Small Town Murder - Of Mice & Men & Murder - Sidney, Montana

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

This week, in Sidney, Montana, when a beloved local teacher disappears, after going for a morning run, all that's left behind is a running shoe, in a ditch. Luckily, a tip comes in that is very specific to one of the culprits. This tip leads to an unlikely pair, consisting of a large, dumb young man, and his smaller, craftier older friend. It seems that when the older man smokes a lot of crack he says "the devil gets in him", and this causes him to brutally murder a teacher, and also commit one of the dumbest acts that a murderer could ever think of!!   Along the way, we find out that way too many towns are named after small children, that 3 day crack benders rarely result in anything productive, and that you should never return a murder tool to the store, so you can get a refund!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!   Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod   Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay! Choo! Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigal. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wiseman.

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another insane edition of Small Town Murder Express. You know you're going to get crazy. You know you're going to get surprises. You know you're going to get weird little twists. And we got it all for you today. Tremendous. A lot of crazy stuff. We will get into that and much more.

But first, definitely, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for live shows. That is the thing to do right now. Next show up with tickets available May 2nd in Denver and then May 30th in Royal Oak, Michigan. Also has some tickets. Then after the summer, it's Milwaukee, Minneapolis. Yeah, that's right. Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Terrytown, Boston.

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For crime and sports, we're going to talk. about the Ecclesia Athletic Association, which was this program in inner city, California, to get the kids off the streets, get them into sports, which sounds great. The problem is whenever you get adults and kids mixed together, weird stuff starts to happen. And weird culty things begin, and that's no different than what happens here. Then for Smalltown Murder, it's Corey Richens part two. She killed her husband. She wrote a book about it.

well, not about it, but about her to help her kids grieve as the way she put it. And then she went to trial and looked like a real jackass. And we're going to talk about all of it and more. That's everything there. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. And at the same time, you're going to get everything we put out all the shows. Crime and Sports, your stupid opinion, small town murder, all ad free with your Patreon. Add free.

And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show where Jimmy will mess your name all up. Don't you worry about that. So that said, I think it's time, everybody. What do you say? Let's all sit back here. There the lungs. There we go. Here we go.

Arms to the sky. And let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Yeah. Let's do it.

We are going to a place we haven't been in a while. Oh. We're going to Montana this week. Nice. It has been quite a while, over a year since we've been in Montana. So the reason is North Dakota, Montana, those states up there, the people just aren't close enough to each other to murder each other very often. It's just, you're just too far away. Space equals happiness.

I'm not going all the way over there to kill Frank. He's a dick, but I mean, he's so far away. Screw it. At least he's way over there. At least I don't have to deal with him. This is Sydney, Montana, S-I-D-N-E-Y, Montana. It's in northeastern Montana. Montana, kind of over by the North Dakota border.

This is in the, where the oil boom started in about 2012 here, this area, the western North Dakota, eastern Montana area, like Williston, North Dakota becomes a big, you know, big hub for it. And so things kind of get wild, as we'll talk about. They kind of go from a very small, you know, rural western town to oil people are coming in. And the workers are transient. They're wild. They drink.

Fascinating folks. Yeah. They're single guys who drink and carous. It's a lot. Old boy do that. Oh, we'll talk about it here. This is about four hours to Billings, Montana.

About three and a half hours to Bismarck, North Dakota. So kind of right in the middle of them. And five and a half hours to Geraldine, Montana, our last Montana episode, episode 569. This is episode 694, by the way. So it's been a long time. That was a stalker to die for. This is in Richland County, area code 406. Population of this town, pretty small still, even after a boom, 6,420.

So it's still a small town. Median household income here, lower than the national average. National average is around 70. Here it's $55,611. So pretty a little bit low. And median home cost is high. Really? up there.

$397,100,100 is medium. Almost $400 grand. That is pricey. So it's tough. It's tough to find housing up here, from what I understand. A nickname of this town, Sunrise City. I mean, I suppose. I mean, I think every city has a sunrise.

Everybody's got a sunrise, right? It's probably really beautiful there because of the mountains and such. Maybe. I bet the sun sets are better. Yeah. But Montana's a lot of planes, too, in it? It is. It's a lot of everything.

everything. It's the size of like eight European countries. It's huge up there. It's enormous. A little bit of history of this town, just a little bit. The settlers began coming here in the 1770s, established a post office in 1888. A six-year-old named Sidney Walters and his parents were staying with Hiram Otis, the local Justice of the Peace. And Hiram Otis, he must have The Justice of the Peace has sweeping powers because he can just name the town. And he did. The J.P. is like, that kid is cute. He decided Sydney's a pretty good name.

We should name the town that. Not I'll name my kid that. I'll name the town that. So that's what they did. In the following year, Montana became a state and Sydney was incorporated. And for a long time, the main source of everything here is sugar beets. They grow sugar beets here. We've gone over this with some other show about,

five years ago, I believe, six, seven years ago about sugar beets. So that's what they were into. Then the oil boom came where they were, you know, the shale and all that stuff. So, sure. And everything changed. We've never been here. So let's find out some reviews of this town. See what other people think. Okay. Five stars. Sydney is a very small, tight-knit town where everybody might know your name, but you are very well cared for. I don't know what that means. Yeah, that's not. Why the butt? That's just going to say the, The butt is not really necessary and would have been a fine thing to put instead of butt. Well, they know your name, but you're well cared for.

But I mean, yeah, they call you names. They go, hey, Jimmy, you cock sucker. But then they take care of you. Hey, Gerkov. Yeah. We are a town 45 minutes in the complete middle of two opposite colleges in both Williston, North Dakota, and Glenn Dive, Montana. The community is so great that when people leave to attend colleges for years and hundreds of miles away, they always find their way back home. is Sydney to raise their families.

How about it? And that's what happens with one of our people in a story today is they leave and come back. Came back? Yep, that's what happens. So they must love it. Here's five stars. I have loved living in Sydney and I am happy raising my family here. There are many, well, there may not be very many conveniences, but the friendlessness, friendliness.

Wow, they spelled that wrong. Friendlessness. That's what I saw at first, was friendlessness. I'm like, oh, that is way wrong. Amazing. But the friendliness and community makes up for that. Okay. Two stars, the cost of living is high due to demand of people needed here, but not everyone makes the oil field money.

So for some, it's difficult. Oil field money is big, huh? It pays for in the middle of nowhere. It pays way more than anything else in the middle of nowhere. I mean, afforded Matthew McConaughey to go get AIDS treatment in Mexico. Oh, so much of it. He wasn't in the fields, though. Yeah, he was.

Oh, he was? I don't remember that part. Okay. Didn't you see that movie? Yeah, but like years ago, I don't remember. He's out there drilling and getting knocked out. That's not a movie that's a great repeat watcher. So.

Yeah. It's kind of like, you've seen it once. You're like, all right. That was that. Put it on the shelf and there you go. It's fine. The good movie. Yeah.

I just, I don't want to see Matthew McConaughey look like that for two hours. No, no. Yeah, it's sad. The town is small and not much to do unless you want to go to the bar, and then there's like eight to choose from. Oh, that's great. And that's what these towns turn into when all the oil comes in. Bars open. Roughnecks, love to drink.

