a magic bullet.
Holy shit.
That's a magic bullet.
Yeah.
Unless he's standing sideways, right side posted to her left but the way he was found
that's not the way he was it makes no sense whatsoever the way so she was
lying so they're saying you came into the bedroom stood in the fucking doorway
with a gun and shot this guy while he was watching TV in the Pacific Ocean
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So the defense says their main issue was whether the account of the shooting was believable
and they're saying, you know, everything she says is believable. This is why are we even
having a trial? So they admit the evidence of the prior
bullshit here they talk about that here is her by the way she's not gonna write
this till later but here is her handwritten hand look at this Jimmy I'm
gonna turn the fucking screen cursive beautiful it gets with deteriorates over
over yeah it deteriorates to a point where it's hard for me to read it after a while.
So bear with me.
Yeah, perhaps that she has the arthritic hand too.
Maybe that's possible from all that.
Maybe she's quilting also.
She's doing sympathy quilting.
You never know.
So here is what she says, on February 15th, Mark McCollum and I, as well as a good family
friend named Rod Pote, left the Nooksack Casino at approximately 755.
We all had a wonderful evening.
Mark and I said our goodbyes to Rod and headed home, arriving there at
approximately 820. Once home, Mark gave me a Valium to help me ease the pain in
my right shoulder. Okay, I'm sure that's what it's for. I'd been having issues
with this for some time. After Mark, what is this, attended to me. He headed to his mother's home. What
is this to speak with her. I prepared for bed as was my custom to get up early to get
breakfast for Mark and get him off to work. She's like I was planning I needed to get
up and make him a good breakfast. So I went to bed early He said she said I was in bed by approximately 9 p.m.
I heard mark come into the at come in at that time
He came in and got into bed turning on the TV. I went to sleep later
I woke up at about 10 1030 seeing mark was still awake watching TV
I was this I rolled out of bed to go to the bathroom.
Well, Christ, you've been in bed an hour. You already have to pee. Why didn't you pee
before you went to bed? Elderly, man. Yeah, I put my jeans on. Elderly, she's
like fucking, Christ, she's like 45. Yeah, but that's what a lot of people, I don't
know, maybe she's got, maybe she's advanced age from the drugs.
Also she drank a bunch of beer.
That'll do it.
That'll do it.
Okay.
I put my jeans on thinking I'd also go outside to have a smoke.
Who the fuck wakes up when they're sleeping to pee and goes, I'll go outside and smoke
too.
I've never done that once.
Have you?
No.
Not once.
I can see the bedroom from the bathroom and was wondering what mark was watching
Once I had I'm wondering too once I had finished in the bathroom
Rather than have a smoke I went back into the bedroom and arriving at the foot of the bed
I asked mark what he was watching on TV. He said he was watching a program called supernatural
He's a what the face like a 40-some year oldnatural. He's watching Supernatural. He's a what the fuck, he's like a 47 year old man.
He's just watching Supernatural on, okay.
On fucking USA Network?
I think it's a fire like the WB or the fucking CW
or some shit like that I believe.
It's like one of those syndicated.
That's super natural, it's very funny, yeah.
Continuing our conversation,
I walked to my side of the bed and sat down on a chair.
What is this thinking to remove my jeans to get back in the bed?
But Mark asked me a question regarding the program.
So you stopped removing your jeans?
Hold on, I got my jeans on to talk about this.
He asked me a question regarding a character on the show. I responded to the question by going to the
What is this the gun rack stand the gun rack standing on my toes?
Bumping one of the guns off the rack and into my hands
How high up is this thing?
I proceeded to place the muzzle of the gun under my chin the same way the actor on the show was doing why?
Why are you doing this?
This makes no sense. You were just sleeping. I answered mark questions with what should I do kill myself
At that point mark turned from laying on his back to sitting up
Mark turned from laying on his back to sitting up onto his left side and raising his right arm up and told me put the gun away.
I did as he told me to do.
As I was swinging the gun around to put the gun up into the gun rack, the gun went off
causing a loud explosion.
So loud it stunned me.
It's a fucking shotgun blast in a bedroom.
I've had no idea what position the muzzle of the gun was in
when it went off since I was looking up at the gun rack.
Scaring me.
Let's see, what is this?
