Sword and Scale Nightmares - Porcelain

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

In the spring of 2006, a bubbly young woman with close ties to friends and family suddenly goes missing, leaving behind all of her personal belongings and a ransacked apartment. When Christina Eubanks turns up dead, everyone wants the truth. But the truth won’t come so easily and jurors would find themselves wondering if the victim was spontaneoulsy struck or if she was slain over a dirty secret.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5863198/advertisement

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and know exactly what's in stock. Connect with customers in line and online. Shopify helps you drive store traffic with plug-in-play tools built for marketing campaigns from TikTok to Instagram and beyond. Get hardware that fits your business. Take payments by smartphone, transform your tablet into a point of sale system,

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shopify.com slash sword and scale, all lower case and no spaces. shopify.com slash sword and scale. One night in late spring of 2006, a man was startled from sleep by a nightmare in the middle of the night. There wasn't so much a nightmare with a plot, but a strongly disconcerting feeling that something was really wrong. Wide-eyed and covered in sweat, he sat up and tried to remember the details. All he could remember was a vague ghostly silhouette echoing the same words over and over. You'll find her at the fish farm.

Not knowing who her was, he focused on receding into his mind to conjure up a word or image as a clue. All at once his niece's face illuminated its presence in his mind's eye. This was his sister's daughter. Someone the family was very close to. He knew what he had to do as soon as morning came. He found his sister and delivered the cryptic message. Welcome to Sword and Scale Night was a Tennessee resident for years. She was attractive and looked much younger than her age due to her beaming smile and

spirited personality. People seemed to be drawn to Christina, including her boyfriend Sean. The couple met at a grocery store called Fresh Market near Knoxville and started dating in 2004. Friends said she was in love with him. The pair had a small group of people they met at work and regularly hung out with. Then Sean moved to North Carolina, but he and Christina spoke several times a day, so Sean usually knew where she was or what she was doing.

On the morning of May 29th, 2006, they spoke on the phone and Christina said she wasn't going to work that day. Because she was a cashier and used her fingers to punch keys all day, she developed a really painful, carpal tunnel syndrome. She would need to get that fixed soon, maybe, with surgery. For two long days, Sean repeatedly called Christina, but she didn't answer. As the hours accumulated, and then the days, he was starting to worry. She had other friends, but she usually kept in close contact with them. So on May 31st, he called around to her neighbors and friends to ask if they'd seen her. His mind started to make him feel insecure about their relationship.

Was it something to do with him? Did he say or do something wrong? Was she just tired of the long-distance relationship? And maybe she was just trying to tell him something. Like, take the hint. We need a break. That was a possibility, he thought, but when he began to ask about her, he found out he wasn't the only one concerned. No one had seen her.

In Knoxville, Christina's silence was disturbing. She wasn't secretive, and not only did she not show up to work the day that she'd spoken with her boyfriend, but her coworkers also noticed she stopped coming in altogether. The circumstances compounded, making them all very nervous. This is when her closest friend and co-worker decided to check on her.

Her best friend goes directly to Christina's apartment, but first, she stops at the next door neighbor's place. She wants to know if the neighbor knows anything. He does not, so they team up and begin with the obvious. First, they call her one last time. She still isn't answering. Then they knock on the door directly. She isn't there. But they hear her dog barking inside, so they walk around the building and find a window. They can easily open. Now, they hear Kristina's phone ringing again as they call her. And they start to worry quite a bit.

Her phone is in there. But she's nowhere to be found. They decide that someone needs to get inside and see what's going on, so the neighbour man climbs through the open window and unlocks the door for the friend. Already, they sense something is very wrong. Christina's dog is locked in the bedroom and doesn't have food or water. No wonder he's barking. The dog is well trained, so they're surprised to see the dog excrement all over the floor. This is weird.

Christina would never leave her dog without someone to watch him. She didn't even like putting him in the kennel. In the bedroom things are out of place. It's in disarray with sheets tossed, tangled, and falling to the floor. Things are moved around and not in the same place the friend has seen them before. Christina's glasses are resting on a bedside table, which is also disturbing since she is really poor eyesight and always has her glasses on or with her. They glance around the room wide eyed, and are surprised to see Christina's purse, keys, and phone, but no Christina.