Yeah. Like, I was looking for murders in North Dakota, and there was several in Williston, and multiple of them were people getting murdered at strip clubs that were right next door to each other. So it was like, Jesus, this place is crazy. And then finally, three stars. This is the lowest rating they have, by the way, is a three-star. There's nothing to do here, and there's no reason to stay. All right. Things to do in this town, the Richland County Fair and Rodeo.

Of course. Oh, yeah. What began as a small community street fair has evolved into what is now the Richland County Fair and Rodeo, entertaining 30,000-plus people year after year. It became official in 1920 and has continued to be successful ever since, they say. here. Right. Some attractions. We have the Freckle Farms, Pony Rides and Penning Zoo.

Yeah. Got that. The world. You got this is a, this guy I'll be wandering around. Scott's crazy magic. It's crazy magic. It's crazy. So crazy.

There's an off-axis stunt show. Oh. Which is, they say a high energy 60-minute action-packed spectacle here. Right. You get BMX and dirt bike stunts. slam dunk aerial action that will leave you speechless, Jimmy. It's all anti-gravity shit, James.

Pretty much. Teeterboard acrobatics with jaw-dropping precision. A hilarious comedy parkour chase scene. Uh-huh. So like Keystone cop. Yeah. Bann-a-da-da-da-pun-up.

And then they just fall and another guy comes. I mean, that's the funny part of parkour, right? When you fall. That's the good part. Otherwise, yeah, you're just like, look at this idiot. Jesus Christ.

And the grand finale, Ramp launched by BMX riders, dirt bikes, and every additional act they offer. You come up on a moped. You're going off this mega ramp. They don't give a shit. Roller skates, let's go. Who cares? Rocket skates.

Let's go, Wiley Coyote. Let's go. Yeah, we'll see what Acme has delivered today. There's also the PRCA rodeo will be in town. Yeah, that's the real one, James. That's the good one. And then their big headlining band, Midland, with special guest Eli Mosley. I think I've heard of Midland.

It sounds like every, I thought I did too, but I'm like all those country bands of the same. It's also the brand of a CB radio. Midland is generic for a country group like Young something is generic for a rapper. You know what I mean? It's like, I don't know, all the Youngs and Midlands. I don't know where the hell they're talking about. That said, let's talk about a murder, shall we? Here we go.

All right, let's get into this. Now, okay. Now, Sydney kind of has a pre-200. post-2012 life, you can put it. A grace period, yeah. It's, yeah. 2012, it was kind of a quiet place. You know what I mean?

They said all the social stuff revolved around high school sports. Like a typical... Very rural town. Quote, this is from a writer, quote, respectable folks went to the bar on Saturday nights. Nobody locked their doors. Just the respectable folks? The respect, yeah, the really bad people have all been kicked out of all these bars already, so they're not allowed in.

Then the oil boom hit. Massive underground deposit stretching across eastern Montana and western North Dakota. And basically this made it, you know, people rush up here for jobs, essentially. Okay. So they're pumping out crude. And now all of a sudden, everything is packed. You can't get even a hotel room up there because of the oil workers. Really?

Oh, and they're probably staying in those, huh? Yeah, yeah. Temporary housing. There's semi-trucks flooding these small streets and everything like that. It's a complete fucking mess. The police chief said he needed seven more officers and couldn't get them yet because that pays less than the oil fields. Is that right? Yeah, so there's shit going on.

Drug crimes in eastern Montana more than doubled in only a couple years. Is that right? assaults in Dickinson, North Dakota, which is right across the border. I think we've done an episode there. That increased fivefold in two years. That's... Assaults. The mayor said about the oil workers and the spike in crime, quote, we own the day, they own the night.

They've given up... What? It's just bedlam after dark. It's like fucking deadwood after dark. That's what this place is, basically. It's crazy. And I... I've heard the term rough neck.

I know that's what they call the oil field guys, but I don't know why. I don't know either. Is their neck just blistered? Is that what it is? They're just hunched over? Probably pretty rough from the sun beating on it. Sun blistered, though? I'm not sure.

Not positive. Let's find out someone about someone who, well, comes in from a walk and probably isn't sun blistered because it happened in the morning. Okay. January 7, 2012. This is in the afternoon. there's a guy named Gary Arnold. Gary's got some kids and a wife. We'll talk about all that.

He had gone for a walk that morning. And when he gets back, his wife, Sherry, isn't home. So he assumed that she had gone for her run because she runs in the morning too. I don't know why they just don't run together, but whatever. Maybe they're solitude to support. Not sure. So he waits for, you know, figure she'll be back soon.

time passes and she never comes home. So he goes out and goes looking for her himself, you know, driving around her usual running routes to find her and can't find anything. So he gets home and reports her as missing to the police department. Wow. My wife's missing. Her running shoes are gone. She clearly went out running and hasn't come back and she's nowhere to be found.

Wow. So, and she's a real, these are real kind of stayed people. These aren't like these aren't oil workers. They're both he and his wife, both Gary and Sherry are teachers. Gary and Sherry and Gary and Sherry and they're teachers and they have, you know, a very kind of calm life. They don't go do crazy things. That is a fascinating phone call to make to the police too of like, yeah. Because I mean the term is literally ran away and so you call the police and you go, my wife, you know what, never mind.

my wife ran away but wait let me there's more she ran away I want you to look for but as I'm saying the words it's starting to occur yeah the problem is running away and tails running back home and she hasn't done that part yet so she usually runs right the fuck back she's running somewhere we're not sure if it's away or towards something or whatever but you should find her this is fun phone calls all so within hours everybody is looking for her Literally a thousand people are searching for her. Wow.

By late afternoon, they have organized at the high school, search, like everyone get to the high school, search parties, all the firemen, all that kind of shit. Everybody is out looking for her. Like they're very aware that this is not normal and everybody in town is like, wait, she didn't come back. And she's a very popular math teacher at Sydney High School too. So everybody knows her. She's worked there for years. Everybody knows her. and basically about 20% of the town went looking for her.

About 1,000 and 5,000 people went. The police department, they even sent 40 soldiers from the Montana Army National Guard to look for. Imagine that. Canine units, hundreds of volunteers just walking the fields. And, you know, this is January in Montana. It's cold, and they're still out there doing it. They don't give a shit.

Then on Holly Street, which is not too far. far from their house, off in a ditch, they find one of her running shoes, a new balance running shoe. That's a problem. Yeah, that's a bad sign. One shoe is missing. She's probably not, you know, hopping around somewhere right now. Yeah.

If you run away, you're going to need both of those. Yeah, and she's nowhere around the shoe, which is a problem. So they put up a big missing thing for her. It's in the newspaper. Sherry Lee Arnold is her name. She's 43 years old. She's white with black hair. brown eyes, five foot 10, 140 pounds.

Yeah. And from where it looks like a very nice warm smile. So young. Yeah, so young. She looks like the math teacher you'd want to have because she looks like she would The good one. Explain it to you. And you would get it.

