Sword and Scale Nightmares - Closeted

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

A man named Jeffrey Freeman was found dead in his own home. The most disturbing aspect of this case isn't just the manner of his death; it's what was occurring inside the house before anyone was aware of it. There was a hidden life, a secret relationship, and nearly 18 hours passed before anyone called for help.Get commercial free access to over a decade of Sword and Scale's true crime podcasts at http://swordandscale.com

Regine Beverly stands in front of her kitchen sink staring out the window. It's the spring of 2005, and for Regine, the day was almost perfect. It's 72 degrees, and the windows finally dye it down. If only the clouds would clear, she thinks to herself. Suddenly, the quiet of her home is interrupted by loud, frantic pounding on her front door. She jumps at the sound. What in the world? She says aloud, realizing something must be wrong.

Nothing ever happens in our cul-de-sac. She puts a towel on the counter and hurries through the foyer towards the front door. She reaches for the knob and swings the door open. There she's surprised to see Martha, her neighbor, breathing hard. This is a woman she knows. has worked for and even watches their dog when they're out of town. Before she can ask what the problem is,

Martha just walks in. No comment, no eye contact, nothing. Regine turns to follow Martha inside her home, ready to ask her why she was knocking so hard. That's when Martha says sternly, a man killed my husband. Regine freezes and stares at Martha, but she refuses to meet her gaze.

She just stands in the foyer, staring past Regine. Regine snaps out of her shock. Did you call 911? She asks. No, Martha replies. Ray Jean races to find her cell phone. She finds it, dials, and waits. When the dispatcher answers, she relays the little information she has.

54-24-inclined drive Brentwood, Tennessee. She tries to answer the dispatcher's questions, but she doesn't know what's going on. All she knows is the address and that Martha claims her husband is dead. She doesn't know how, why, or even if the man is still inside the house. She hands the phone to Martha. Martha holds it to her ear. Regine can hear the distant sound of the dispatcher asking her questions, but Martha doesn't answer. She just stares.

Regine snatches the phone back and tries to explain what's happening. Martha just sits at the bottom of the stairs. Regine relays Martha's answers to the dispatcher's questions. Then Martha calmly says, I know the man who killed my husband. My husband found him. Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares. True crime for bedtime.

When nightmare begins now. A flurry of police cars and emergency vehicles zoom through the neighborhood. The size of the homes, unincline drive makes them seem to crawl past the ambulance's windows. as it speeds by. The first responder, Brian Hampton, only knows the call involves a potentially expired person as they screech to a halt in front of 54-24-inclined drive. He and his partner jump out and start gathering their gear when a woman bursts out of the neighbor's house.

Through tears and frantic gestures, she identifies herself as Martha, resident of the home. Hampton asks her for basic information. When did this happen? he asks. Did it happen 20 minutes ago? 30 minutes ago? Martha just nods yes. Moments earlier, Karen Kirby is at the home, just a short distance away when she notices something suspicious. She gets up from her chair and inches closer to the window to get a better look. A Hispanic man with shoulder-length hair, knee-length shorts, and a maroon t-shirt is running through the neighborhood.

She watches wondering what the man is doing. He runs as fast as he can from a tree line directly to a new home still under construction. As she tries to understand what the man could be doing, she hears distant sirens. Seconds later, a convoy of police vehicles starts streaming up her street, heading towards the direction the man ran from. Her eyes widened and her pulse races. She calls for her husband to look. When he enters the room, she hurriedly explains what she saw and points to the police. You have to go flag one of them down now, she says.

She turns her attention back to the unfinished house as her husband darts out the front door. Sergeant Collins, with the Brentwood Police Department, is en route to incline drive when he sees a man flagging him down on the side of the road. Sergeant Collins pulls over and rolls the window down. The man is slightly out of breath as he starts to talk. He explains that he doesn't know what's going on, but his wife saw all the police just seconds after she saw a man seemingly running for his life. He points to the unfinished house. She saw him go in there, he says.