Something, lately heard Mark say ow. As I turned and saw mark. I guess they would say ow
Starting to face back. It was back onto his back at first
I thought mark was joking and I thought maybe I'd hit the wall. What made you think you were joking?
You just fired off a gunshot
But then I saw blood on his t-shirt. I called his name and he didn't answer. I threw the gun down and jumped up onto the bed saying his name and asking Mark, are you alright? Mark, are you alright? Mark, don't die, don't die, please don't die. I could see all the blood on his chest and his eyes were staring up at me like he wasn't there. Oh boy. I Left screaming. I kept screaming his name. I checked for a pulse and didn't feel it
I saw blood coming out of his mouth. It wasn't very much, but it seemed thick
I moved his head from side to side calling his name and
Over and over I was so scared by the way way, by now, look at this handwriting.
Not the same at all.
What is going on?
It's, it's, it's, that's her emotion. She's talking about the murder.
She's totally deteriorated from, she had very nice, easily legible handwriting to this fucking mess.
And it's also like copied, so it's really hard to read.
Really hard to read. So he said that, um, she she goes on to say I moved ahead from side to side
Okay, I was so scared. He didn't respond. I
Couldn't think all I could all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears
I got off the bed and ran to the bathroom almost peeing my pants
Really? Yeah, she just peed too so and got sick in the bathroom
there is
Throwing up into the toilet if you occasion didn't understand what she meant. I felt like I
Felt like things weren't real. I felt dizzy and could barely stand up. I felt so sick
I recall saying over and over stand up. I felt so sick. I recall saying over and over again, Mark, I'm so sorry.
I went back into the bedroom and looked at Mark, not believing what I had done.
How could he be dead?
I couldn't stop crying and calling his name.
It felt unreal.
I didn't know what to do.
Well, yeah, I guess not.
I needed help and all I could do was call Rod
Huh Rod's the guy from the casino they hung out at with earlier
That's the answer to that's the answer. Yeah Rod will solve all here
Apparently Rod not the ambulance or the police Rod is gonna handle everything. He's an EMT slash detective Rod. He's coming over
He's like my dad Rod's an older guy slash detective Rod. He's coming over.
He's like my dad.
Rod's an older guy too, by the way.
Caring about both Mark and I.
I wanted to feel safe, wanted it all to go away.
I called Rod but no one answered so I called his sister.
She took the phone out to Rod's trailer.
I don't recall exactly what I said to Rod, just that I needed him and it was an emergency
He said he'd be there right away
that
the that hit something that hid something now I
Called off the I called I got off the phone and went back to the
Back to look at mark make sure he was still dead dead? Make sure I didn't turn into a ghost.
And then I saw where I'd thrown the gun.
All I could hear was Mark's last word telling me to put the gun away.
I kept hearing those words.
I went and picked up the gun and returned it to the gun rack.
You know, because she's like, I'll listen to him now after I killed him.
I know I spent I know I put my shoes on and my and my coat, but I didn't remember doing
it.
I just felt sick and kept kept crying.
I was what is this?
I went to the window and started and fuck this is hard to read.
So waiting for Rod to come, that's what she says.
Then I saw his headlights.
I saw that, oh that's right, I saw his dog, okay.
My dog following me to Rod's car.
Both my dog and I got into Rod's car. In the car, I continued
to break down. I tried to tell Rod what happened, but I wasn't making sense not to Rod anyway,
or not to Rod or myself. Rod didn't understand what had happened. I still don't either.
Yeah, I'm lost. Yeah, he drove us back to his place
Once we got to his place. I just kept crying trying to get out at Rod's
What had happened?
Later Rod told me he never seen me this way and hadn't been sure what to do to help me
He'd agreed
He'd agreed with me
To help me he'd agreed
He'd agreed with me
What is this to try I'll try to calm me down, but I took
I took a
Something and only I don't even know what the hell she says. I finally got it all out what had happened
Okay, telling Rod everything I recall little after that exact
little after that except some something being under a lot of covers and on the bed and just crying and crying. I felt so cold and could not stop shaking.
I wanted to die. I couldn't believe what I had done. It didn't seem to be real. Yes, I, something more that it wouldn't stop.
I don't know what the hell she said there.
I've no idea at the time, I've no idea at the time,
I needed, I had no idea what the time it was,
I think is what she's saying.