You know what I mean? Without calling me stupid. Without calling me stupid. Exactly. That's how I feel. I'd be like, wow, I don't even feel that bad about not getting that the first five times she fucking said it. So they say she has a slender build, numerous scars on her left leg, and was last seen wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt with white stripes on the sleeves and red nylon pants with black leggings and black gloves.

So they're begging people to call. Now, she is Sherry Arnold, she is. She's born February 13, 1968. She's 43 years old. She grew up on her family's ranch about 25 miles outside of town. Yeah. I mean, she's really, that's a nice life she's come up with here. Sweet way to start.

You bet. She's the daughter of Ron and Sharon Whited, W-H-I-T-E-D, Witted. W-H-I-T-E-D, Witted. She's got a sister named Rhonda, and, you know, they all rode, they rode horses growing up, and they showed horses and other livestock and 4-H shows and that kind of thing. I mean, she came up, a rural ranch girl. Yeah. Riding horses, show us.

animals at the 4-H thing. I mean, that's what she's doing. She was valedictorian of Sydney High School class of 1986. She's a real achiever, this one, too. That's the one you want teaching people. She clearly gets this. Yes. She didn't just choose, you know, teaching as I don't know what else to do, and they're

always hiring. Because that's why a guaranteed paycheck. I know many people who have gone into teaching just because there's nothing, they didn't know what else to do. And whatever they went to school for wasn't really, you know, working for them. So they end up, you know, going and getting the teaching degree. And that's what they get. Yeah.

Those who can't think, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And then some teachers are just great. Some teachers are awesome and they're engaged and they want to teach and they're into it. And then some people are like, you know, I'm just doing this until my resume gets picked up by somebody else. Yeah, they said no kids left behind. So get the fuck out.

Get out. She went to college. She played volleyball at the University of North Dakota in Williston. She earned her teaching degree from Dickens. and State University in 1990. And then she started teaching in Tioga, North Dakota. And then she taught at another school in Minot, also North Dakota. And then she ended up coming back to Sydney.

How about that? And for the last 18 years, she's been teaching math in Sydney. Loves it. So, I mean, back in her hometown. And, yeah, it's really nice. She got married in 1994 when she had just gotten back into Sydney. She married a guy named Jerome Papanoo, P-A-N-E-A-W, Papanao. In 1994, she has two children from that marriage, Jason and Holly.

They end up getting divorced at some point in the maybe 97-ish. By 98, she is in a relationship with somebody else, Gary Arnold, her current husband, who's looking for her, who's also a teacher at Sydney High School, which that's. That seems convenient. You can carpool at least. That's nice. Yeah. I mean, there was, I've seen many couples through my high school that were, they were married. And they were teachers at the same school.

Yeah, yeah. And a couple of teachers that were like at different schools, but in the district and they were married, you know. September 12th, 1998, they get married. So she brings two kids to the table. I believe Gary brought possible. I think he had one kid. and then I believe they have two kids together. If not, it might be three.

She has a daughter named Holly and they live on Holly Street? They live off. That's down the road there. Oh, that's where her shoe was found. That's where her shoe was found. So, yeah, she's got this. So there's five kids all together here. They're both teachers.

You know, they're doing their thing here. She told one of her friends that her description of her life is, quote, I love our rut. Say again. Yeah. She likes, She likes the groove they've made. Oh, got it.

Yeah. All right. Rutt's usually not a positive word. No, well, yeah, you have to put love in there or else it's bad. Yeah. If you say, I'm in a rut, that's not good. If you say, I love this rut I'm in, then it's like, okay, I guess you're happy. Oh, groove, yeah.

Groove and rut are synonymous, although rut sounds terrible. Ruts sounds because that's what you say, I'm in a rut right now. Yeah, you're stuck. When you're stuck. A rut's never not stuck. You don't know what to do. Yeah, you're, you know. know, in a shit of a mess, you say, I'm in a rut.

Yeah. So, yeah, she teaches algebra. Her husband teaches, teaches algebra, and her kids go to school at this high school as well. So, you know, couldn't be better for them. In fall of 2011, she was named KTVQ, which is a local TV station or radio station, one of the two. KT, I assume TV, KTVQ, teacher of the month. So she made. Of the month, that's great.

Yeah, she's teacher of the month. She also had cancer. Jesus. She had beaten cancer as well. Really? She had, I don't know what kind, but all I keep finding is that it was a rare cancer, not a common one. And she survived it. She was fighting it for six years of constant going.

And she has come out the other side, it looks like here. And she's in remission. So, I mean, yeah, it's, you know, maybe. That's got to be exhausted. Six years of it? Six years. And maybe there's something to karma here. She's a nice lady and she got through it, you know?

So that's good. Yeah. Beating it is the key. If you're like, if you see progress or like something, then you can certainly have a desire to keep fighting it. My dad died of it after six years. And boy, oh boy, he was on the ropes from month one. I was going to say, when you were saying when he first got diagnosed, they didn't, they wouldn't have given him six years. They didn't think he even had that long. Yeah, it was already severely, you know,

into it here. But Sherry, and she beats it. And she runs half marathons now. She coaches softball. She likes to do yard work and go horseback riding and all that kind of shit. So I love sports, too. She seems cool as shit. Big Cubs fan. Oh. She loves the Cubs and the Minnesota Twins. I'm like, man, she is a glutton for punishment. No kidding. Just a glutton for punishment. She's got two baseball, both. Yeah, they're

American and National League though. Okay. So you can do that. You can do that. Yeah. And that to me is, it seems like she's also

in football, her team is the Vikings. So Minnesota is the Plains team. Yeah, it is. It goes over all the way to there. Seattle only gets to

halfway through Idaho. Yeah. Well, and the Cubs were on WGN. Yeah. So I bet you anything, she grew up watching the Cubs on TV,

and that's probably how she got to be a Cubs fan, because that's how I started liking the Cubs was when we first moved Arizona. The White Sox were too. WGN. Yeah, but fuck the White Sox. I don't know.

Didn't care about them. I loved Frank Thomas. I did too. I did too. So much fun. I did. I like Frank Thomas too. Bobby Thigpin, was that his name?

The pitcher? He was the White Sox. Yeah. White Sox reliever. Yeah. Bobby Thigpen. Yeah. All that.

They had a, I remember those bad 80s teams like Dan Pascua and Ron Hassee and all those guys they would trade back and forth with the Yankees. miserable. I mean, the white socks ran shitty right up until the late 90s, I guess. No, it was further than that. They've been bad pretty much since the Titanic went down. Yeah, they won a World Series and then went right back to historically sucking. Yeah, to really be in bad. Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you how to make your house nicer and cooler and just better with three-day blinds.

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Okay, down in Florida. She was a big baker. She liked to bake desserts. Oh. I mean, she's doing, she's doing great. And her and Gary would, they would go out for long walks together and sure. Big long walking talks together to hang out.

And it seems like she's in a good relationship, you would imagine. And January 7, 2012, she got up before Dawn, put on her new balance shoes, and went out running. And she had recently run a half marathon in Deadwood. So she runs all the time. Oh, she did that, huh? So the scene of the shoe. Now, at the scene of the shoe, they also find her hat as well off a little further, you know, like a beanie cap there.