Sergeant Collins whips his head around to see the house and picks up his radio. Minutes later, Sergeant Collins and his backup are in front of the unfinished house on Palomar Drive. It's just two streets away from the incident on incline. He directs one officer to the back of the house in case anyone tries to run, and directs the other to come with him. All three officers draw their weapons and take their positions. Sergeant Collins and the other officer walk through the dirt and debris at the construction site, making their way through the opening where a door would be installed.

They immediately come face to face with two men on the ground floor. The men freeze, startled by the sudden presence of armed police. For a moment, the four men just stare at each other, like that meme with the three spider-mans pointing at each other. What are you doing here? Sergeant Collins shouts. The men provide identification. and explain they are building inspectors here to make sure all building codes are being met. He asks them if they had seen or heard anything unusual.

The two men share a glance and one points up. We both heard something coming from upstairs. Sergeant Collins' attention is drawn to the frame of a staircase near the center of the home. He points to the exit and the two men take a hill. hint and leave. He and his fellow officer clear the home, room by room. First, the ground floor. Then they make their way to the second floor.

At the back of the unfinished house, the third officer waits impatiently. The silence is frightening. Then noise erupts above him. He hears the two officers inside start to yell. They shout, show your hands in English and then in Spanish. The house is basically a skeleton. There were no walls, no ceilings, just a frame where the walls should be. After clearing the first and second floors, the two officers had not yet found him.

There was nowhere left to search except up. And when the two officers turned their attention to the rafters above them, they see a man staring back. With nowhere left to run, the man climbed down from the attic rafters and surrendered. His name was Rafael de Jesus Rocha Perez. He was a Mexican national who was in the country illegally like so many others. He wasn't supposed to be here, not in this country, let alone in that house. house. Back at Martha's house with the threat of the armed suspect gone, EMT's rush inside.

Martha has directed them to the upstairs bathroom. Firefighter Hampton made his way up the large staircase and down the hall. When he turns into the bathroom, he sees the victim, Martha's husband, Jeffrey Freeman. The scene confuses him, though. Jeffrey is lying face down in a half zipped sleeping bag on the floor. His head is wrapped in a plastic bag and it's tied or taped around his neck. He can't tell which.

He reaches down to feel for a pulse and realizes Jeffrey is soaking wet. But worse, he doesn't have a pulse. That's when Martha's nod comes back into his mind. Something here

doesn't make sense. This isn't fresh. He tries to lift one of Jeffrey's arms, but it's already starting to stiffen. Rigormortus is already setting in. He rolls Jeffrey on his side and looks at his stomach. He knows when the heart stops, the blood begins to pool. But it takes a while to show externally. Except, Jeffrey's stomach was already purple.

About 10 years earlier, Martha is at work when her new boss hands her a shipping order. She looks over the order and sighs. This is a big shipment, she thinks. A glint of joy flickers in her eye as she picks up the phone. She dials and waits. When the call is answered, she asks to speak to Jeffrey. She twirls the phone cable in her fingers as she waits.

Jeffrey was her representative at a trucking company. She would call with a big shipment and he would find the trucks to move it. But she never wasted an opportunity to flirt. Jeffrey answers the phone and Martha, snapping out of a daydream, straightens up. She tells him about the big shipment and where it needs to go. She throws in a coy statement here and there and laughs a little too hard at his jokes. When the so-called business is done,

and there are no more legitimate business reasons to talk, Martha jokingly says, Well, I'll let you go so you can get home to the wife and kids. Much to her surprise, Jeffrey corrects her. Her heart flutters a little when he says he's not married and doesn't have any kids. After that, their relationship is a whirlwind. They started seeing each other and talking all the time. Soon, though, Jeffrey Grasman.

grew tired of paying for the long-distance phone calls to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where Martha lived. So, one day, Jeffrey brings Martha a gift. She shakes the box, trying to guess what's in it. It's heavy, she says, as she rips the wrapping paper. She tears into the box and pulls out a large hand-carved, heart-shaped box. She looks up at Jeffrey and he tells her to open it. She pulls on the lid and it hinges open.