They leave the bedroom and take a closer look in living room area. The coffee table isn't where it's supposed to be, and the dog's leash is missing from its usual spot. A few more steps, and the friend lands on something crunchy beneath her feet. Looking down, she now sees chips of white glass and broken plates scattered in places, but not in one tight grouping. More like a couple of large pieces sitting on the carpet in one area and much smaller fragments

lying amidst the carpet pile. They need to take action. Clearly Christina was in some kind of trouble. At that point, they went to the police and filed a missing persons report. When police got to her apartment, they already noticed the white chips of whatever it was on the sidewalk out front. After going in, more signs jumped out at them, signaling a strong sensation that Christina may be injured or worse. Blood smears and droplets lay on the vinyl floor and sink into the living room carpet. Blood spatter, designed parts of the wall. Next to the TV they saw a pair of

sweatpants, more blood showed up on a water bottle and a bottle of vodka. But what drew their attention most were the blood stains on a vibrator in the bedroom. In a neighboring town about 10 miles away, local authorities investigating an altogether different crime would accidentally solve the mystery of the white ships strewn in Christina's apartment. They were bloody, broken pieces of a toilet. Frightening clues in Christina U-Bank's apartment suggested something dangerous occurred there, and Christina has vanished. It didn't appear as if a struggle took place, but blood stains, spatters, and a shattered lid from a toilet tank suggested otherwise. Not to mention that she would never leave her dog alone

without food or water. It's been three days since her disappearance and her loved ones wanted to know where Christina was and who did this to her. Initially, some friends and acquaintances of Christina were reticent to come forward with information that could help the case, because they had a little secret. They didn't want to be pulled in and investigated for what they were doing.

Buying, selling, and smoking marijuana. You see, in 2006, it was still illegal in most states. In fact, one associate asked the police not to come to his apartment at all, because it would freak out his roommates. Detectives assured him they weren't interested in resting anyone for drug use when they were looking for a murderer. Friend after friend began weaving together the tapestry of a party circle. One after another, they admitted that they had hung out with Christina, or Christina, her boyfriend,

and one of his friends named Marvin. 49-year-old Marvin Hill just happened to be the areas pizza delivery man. He also had a regular supply of marijuana. Made it. Convenient. Pot. Then pizza.

Marvin hung out occasionally with Christina's boyfriend and all three would convene at her apartment. Sometimes Marvin wouldn't even charge for the weed. The same man who asked police not to come to his apartment revealed some crucial information about the pizza and marijuana guy, Marvin. He spoke to him the morning of Christina's disappearance. He tells officers that he sees Marvin pull up to Christina's apartment, as he's walking home from a bar. Marvin tells him he's there to help her boyfriend move out. He doesn't think anything of it. Besides, he's drunk.

Maybe he needs to walk it off, so he and Marvin take a stroll to Sam's party store, and he remembers that Marvin left before he did. When he walks back home, shortly after that, he sees Marvin lying down in the backseat of his car outside Christina's. Marvin sees him and sits up in the backseat. He acts annoyed and tells him that Christina's boyfriend wanted him to come and get his stuff for him. Of course, the neighbor thinks this is a little off, but then again, he's a little off. He admits that he's been up all night drinking and smoking pot. He almost seems to be giving a disclaimer of sorts. He does distinctly remember, though, that Marvin seemed a bit shaky and maybe even upset.

Marvin's affect isn't alarming to the neighbor per se, but when he finds that Christina is missing, he goes straight to the police. Yet another of Marvin's clients reports that he got a voice message from his pot and pizza delivery guy. Call me right away, Marvin said. In that conversation, Marvin instructed him to tell the neighbor who saw him at Christina's to say he didn't know Marvin. Never saw Marvin, and it was a matter of life and death.

The cops were onto something now, and his name was Marvin Hill. They got a search warrant and headed out to Range Rifle Road to check out Marvin's Toyota RAV4. Little did he know that his wife would cooperate fully. After the crime lab processed Marvin's vehicle, the results confirmed their beliefs. Marvin was the guy. They found blood stains in the back seat and some spot remover that Marvin had just purchased.