I needed, had gone by, but it was morning,
yet it didn't feel like it.
Okay.
Um, let's see.
The night Rod hadn't called anyone.
Okay.
I recall thinking we needed to get Mark safe to take care of this.
I told Rod this.
I knew Mark's mother needed to be told that Mark was dead.
That would help.
How was I to do all of this?
What would I pay?
I needed to do this.
I needed to something his best friend Mike, I need to tell his best friend Mike.
I needed Rod's help, but Rod's in his 70s and realizing he was upset by all of this
too. I know my
Frame of mind had frightened Rod and he was confused by all of this
He's just 70 year old man who gets a call in the middle of the night. I
Asked Rod to drive me to what calm County Hospital to see Mike
Mark's best friend who was in kidney dialysis that day.
I felt he needed to see, I felt I needed to see him and I needed his help.
I wanted him to know that Mark was dead.
I arrived at the hospital about 1pm.
I went to do the, I went to something to tell Mike I guess, but was in the, what the fuck,
and couldn't speak with, oh and couldn't speak with oh he
couldn't speak with me okay that's what it was his wife came to speak with me
she took a look at me and could tell something was wrong she asked me what
was wrong that I would be back I wanted to talk to Mike but that was but he was
sleeping Mike's wife asked where Rod was and I told her that he was in the car
She said let's go to the car arriving at the car. I was told
I was told I told her I did a bad thing. She asked. What did you do?
I tell her that I shot mark, but it was only an accident. Is he dead? Are you certain he's dead?
I told her yes. Did you call 911? Told her no.
Rod drove me home. We weren't, we, we weren't something, have to go to the bedroom. It was the
first time Rod had seen Mark since leaving the casino. Okay, they took Rod into the bedroom.
I guess he wanted to see if he was really dead or not. I fell apart
again. Rod was upset too. Rod got the phone and called 911. The operator told
Rod that we something have to go outside and wait for the police. That's where
they were when they found him. And went to get Mark's wallet off the
nightstand because he hadn't taken something me the night before. The prosecutor stated something, Rod,
and I went outside. While waiting for the police, I called Mark's mother on the cell phone. I told her Mark was hurt bad.
She asked how bad.
I told her he'd been shot.
Super bad.
That I'd shot Mark.
Well, actually pretty bad.
I shot him.
So I don't recall word for word exactly what was said.
The best I can recall was the following.
I told her Mark had been shot.
She asked how badly I said he'd been hurt badly
She asked if he was with he is okay. I told her no she asked if
She could talk to him
She asked I guess she asked me if he was dead. I told her yes
So that's how that goes. She then asked who killed him.
That's a fair question.
I told her I did.
That it was an accident.
I told her I was so sorry.
I broke down and couldn't and it couldn't talk anymore.
I do however recall telling her the beginning of the conversation.
She replied she came to the home right away.
I was wondering what was being done for Mark.
I told the detectives I wanted to make sure Mark was okay.
He's not, he's fucking dead.
You killed him.
You killed him.
You've said this several times.
I also told them I didn't feel well.
Well, that's going to happen.
I said I needed to go to the hospital because I was sick.
There's a hospital at the jail. Don't worry, honey
Let's see that they said the detectives were coming
That I wanted I said I wanted a lawyer and they were confusing me and didn't want and I didn't want to talk anymore
instead I
Was talking I was taken to the hospital but not for help
talking I was taken to the hospital but not for help but to have my DNA taken and take photo intrusive photos of my body. No those are booking photos. Those
are called booking photos and they're looking for bruises. So I was
crying not believing any of this was happening. I still can't believe any of
this has happened that Mark is dead that that I'll never see him again.
I'd like to thank you for your valuable time to listening to this."
So that's her whole thing here.
And she says, I love Mark very much and still do.
I haven't been able to mourn him properly.
We had a good relationship, not the picture of the state that the state paints.
She also says she has mental issues, a handwritten thing talking about mental issues that she
has and she hasn't.
She says she wanted to talk to a psychologist or psychiatrist, but they let her talk to
one but then the psychiatrist, you know, used it against her in court.
Yeah, so she's fine too.
She said she thought medical shit was all confidential.
She didn't realize that
when you murder somebody and then you talk to the state's person they can say anything.