Sure. There is evidence of a struggle in the loose gravel and frozen mud. The frozen mud seems to be disturbed. Footprints and scut. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, you can see that. There's no witnesses to anything that happen here.

They can't find anything. It's the area is like an industrial area. they're in. No. This isn't like, you know, in a neighborhood. This is kind of often an industrial area. There's a truck route that runs along the Sydney Sugar's plant. Oh.

So that's what it is. It's basically, and where she was in January in Montana, it's very dark and very cold, and there's nobody there. So just this industrial area by the sugar plant on a truck route she's running on, which they probably run that because there's no cars going down there. Because the trucks aren't going there yet. There's that. So they don't slide off the road and hit you and such. But less traffic means more ice, doesn't it? I'd be afraid to slip and fall on my fat.

It can. But, I mean, if you're running in Montana in January, you figured out ice. You probably put some. You might put those little ice clip. I suppose you could put, like, little spikes on your shoes or something. Yeah, I have those little ice spikes for. Oh, do you? Yeah, yeah.

I have some for, like, shoveling. If it's really frozen out, you don't want to. Do they just, like, you clip them on your shoe? Yeah. Pull them and they, like, pull them and they, like, pop on the bottom of your shoe. Oh, got it. Okay. They're pretty simple just to kind of break it up a little bit. They're not like thicker or long or anything. But this is a safe place that she's usually running in. This is Sydney. There's no crime. There's no anything going on here. So the running shoe on the side of the ditch signaled something's wrong mixed with the signs of a struggle.

And that, you know, she didn't just like kick a shoe off because she was hot or something. So now, and she's not usually the type of person. No one would think of her as someone who would take off and run away. And especially with one shoe. She's probably not going to run away. So her husband, Gary, is obviously the first person they look at to say what the fuck it went on here. But he's, he is cleared by law enforcement because for the sole reason that he was fully cooperative from the first moment, which a lot of people are fully cooperative and also fully guilty. Yeah, they're fully cooperative and fully full of shit. That's fully questioning, what do you know?

Yeah. Yeah. But Gary, they seem to really believe him. And a criminal profiler speaking to the news in the days after this disappearance said about the shoe, that shoe in the ditch, not a good sign. Looks to me like it's an abduction. Something. Somebody pulled her into a vehicle.

I'd go with somebody over something. Right. Unless, you know, Sasquatch pulled up in his van and yanked her in there. I think it's probably somebody. I'm going to just. Yeah. Nice job. Something.

You went to school for that. Yeah, yeah. No, he's FBI all the way, this guy. This is huge news around here. Yeah. Not only because women don't usually disappear, but also she is a popular figure. She's a local teacher. She was just profiled on the news as a teacher of the month, like two and a half months ago.

And a mom responsible for five children. Yeah. She's got shit going on. You don't just disappear. Absolutely. I mean, this is national news too. The Washington Post picks it up. Albuquerque stations pick it up, you know, everywhere. Albuquerque, all the way down there. All the way down there. Yeah. Even the NOAA Weather's website even had look for her. Really? Yeah. National organization of something? Yeah. I can't remember what that is.

To weather. I'm too focused on this now to get into weather. Yeah, that's what it is. That's a big one, though. Nothing's important. It's, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's the, that's, they, they look at all the storm shit, I believe, there. Yeah, yeah. And also, Sydney High School, they have a basketball game and they have a moment of silence before the game for her, even though she's just missing.

Now, the profiler who said, you know, she's probably been abducted by something or someone. Something or someone. A fucking idiot. He also noted that when looking around because they clear the husband and there's nobody else, it's not like she's had an affair or anything like that. So they're kind of a dead end there. So they start looking at are there registered sex offenders around? Oh.

Someone that might pull a woman into a car. You know what I mean? They're getting like dead serious. Oh, absolutely. They want to find her bad. And they said Sydney had 41 registered sex offenders all male within a approximately one mile of the jogging route. So there's 41 perverts in a...

Good Lord. In a one mile circle of this place. Can you imagine that? What a shit-sewing circle that is. Yeah. I assume that there's quite a bit pretty much everywhere. We don't know, unless you, like, really look at it. But, I mean, if you look at your neighborhood, it looks like it has chicken pox on that website.

Yeah, absolutely. It's ugly. It's, but this, I mean, 41 in a square mile? That's a lot. That's a lot. That feels like they did that on purpose. Well, I mean, how many of these oil workers are registered sex offenders probably? Probably quite a few.

It's kind of a nomadic lifestyle and shit. Probably a lot of unregistered, too. Plenty of unregistered. So you put that in there, and then they probably all have to stay in one area because there's a school over here. They can't be near. So I'm sure they're all in there. Or there's a house that's like designated for it. Yeah, this is pervert house and we all stay here.

that by the way 41 in that small average is four times the national average per capita so this is like sex offender this is like a sex offender vacation spot or some shit over here on average it's 10 per square

mile we got it we got work to do I don't even know if it's that but in the town they have four times the cap per capita I don't know how they're doing the math Jesus Christ 10 of them were non-compliant with registry requirements and had potentially unreported addresses, too.

One was a level three offender, which is the highest risk for repeat sexual offense and the highest threat to public safety. Out of 41, only one was a level three. That's pretty interesting. So that's what they have. So they got to go on a pervert roundup now and go talk to all these perverts and find out who did what here. Hey, knock, knock, knock. Hi, is there, yes, we're looking for the local sex pervert. Hi, oh, it's you.

Okay, yeah. Hi there, pervert. Can we search your house for one new balance, Jew, please? Yeah, have you got a left of this? Man. Then January 11th, so four days after she disappears, an anonymous tip comes in. Okay. Okay.

Sydney police receive it. And it is an anonymous tip saying that a 22-year-old man that this person knows, named Michael Spell, S-E-L, has been overheard. talking to family members about a woman that he and another man kidnapped and killed. So overheard. This is a very... Yeah.

You know, this is a real... Family members heard that? There's a real nebulous, anonymous tip here. He was overheard saying this and that. It doesn't really register a lot. But they do also give a description of a vehicle that he might be traveling in. That's good.

So it's a 1993 green Ford Explorer. So that's what they're saying. Now, the guy that they're talking about is Michael Keith Spell. He's 22 years old. He's from parachute Colorado. Oh. He has an IQ of 70. Okay.

Is illiterate as fuck. And described later as having the mental age of about an 11-year-old and the education, his dad says, of a kindergartner. Yeah. That's what we got here. That's what was absorbed all the way up. until then. Or a first grader, I apologize. Okay.

That's his functioning level, they say, of first grader. Oh, boy. How long did, did he drop out? Do we know when he finished school? Oh, yeah, yeah. He didn't finish school at all. Yeah, no, he dropped out pretty early here. He had, he's had some criminal problems in the past few years, which is why they want to

look at him even more. He had been declared incompetent to proceed on two prior legal matters in Colorado because of his stupidity. He's already gotten off on two charges because of it. Oh, yeah. One of them was a Colorado case in 2007 involving drug possession, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sexual contact without consent. Oh, that's called rape.