Inside, she sees a single key. When she looks back at Jeffrey, he smiles and says, It's the key to my heart. And my house. Will you move in with me? Martha jumps to hug him, unable to speak. Then she nearly screams, yes, I'll move in with you. Just a few months later, they were made.

married. For the next several years, their lives blossomed. They bought a house in the upscale Mountain View neighborhood. Martha was able to quit her job at the pallet company and pursue a new career. She became a licensed private investigator and started her own company, and that company took off. She had contacts with large companies and landlords to screen new employees and potential tenants. The company, Recifax, grew so big that Jeffrey quit his job, got licensed as well, and started running the company. What started as a small business run out of their home grew so big that it needed its own

building. This was around the time Jeffrey started working a lot and Martha started working less. Mentally, she was drained, but she couldn't explain why. She was nearing 40, but this felt worse than just age. Then she got the diagnosis. She had bipolar disorder. Her psychiatrist recommended medication, but they made it so she could barely function. Some mornings, she just couldn't get out of bed, too tired to do anything.

Then Martha's mother fell ill and moved in with them. Martha took care of their mother until the day she died. First the diagnosis and then the death of her mother. Martha was in shambles. Jeffrey would start working longer and longer hours while Martha stayed home alone, mostly sleeping. Their marriage started to suffer, especially in the bedroom. They had been together for ten years when Martha decided she needed space. she wanted to move out.

Jeffrey understood and supported her decision. He didn't want her to leave, but he did want her to be happy. If this is what it took to save his marriage, he would support it. In late summer of 2004, Martha moved in to an extended stay hotel. After about six months, Jeffrey still wanted to work on the marriage, and Martha did too. She moved back into the marital home in February of 2005. A couple of months later, Jeffrey drives home. He opens the garage as he pulls into the driveway.

He parks the car and walks inside. He hangs up his jacket and sets his keys on the counter. It's late. The house is dark and quiet. Martha must already be asleep, he thinks. He makes his way up to the stairs to change his clothes. As he walks up the stairs, he thinks about his marriage. How much fun they used to have before everything,

before her diagnosis, before her mother's death, or sleeping in a separate room. He wishes they could just get back to that. Just then, he passes Martha's closed door and hears something unusual. It's a low? deep, repetitive sound. He stops and turns towards her room. He listens.

Then he turns the knob and slowly opens the door. There on the bed is Martha. Sound asleep. But the noise, the noise, is still there. He tiptoes into the room so as not to wake Martha and follows the sound. He tilts his head, confused by the sound. It's coming from the closet. He reaches out and slowly opens the door. He nearly falls backward, startled by what he sees. Inside, on the floor, is a sleeping man. In that moment, he knew he had been betrayed. More hurt than angry,

he wakes up Martha. He hears the snoring stop and the man shift. But he doesn't look back. He watches her eyes snap awake as he starts to speak. Get that man out of my house, he says. I'm going to walk the dog and he better be gone by the time I get back. Martha stammers trying to explain, trying to apologize. Jeffrey doesn't listen.

He storms down to. Stairs grabs a leash and calls the dog. Upstairs, Martha and the man stare at each other, too afraid to speak. They hear the front door open and then slam shut. The house falls silent again. For a moment, neither of them moves. Jeffrey walks down the street watching the dog sniff the ground, oblivious to his heartbreak. He kicks a rock.

I should have known better, he thinks. He takes a deep breath and stares up at the sky. Then he keeps walking. He walks for what feels like forever. Jeffrey doesn't know how long it's been, but he feels like it's been long enough. He turns around and heads back to his house. He walks up to the front door and pauses for a moment, deciding if he wants to go inside. Then he turns the knob and opens the door.