So yeah, she's like I thought it was confidential. So the prosecution in their closing said there's
no accident here. The only misfortune is the fact that Mark was killed but it was done
intentionally and there's certainly no excusable homicide in this case. The evidence is very, very clear. Evidence is clear and it adds up to a very, very failed
relationship that Mark was actually chased out of his home, had to stay with his mother,
was repeatedly being bothered and that that failed relationship resulted in the problems
we are addressing today in this courtroom and they were problems that related to the
shooting with the gun and you can see all the way through here this relationship
is really the basis and it gives us the threshold for what happened.
The jury deliberates for more than a day.
Really?
More than a full day here.
Yeah, more than a full day they come out here and they find her guilty of second degree
murder.
Second degree murder.
Second?
Okay, yeah.
That sounds right.
Yeah.
Although maybe not, but.
I don't trust the story,
but there's no way to prove otherwise.
McCollum's brother, Scott, said justice was served.
She's a menace to society
and she doesn't deserve to walk the streets.
Yeah.
He said, I knew deep down what happened.
I knew that we were right.
It's just a huge relief, a huge relief for the family."
Now the son, Travis, this is how he found his mom now.
He said, I called my sister immediately when I found out my mom was convicted,
but there was no answer. I then called my best friend as I just needed to speak to someone.
The next day I drove up to the police station to try to see my mom, but I wasn't allowed.
I knew for a fact that she was going away for a long time. Sentencing, she tells the judge she was sorry, she cried,
she begged for mercy saying, quote, it was totally an accident. It was like totally an
accident, your honor. But the judge says, you ma'am, hello, What they fuck off 28 years in prison. Okay, 28 years
Yep
She was apparently they this was at the top end of the sentencing range and the judge said it's because this is the second murder
You've been involved with you. Why does murder touch you so much?
Why are you constantly involved in murders?
The Sun said when my sister told me the ruling was second degree murder and my mom was sentenced
to 28 years, I collapsed.
I told my boss I had to go for the day and it was a lot to process.
By the way, Travis then visits his mom in prison.
She told him what happened.
Travis said, according to my mom, there was a ghost show on TV and she went over to the
wall where there was a gun.
She grabbed it off the wall and said, I'm going to shoot the ghost and shot mark in the chest
That's what she told her son. I'm going to shoot the ghost
He said sitting in jail talking through bulletproof glass on a phone wasn't weird
I saw her in her jumpsuit. It broke my heart because I know that
She had done something that was so terrible. They were not gonna let her out
Okay uh... she had done something uh... that was so terrible they were not going to let her out uh... okay uh... two thousand fifteen travis number travis travis yeah
denied for parole i was that right
two thousand eighteen years for all the unknown
two thousand twenty one he violates parole don't worry about it
he's taken into the uh... the uh... jail for repeatedly or reportedly
repeatedly violating the terms of his electronic
home monitoring.
Since a previous parole violation arrest in June, he reportedly left home on multiple
occasions including taking more than one trip to Spokane, testing positive for methamphetamines
on multiple occasions, and threatening to kill his estranged wife.
And now we lock him up?
Wow.
He's racked up parole violations including traveling throughout the state, all this type
of shit.
Cargill's been living in Okanagan County.
He was booked into the jail.
They said he became physically abusive with his wife and made threats to quote chop her
up into little pieces, a court document states. Oh my God.
He's back in prison here.
Travis still talks to his mom.
She has been getting chemotherapy
because she had breast cancer in prison.
Oh no.
He said she had a double mastectomy
and she's going through chemotherapy.
Apart from that, we joke around a lot.
For someone who's been locked away for over a decade,
she has a terrific sense of humor.
Is that right? Hello,? Oh okay. She's all carved up and she's...
Fuck. From speaking to her I can tell that she's remorseful with what happened. She tried to appeal
on the facts that she didn't get mental health that she wanted and that the previous stuff
shouldn't have been let in and ineffective assistance to counsel they told her keep on
keeping on sister.
There you go, so there you go everyone,
that's Everson Washington.
And don't try to shoot ghosts is the moral of the story.
No, the extent of the ghost was a show called Supernatural.
Supernatural, it was a ghost, I'm gonna shoot this ghost.
Anyway, there you go, if you like this,
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