What are we talking about? Well, it's not rape if it's not penetration of some sort. Yeah, it's not technically. If he grabs somebody's ass, they can't say rape. That's not rape. Okay. That's like saying it's raining out when it's not raining out. Sexual contact.

Yeah. That's sexual contact without consent. Now, I don't know if maybe that law needs to be updated for whatever, but, you know, it doesn't seem like it's rape. No. But it's gross, whatever it is. It's certainly not good. No one should be touching anybody. And if it was all in the same account, too, with the alcohol and such, that's not good.

Yeah, I think so. He gave whatever drugs to this person and then had contact with them. Sexual contact with consent is just sexual contact. contact is not against the law. So without consent is implied if you've been arrested for it. Also in 2009, that was dismissed due to his dumbness. Then in 2009, he was arrested after asking a student at what was then St. John Middle School to text a fellow students and ask any of them if they wanted to buy some weed. Oh. Well, at least he wasn't slinging dick, but still. Yeah. The arrest affidavit said the student, who was 14, said spell provided him with weed and the two had smoked. And he said, hey, text all your friends and see if any of them need weed.

That's just trying to make money. Yeah. So he faced charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, attempted distribution of marijuana and solicitation to commit distribution of marijuana. He was represented by a public defender who twice successfully requested psychological evaluation. for him and the case was dismissed and sealed. So, yeah. Imagine getting off being, he's too dumb to understand that that isn't okay. Yeah, he's too stupid.

Like, they looked at it and they were like, the 14-year-old who he asked is way more mature than him. Wow. So what do we do here, basically? And what do you do with a guy like this? I don't know. He's a big guy, too. Like, he's a Lenny.

Like, he's a big Lenny. Like, what do you do with a guy like this? Honestly, it's, this is a very. Well, we'd legal state, first of all. That would be one thing. It's a very of mice and men situation with him and his friend here that we'll talk about. So he was initially free on a personal recognizance bond, co-signed by his father with whom he was living. And then in 2010, he was arrested on a failure to appear warrant in that case as well.

The bond carried a $5,000 penalty in case of default, and his father was issued a notice of forfeiture. but it all ended up being just dismissed after a while. It didn't matter because he's too dumb anyway. He's too dumb. He has a girlfriend named Angel Cruz. Everybody, again, we've said this. We've said it once. We've said it a thousand times.

I don't want to hear that you can't find somebody. This man has an IQ of 70 and a criminal record that includes words like sexual and without consent. And he's got a girlfriend. You can do it, fellas. I'm sorry. He's had charges. dismissed because he's too dumb. Too dumb to even deal with it.

That's sorry. They have a son together. This woman lets him impregnate her somehow. She gave him consent. Oh, God, he had consent at one point here. So he's got about a one-year-old kid at this time that they're looking into him. And he's got a one-year-old son, a girlfriend named Angel Cruz. He's got a father named Harry, who sounds like he's exhausted by him completely.

He can't imagine. He still loves him, and he's, you know, therefore, they say, his family said he left Colorado on January 4th to pursue oil jobs in the eastern Montana, western North Dakota area, in this area. Spell's father, Harry, said that his son had traveled with a friend of his up to the oil fields after his friend, meaning, you know, Michael's friend, had guaranteed work that pays up to $2,000 a week. Which is damn good money. If you can go up there make 100 grand a year and you're in parachute Colorado. To make that in a rural area without owning a ranch or your own business is impossible. It just doesn't work like that.

So that's great money. Yeah. That's why a lot of them like just drag a trailer and go from field to field because you can make two grand a week and not have any fees to pay. That's amazing. And that's where these states do this also because places like Oklahoma, they went from having zero earthquakes to having like 800 earthquakes. a year because they're doing this crazy shit, but people want the jobs. It's like putting a, it's like putting a fucking prison somewhere. It's the same thing.

Well, there's jobs there. People show up to work. Full of felons also. So what are we doing? Anyway, his father, Harry said that his son was anxious to prove himself to his parents and his girlfriend and even his son, who doesn't know anything yet, but Will Sunday. Not as much as he knows. They're pretty similar.

Michael found work in the past in oil fields near parachute and on a fire damage cleanup crew, but was unable to keep the jobs because, and I quote, this is his father, he didn't quite understand what to do. He's too dumb to work on a fire damage cleanup crew. He doesn't know, rake putting bag? See that shit that's burnt? Yeah. Clean it.

Get rid of it. Can't process that. I mean, this guy is. Get it out of here. Scary dumb. His dad said he might be 22 years old, but he has an education less than a kindergartner. Wow. So the man he drove to Montana with is Lester Van Waters Jr.

Van is his middle name. He's 47 years old, so 25 years older than Michael Spell. He's a Florida native, moved to parachute Colorado. He's originally from Indian River County, Florida, which is on the east coast of the state there. He grew up with an alcoholic father who more than once apparently fired shots at him. Oh, boy. Like bucking shots toward your kid. He also has four sisters.

He worked construction and roofing, which is the, that's maybe the rapiest of all the construction workers. It's a tough one. It's a tough roof. It's certainly some of the hardest work. It's the shittiest work. It's the work that you are doing. You'd be moving. somewhere else on the crew unless you had a long criminal record that makes you do whatever

the hell you can you'll take whatever you can get basically go up there we're tired of you down here yeah roofers are scumbags sorry if any roofers are listening look around you're probably not a scumbag if you're listening to this show but look around you right now how many scumbags do you see a bunch right would you trust any of them around your daughters put it that way probably not um so he's a construction they're here because they can't work indoors No one will allow them indoors. That's why they're here. No one will even allow them on ground level.

They have to be up closest to the sun. Go up top and outside. Mop that tar, buddy. Also, he has seven felonies that we'll talk about. His lucky number is seven, by the way. He's got seven felonies and seven children. Wow. With five different women.

Okay. I was hoping for seven. I was hoping for triple sevens, but five. He's done three stints instead. state prison. So his numbers are 7, 7, 5, and 3 at this point. He should really play that in the lottery. If there's one of those quick picks or something, he should do that. He did three prison stints between 2002 and 2010. His criminal history in Indian County dates back to the late 80s and includes weapons, possessions, narcotics possessions, theft, trespassing, leaving the scene of a crime,

possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, sale of cocaine, burn. He fucks up a lot. Contemptive court, resisting an officer, multiple counts of driving with a suspended license. And then, of course, failure to pay child support. Because at this current time, he's $84,000 in arrears on child support. $84,000, Jimmy. You're never clearing that up. That's like what we hear from, like, you know, some NFL player who is getting sued or something.

He owes $112,000 because, you know, he has to pay like $8,000 a month or whatever. He's only six months behind. Yeah, this guy's probably 12 years behind. He's never paid anything. He also uses about a dozen aliases as well. And he's also been charged with giving police a false name, as it makes sense as well. Because he's got aliases. His former Florida coworker and roommate remembered him thusly.

And, wow. Quote, he worked hard and partied hard. We made money and he partied real hard. hard. That was his main goal and girls. I know that he was wild and I know that we partied a hell of a lot in our years, but there was never any violence in it. Just party, babe.