He expected the man to be gone, of course, but he wasn't. Jeffrey was greeted by the barrel of a shotgun. He dropped to his knees and started to pray. What happened next wasn't quick. It took time and control. He was restrained. His wrists bound. He struggles to free himself, but it's no use.

He's hit in the eye, which immediately swells. He doesn't see it coming, but he feels blow after blow to his head. He collapses to the floor, barely conscious. His chest starts to tighten. He realized the man is, on top of him now. He tries to speak, to beg for his life, but he's too hurt. He's too weak to fight back.

Something slides around his neck and starts to tighten. His breath becomes shallow and short until it stops altogether. His one good eye rolls to the back of his head and the house. and the house falls silent again. Martha takes the stand. The courtroom is small and crowded. She looks over at Raphael, sitting with his defense lawyer and his interpreter.

He doesn't look back. The district attorney approaches her and starts the questioning. She nervously rings her hands together. He asks, how she met Raphael. Martha replies quietly. She tells the courtroom she met Rafael on July 4, 2004. She and Jeffrey had gotten a hotel room in downtown Nashville to watch the fireworks show.

But as it got later, Jeffrey just wanted to go home. Martha did not. So she stayed in the hotel while Jeffrey made the short drive back home. Alone in the city, Martha went for a walk. It wasn't long before she came across three Mexican men. She struck up a conversation with them and asked if they wanted to go back to her room to party. They agreed, of course. The courtroom falls silent as she explains she had sex with all three men that night.

The next morning, when she woke up, Raphael was still there. That was the beginning of their relationship. A month later, she moved into the extended stay hotel with Raphael. For six months, they lived together until Martha ran out of money. That's when she decided her marriage was worth working on. So she broke it off with Raphael and moved back in with Jeffrey, who at this point had no idea about her boyfriend or boyfriends. Her newfound resolved to save her marriage was short-lived, of course.

By mid-March, less than a month after she moved back in, she went and picked Raphael up. She took him home while Jeffrey was at work. It was supposed to be, you know, one last fuck. But Raphael never left. You see, he had a habit of doing that, both in the home and in the country he was in. He lived in the home for

over a month before the events of April 10th, as a matter of fact. He spent every night in the closet and every day with Martha. The questioning turns to the event

of that night. Martha describes Jeffrey coming back from walking the dog. She describes how he prayed and how Raphael grabbed him and forced him into the bathroom. She described listening to the water running and hearing thud after thud, as she did nothing. Just then, the judge told her to stop talking and address the court.

It's so bizarre. It's hard to believe a lot of this, he says. I have problems with allowing this to go further without her getting some representation. and I can see her being charged in this case. She probably should be charged in this case. I hope the state does not believe everything she is testifying to because I sure don't. With that, Martha pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Shortly after, she was also charged with the murder of her husband.

She and Raphael were tried together. The trial showed a pattern of contradictions, guilty behavior, and circumstantial evidence, suggesting involvement rather than fear. Jeffrey hadn't just died. He'd been dead for hours. In those hours, she made efforts to cover up the crime. She called his mother, saying he went to bed early. The next morning, a neighbor witnessed her calmly standing on her front porch.

The home was spotless, evidence of a cleanup. In trash bags, police later found latex gloves, a wet bath mat, a wet and bloody pillowcase, and a telephone cord. But the most damning evidence that Martha was a willing participant and not a passive victim was a towel spread out on the living room floor. That towel tested positive for both her DNA and Raphael's sperm. They had sex at some point during the 16 to 18 hours before she asked her neighbor to call 911, with her husband's corpse right there in the house. The jury wasn't blind. They saw the contradiction.

the delay. In the nearly 18 hours after Jeffrey's death, she didn't act like a victim. She acted like an accomplice. Martha Freeman and Rafael DeHesuz Rocha Perez were both found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Yet further proof that white women sure do love illegal, immigration for all sorts of reasons. If you enjoyed the show, please consider joining plus at sword and scale.com slash plus. But if you can't, consider leaving us a positive review on your preferred listening platform. Sweet dreams and good night.