He said the word party three times in two sentences and girls also, which is funny. And he has one asset, and that is a green 1993 Ford Explorer. Oh. Okay. I know that. August of 2010 is when he moved to Colorado after he was released. from prison in Florida. That's when he met Michael Spell, so pretty recently.

And he told Spell, there's money in them our hills and then oil fields. Let's go get it. So January 12th, the day after the anonymous tip, the FBI interviews Angel Cruz, Michael Spell's baby mama and girlfriend. And she tells them what Michael Spell told her. And that was that quote, he and a man named Lester had abducted a woman. Why would you tell your girlfriend that? I mean, what do you've been up to?

Well, sometimes you're just honest to a fault. You know what I mean? To a fault. That's the problem. The guy's just too honest. Yeah. We got such a great relationship by tell her everything. Just tell her everything.

Yeah, including when I abduct women. Yeah. And also, Michael had told her that they strangled the woman and shoved her face in muddy water until she was dead. That's what Angel tells. tells the FBI. Yeah, I didn't hear a single why. None of that. If I'm her, I'm not getting that far in the conversation.

No. Past you abducted a woman. What? You did what? That would be the end of it. She got all the way down to this shit where he did all of this. He told her that Lester forced him to bury the body and that Michael said he was just racked with guilt and he was

terrified of what Lester would do to him if he said anything. So she also gave a vehicle description of a 1993 Green Fort Explorer. So they locate the Green Fort Explorer. Lester Waters Jr. is taken into custody because he's the one inside the vehicle. Michael's not in the vehicle. They don't find him in there.

They're not together anymore. Okay. Inside the vehicle, they find a Walmart receipt dated January 7, 2012, the same day Sherry disappeared for items including a shovel. Oh, boy. Yeah. This is a way to you hear about the shovel. Now, Michael had stolen Les Waters Jr.'s phone after the murder, apparently, and began hitchhiking towards South Dakota. Wow. So he's just on the side of the road with a thumb out with a stolen phone.

Somebody else's phone. A bad man's phone. Yeah, the SWAT team pulls up and gets him off the side of the road. So that's where he is. He's taken into custody and transported to Williams County, center in Williston, North Dakota, because he was in, he was in North Dakota at the time. Now, Michael's spell, when he's booked into the jail, the only thing is he has in his possession are a stolen phone and $11. $11. 11 bucks. That's what he's got to his name. It's a good thing y'all got me.

I'm out of money. I'm about out of money. Yeah. I had about one extra value meal left in me, and that's about it. Wow. One extra value meal or about two hours at a motte. Yeah, what are the, yeah, totally. So the FBI brings him in for formal questioning because he was in another state and he's

from another state and it's all very confusing and the FBI was doing a profile anyway. Now, he is going to spill it. He confesses, but the problem is he tells them what happened but with certain tweaks on it and changes to it that make himself a little bit less guilty. here and kind of shield himself a little bit here from guilt. One of those things. But he is the first to talk here. His dad, you know, talks to the media and says he's got less education in the kindergartner.

And, you know, my son is all messed up. And he left with some criminal asshole who told him there's all sorts of money in the oil fields. Now, what Michael tells them is, first of all, they ask him if he understands his Miranda rights. They go through it all. They go, do you understand your rights, as we've told you? And he said a little bit, which I've never heard that response to. Do you understand your rights? A little bit.

This is like Brendan Dassey up there. Yeah. This is worse. It's worse. This is a guy that's been fired because he didn't understand his job. He didn't understand cleaning up burn things. So the FBI agents give him a second opportunity to decline to speak without speaking to attorney and attorney.

And he said, I'll just talk to you, I guess. But he understands his rights a little bit. A little bit. He insulted him a little bit. You gave him his rights a little bit. It's, you know. So he says January 4th, we left to get oil jobs. Our destination was Williston, North Dakota, and this oil boom.

You know what I mean? And so they said that the trip was basically a marathon of crack smoking the entire time. Nice. That's how they started. They loaded into the Fort Explorer. Day one. Day one. As soon as they got in the car, he said Lester Waters was already high on crack when they got in the car for the trip.

And basically, the drive is 800 miles. And they basically just, quote, consumed crack cocaine for three straight days. God damn. Just three days of crack smoking and driving. He said that Lester Waters smoked crack continuously. And Michael told the police that Lester forced him to smoke crack too. Forced me. Forced me to smoke.

I had to do it. Yeah. So he says somewhere on the drive, this is January 7th is when this happened. Lester Waters told Michael Spell that the crack cocaine, quote, brought the devil out in him. Oh, boy. It's been known to do that, by the way. Yeah. It really has.

It'll bring the devil out in quite a few people, crack. You chase the dragon with heroin, but bring the devil out you with crack. You're chasing the dragon. Nah, man. I'm bringing the devil. That's what I'm doing right now. So that shit is evil, though. Running with the devil.

Crack is fucking evil. I mean, not that that's a hot take, but if you've ever known anyone who's severely addicted to crack, it is a fucking mess. It's a mess. Yeah. I mean, thankfully, I've only seen close up a lot through documentaries. And obviously, that is, boy, oh boy. I've known dudes to smoke crack, but.

I had friends that were absolutely. addicted to, like, they'd bring home whole pay phones. Yeah, the whole phone. To try to crack them. They'd bring in cigarette machines, Jimmy, entire cigarette machines. They'd bring into the fucking house. Like, what's going on? They're like, you want to buy a pack of cigarettes?

Two bucks. And then. It's so buried. It's so bad. But they're going to get it. They got it. They made a key. They poured, they smelted.

Jimmy, they smelted a key to make a master key. Like, Nichols or something? They, I don't know. The one guy was an older crackhead, so he had tricks. But that's Satanic Bill. And they made a key out of metal, and they made it and poured it into a lock and all this shit. And so they could unlock, they had like a master key to phone boxes. I mean, you better pray to fuck that that works because if it doesn't, now the keyhole's full of molten metal.

That's full of that shit. Only crackheads would think to do that. That's what I mean. I was like, you guys are nuts. So it's a lot. So anyway, he apparently began talking about kidnapping and killing a woman. Lester does. Now, Michael Spell said, I thought he was kidding at first, but then I realized he kind of wasn't kidding.

It's a shit joke. Yes, it's a real weird joke. It doesn't come up very often. So they're driving through Sydney that morning. The streets are quiet. It's still dark. They initially, they found a woman they were going to kidnap. She was at a laundromat, but she got in her car and left before they could do it.

Like, they were planning it. Like, okay, you're going to do this. And then she went and took off. So there's no way to get her. Then they went down Holly Street. which is known as the truck route that runs past the Sydney Sugar's Refinery. Right. And as we know, also running on that street is Sherry, Sherry Arnold.

Apparently they drove up behind her. It's about 6.30 a.m. They drove up behind her. And according to Michael Spell's confession here, Lester told him to get out of the vehicle, so he got out. Yeah. And he jogged slightly ahead of Sherry. It looked like acting like he was jogging. There's a lot of people super high on three days worth of crack cocaine jogging at 6.30 in the morning.

It's very normal thing. I'm sorry he's got all of the jogging apparatus. All the accoutremen, yeah. Correct clothes, correct shoes, all of it. He's got, but it was at 2012. He's got like the iPod on his arm. That's what people used to have back then all that. Strap to it with that little rubber sleeve.

Yeah, he's got all that shit. He said hello to her as she passed. she smiled at him and he smiled back. Then, because she's faster, she's running, he ran up behind her and tackled her from behind. He called it a rugby tackle, which, I don't know how much rugby this guy's a tackle, I think. It's a football tackle.

He said he forced her face into the muddy ground and he choked her. And then they dragged her into the car, into the explorer. Good Lord. Into the back seat. Now, he's going to give a couple conflicting accounts to different people of exactly what happened inside the vehicle. In some versions, he killed her, and in other versions, Lester Waters choked her in the back seat. Okay. But we do know that he said that she was choked and to death, basically.

She was strangled. Then she's dead back there, so they covered her up in the back of the explorer under a blanket. That's it? That's it. They didn't realize that they left a hat and a sneaker. at the scene either. They didn't realize that. You know, when you're high on crack for three days,

shit slips by. Certain things fall in the cracks. You know what I mean? Yeah. You don't pay attention to details. Certain things get lost in the ether. You know, that's how it works. On the wayside.

Lost in the crack smoke. Yeah. So the explorer, they drive east across the Montana line into North Dakota. They reach the area around Williston, which is kind of the epicenter of the whole oil boom here. and the streets are jammed and there's all sorts of,

a lot of chaos going on in this town. They stop at Walmart by a shovel, keep the receipt smartly enough. Wait till you hear why, because this is amazing. They then drive to a rural area outside Williston. Lester tells Michael to dig, you know, he's younger. If you're 47, you're with someone that's 22,

they're digging, sorry. Hey, if you're digging a hole and there's someone 22, next to you. Who's digging? Who's taking for a shift? You're not going to feel this in the morning. No. You start. I'm going to feel this for five days if I do this. So I'm going to take Advil for the next three. Yeah. Yeah. It's got to be amazing. I'd love to remember, because I've always been sore so, but I'd love to remember what it would be like to do something like that without taking Advil first. Like I preemptively take Advil now when I do things. I'm like, well, that's going to hurt. I better do things. I went to my daughter's

that old. This is scary. And they had the parents participate. Oh, that was Tuesday, James. I still hurt.

Still lipping around. I went bowling Tuesday and I'm still sore too. My leg is sore. It's fucking horrible. Okay. So he's digging. Spells digging. He says they dig about a three foot grave.

They place Sherry's body inside the grave and they cover it up with some dirt. What a stupid thing to do. Insanely stupid. This is so stupid. Nothing to gain. She's jogging. So you're not robbing her. She's not wearing her jewelry or carrying her fucking purse with her credit cards.

And it's stupid. It's just pointless. So then they drove from there. You know where they drove, Jimmy? Home? Back to Walmart. Can you imagine why you go back to Walmart? They are not going to return this shovel.

They absolutely returned. their grave digging shovel for a refund. How crackhead is that? Yeah. Yeah. That is buying a circular saw

to fix up your house and then taking it back. And then returning it. You're asshole. You fucking jerk. At least you didn't buy a circular saw to dismember a person and then bring it back.

This is even crazy. This is crazy. Yep. Then he got his money. He got his money back and he walked out. Eleven bucks. He says that Lester ordered him to grab her and that he didn't know what else to do.

So he says he's afraid of Lester Waters. He's older. He's scary. The next day he's in jail talking to a fellow inmate, Michael Spell is, and he tells the inmate the story he told his girlfriend, the version where he's the one who grabbed her and he pushed her face into the muddy water and all that. So that's corroboration from all sides. So he's told that to multiple people. So they charge both men with deliberate homicide and attempted or aggravated kidnapping. They initially faced the death penalty here as well.

Yeah. They both plead not guilty. Wow. Okay. March 21st, 2012. This is almost two months later. Yeah. Finally, Lester Van Waters Jr. agrees to lead the authorities to the location of the body.

They still haven't found out. They haven't, yeah, they have, oh my God. Nope, they haven't recovered her. So she is found in a rural area outside of Williston in about a three-foot, hastily dug grave. The autopsy finds black, gritty, unidentified material in her stomach and trachea consistent with her having had her face forced into the muddy ground. Unbelievable. Horrible. Fucking horrible.

Alive aspirated it. She didn't do a fucking thing to anybody. for no reason. She beat cancer and teaches kids fucking algebra. She's an angel. That's crazy. Wow.

This is ridiculous. I can't believe these people exist on this planet. I don't even know what to say about it. I mean, the other guy, Lester, you look at this is exactly what you'd expect from him. You know what I mean? It seems like what this is, I can't believe anybody does this. Yeah. I can't believe I expect that from someone.

Yeah. Now, the fact that they brought this body across the state line triggers a federal jurisdiction for kids. kidnapping, giving the FBI's Salt Lake City Division a role in the investigation as well. So now you've got the federal government up your ass. They have a funeral for her. 2,000 people attend this funeral. This is in a town of 5,000. Yeah, it's a town.

2,000 people attend the funeral. They have it at Sydney High School's gymnasium. They put Chicago Cubs hat and flowers on her casket. Her husband, Gary, said he'd like to thank the police, the FBI, and the people of Sydney. and the people who have turned out to help and the role they played in bringing Sherry back home. It wasn't how we wanted her to come home, but she came home to us.

Jesus, even he's a nice guy. Yeah, I mean, at least he's got her. And that's the, I mean, there's a lot of, a lot of the don't, and that's fucked up. That sucks so much. There's a lot of tributes to her, and there's a lot of be careful out there, shit. There's a shut up and run.net,

which we have shut up and give me murder, so that's pretty good. They have a bunch of puns. about the whole thing, keeping everybody updated. So the defense for Michael Spell wants to suppress his confession. Really? His defense attorney said basically, he's a fucking moron. He had no idea what his rights were.

Yeah, he didn't know what his rights were. They asked him if he understood. He said a little bit. A little bit. That's not enough. He wrote... Ask if you want ketchup. Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah. They said, Mr. Spell believed the FBI agents were his friends, and he was simply helping them solve the disappearance and murder of Mrs. Arnold. And when you get somebody... Well, he happens to know all of the answer. That's the problem. That's the problem. They say they tricked them.

And with dumb people, that's what they do a lot. I need your help. We're all in this together. You're practically an FBI agent. You know, that's how they would treat him and then do this. Your badge. Deputized. Yeah.

And the prosecution countered, law enforcement did nothing wrong. It's not their fault. He's a moron. You know, he's a moron, but he's still out murdering people. what do you want? They said they'd been, they'd been patient, deliberate, and that his, that disability, quote, while relevant, must be assessed in the totality of the circumstances, the judge is going to allow the confession into the trial. Is he competent? Because he's been said he's not competent. He didn't get, he didn't get charged for weed possession. Yeah,

this is a big deal. This is murder. Defense psychologist, but in the eyes of the law, it's not, Doesn't matter whether it's jaywalking or murder, you're either competent or you're not. Yeah, my point is just that he wasn't competent enough to sell weed. Exactly. Now we're going to try him for murder? What are we talking about? Oh, you're saying, yes, that's what I was saying, too. We were agreeing on that one.

Okay. So I misunderstood. So, yeah, this is defense psychologist testified that Spell has a child's mentality and a subservient personality that makes him easily manipulated, especially by older people. Okay. He's gullible. He's gullible. His intellectual disability has been dialed. documented all the way back to age five as well.

There's plenty of school thing. They said he played Sonic the Hedgehog with his toddler. He played Kingdom Hearts. His aunt-in-law, or that one very much, Aunt-in-law described him watching, described watching him play. She said, he's like a kid playing those games. You saw the light on his face.

Well, I can news for you, James. You're a dumb-dum, too. Yeah, you don't sound real smart either. Aunt-in-law, Tina. You seen me play those games? I look like a moron. Oh, yeah, I look like an idiot myself. So, meanwhile, August of 2013,

Lester Waters Jr. pleads. He's going to plead guilty. Yeah, he's got to. To deliberate homicide by accountability, meaning he was held responsible for the killing even if he did not personally perform the fatal act. They're leaving that in the win. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors

dropped the death penalty and kidnapping charge. He has to agree to test. against spell if it goes to trial. Okay, so he's going to plead to that. Now, there's a three-year battle for Michael whether there's going to be a trial over his confidence. Could they basically, they're talking about his intellectual disability. They're saying could he be sentenced to prison or a treatment facility? Can the death penalty legally apply here?

Because he's not bright enough in the Supreme Court. It said you can't execute people that are this stupid. One guy, also a clinical professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine interviewed Spell twice and testified, quote, he's not smart. We got that. I observed him being really confused most of the time about the questions he was asked and not being able to provide adequate answers to show he could understand the conversation. Uh-oh. They said that he's prone to distort past events and he's basically just a mess. They said during his two-month evaluation, he'd been observed playing video games, doing laundry, playing cards, and manipulating other patients.

That's what a state psychiatrist said. They said he earned video game privileges by behaving well, and he had shown rarely seen perseverance in reaching level three of whatever game he was playing. He can't get to level three? No, but also he could be good at video games and still be a moron. That doesn't, you know, you could have little, you know, it could be an idiot savant like that. He complained of depression, anxiety, paranoia, voices, poor memory, and his behavior was not consistent with those complaints, they said, though. Okay. He enjoyed child-friendly video games.

They also, this doctor from the state, said his cognitive limitations were unusual. Patients with intellectual disabilities that are genuine about it pretend they understand. They try to fit in. They don't like an emphasis on their impairments. But we know he's not faking being a moron. We know that. It's documented. He's been a moron since jump.

And he probably doesn't like the pointing out of his disability because in the past, it's probably been a subject of fodder. We're bullying in such. Absolutely. But the judge rules in May 2014 that he is competent to stand trial. Okay. The defense appeals. The Montana Supreme Court denies the person.

They moved the trial out of this area anyway. But October of 2014, he's going to plead guilty as well. To deliberate homicide, the attempted kidnapping charge was dropped. Under the plea agreement, it also removed the death penalty, and he admitted his role in the abduction and killing. Sentencing for Lester Waters, he is sentenced. The state recommends a hundred years in prison. A hundred years. A hundred years.

they said that there's a defense investigator that testified this is a guy that had some potential. He has major life problem or his major life problem was cocaine addiction. Okay. He also spoke and said, I'm very sorry for your loss. I truly am. That's what Lee Waters said. I'm sure he is. I'm sure he said.

Gary Arnold, Sherry's husband here, said time doesn't make it easier, but it does change things. My life is different now. It's too late and it's after the fact, your apology. It doesn't change a thing. Right. The judge said, Mr. Waters, you're losing your freedom. Sherry Arnold lost her life.

The victims aren't limited to Sherry's family. They include friends and residents of Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota. You set in motion those events that led to her death. You, sir, may fuck off 80 years in prison with 20 suspended. So he got 60. He got 60. And he's not eligible for parole for 20 years, which is coming up pretty soon. Yeah.

And he's ordered to pay $21,448 in restitution to Gary Arnold. They take his Ford Explorer to be sold, a 15-year-old Ford Explorer. I don't know what that's worth, but that goes toward restitution. Four grand. Michael's sentencing. He tells the court, I know I've heard a lot of people. I'm just hoping that someday they'll be able to forgive me. And the judge explained that, you know, basically at Walmart, while her body was in the vehicle,

You didn't ask for help or attempt to leave. I don't want to hear you're afraid of that guy. You bought a fucking shovel. Yeah. They said that we don't want to hear any of that shit. You, sir, may fuck off 100 years in prison, no suspended years. Oh, shit. But he's eligible for parole in 2037.

So I don't know if you only have to serve like a third of it, it seems like. Yeah. They should have both gotten the same thing, right? because the other guy clearly manipulated him. And he was the first one to come forward and admit it. So I feel like if anything, the dumber, younger, first one to admit it should have probably got the deal. Right. But I think they gave Waters the deal because he took him to the body and he could remember where it was probably.

I don't know. And he took the plea first. That's also it. Also, 2018, more trouble for Michael. He faces a separate charge in prison of trying to kill a fellow inmate. Oh, my. Yeah, he and another inmate beat a man with a lock and fractured bones in his face and ribs. There's a running trail dedicated to Sherry Arnold's honor in Sydney in the same area she ran.

June 2024, Michael Spell in prison. He allegedly forced, he and another inmate forced a female corrections officer into a prison cell where Spell allegedly held the cell door closed and the other guy tried to remove his belt so he could start raping the guard. other corrections officers responded, opened the door, subdued spell, while the female corrections officer was able to overpower the other guy in handcuff him. Wow. They were checking cell doors and this happened. Spell is accused of distracting the female officer, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her into the cell. Oh, my. Holy shit.

He's dangerous. He is fucking dangerous. He is a dangerous idiot, basically. Yeah. So he's going to be charged with felony aggravated assault or felony charge of aggravated kidnapping and attempted rape as well. Final reactions here. Wow.

The lifetime Sydney resident said the things we've always taken for granted, we can't take for granted anymore like Sherry. Sherry's family, her sister said about, she said she wanted justice and the death penalty in the early days. She said, I wanted to drive over. them, but we don't do that. Death is not the ultimate goal. Just don't let them out.

That's all I'm worried about, whether it's in prison or an institution or whatever. A very kind, reasonable person is what she is. Intelligent and reasonable. I just don't want these people out on the street. That's it. Her father, Sherry's father, Ron, said it turned this little town upside down. There's evil in the world, and it just happened to touch down in Sydney, Montana on January 7th. That is Sydney, Montana, everybody.

in a fucked up-ass story, right? Jesus Christ. Two terrible people. Terrible. Terrible assholes. Yeah, just awful fucking people. For nothing. He might be dumb, but he's a nasty dumb.

Scumbag. Yeah. So very quickly at the end of the show here, if you like the show, first of all, give it five stars on whatever app you're listening to, tell Netflix you like it, do all that stuff. Head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for live shows.

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