In a town 10 miles away, police searched a dumpster and found the culprit weapon. The toilet tank lid grew suddenly enhanced with a broken corner and a blood smear. With DNA from it matching what they found in Marvin's car, they arrested him on June 3rd and confiscated his phone, which held Christina's contact information. At the time of his arrest, Marvin, who by the way, donned the whole ball on the top hair on the sides, look, presented with scratches on his face and a bite mark on his hand. His appearance and all other evidence may have been enough to indict, but without a body, it could be much more difficult to win in court. Besides, Christina's family desperately wanted her to be returned.

At first Marvin refused to speak about any of it. He was familiar with the system. He knew he did it. The cops knew he did it. The cops knew he did it. And practically everyone else knew he did it. But getting him to divulge the location of Christina's body could prove to be much harder. So they called in his wife after pleading with her to give the family some modicum of consolation by having the body returned, they finally convinced her to coax her husband into giving the location. Meanwhile, Marvin is calling family members and friends from prison and doesn't know he's being

recorded. Sharp guy, this Marvin. His voice is quivering slightly, but not with fear. Instead, it's excitement, as he tells how he struck Christina, and the first blow, it differently. He brags about having sex with Christina that evening, about having sex with Christina that evening. Concentual sex. And he tries to make his wife feel better about it by telling her, it wasn't even fun. Though Marvin wasn't exact in his description, Christina's body was eventually found on June 3rd.

He wrapped her small, bruised, and beaten body in a sheet. She was wearing only a top. He then drove her to a remote country road near some farms and dumped her into a creek below one lane bridge. It would have been difficult for someone in a vehicle to spot it, but down below along the creek bed, a yellow bedsheet hung swinging in the mild wind. Obviously Marvin tried to clean up because he brought some of the blood-tainted items from Christina's apartment and threw them out with her as if they were all one in the same. as if they were all one in the same. Garbage.

A pillowcase, two rugs, and a blue tablecloth. Trailing along with the rest, white porcelain chips lay scattered on the bridge, and underneath Christina's dead body. No one driving or walking by could see her pale and swollen corpse lying face down in eight inches of water. When Christina's body was transported to the medical examiner, she was already in Decomp.

Her skin, which was purple and marbled, was detached and falling from her body. Her pretty face and beautiful smile were now buried beneath the bloat and swelling, causing the definition of her facial features to blur until they were without form or shape. It was true that Christina bought marijuana from Marvin numerous times, and it was true that she and her boyfriend hung out with him sometimes. But on the stand, Marvin was claiming they were having an affair. Jurors and spectators' heads were turning.

No doubt they were whispering amongst themselves that it was kind of preposterous to imagine pretty young Christina becoming willingly involved in a sexual relationship with this old balding man. He was 20 years older. He wasn't good-looking like in any way. And let's just say it, he was creepy. Whether Marvin was an acquaintance, a friend, or a lover, Christina had no idea what this pervert was capable of. And now, he was about to add insult to injury. Customers are rushing to your store. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust or is it a real POS if you know what I mean? You need Shopify for retail. Did you know Shopify powers selling in person, too?

Shopify POS is your command center for your retail store. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify has everything you need to sell in person. With Shopify, you get a powerhouse selling partner that effortlessly unites your in-person and online sales into one source of truth. Track every sale across your business in one place and know exactly what's in stock. Connect with customers in-line and online. Shopify helps you drive store traffic with plug-and-play tools built for marketing campaigns

from TikTok to Instagram and beyond. Get hardware that fits your business. Take payments by smartphone, transform your tablet into a point of sale system, or use Shopify's POS Go mobile device for a battle-tested solution. Plus Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way. Do retail right with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 a month trial period at shopify.com slash sword and scale. All lower case.

Go to shopify.com slash sword and scale to take your retail business to the next level today. shopify.com slash sword and scale. All lower case and no spaces. level today. According to Marvin, they met through her boyfriend, Sean, became friends, and then started smoking together. At some point, Marvin was invited by himself, and they would have sex afterward. From that point, they had sex 10 to 12 times. Marvin insists that on May 29th, Christina calls him, wanting more marijuana, and Marvin tells her he will bring it to her apartment on his way home from work. Hell, he might even bring a pizza from his job. He shows up right after 11pm and they sit

together on the couch talking, laughing, and watching TV. They drink and smoke some weed. He then plays with a dog who bites him on the thumb during the interaction. So he asks for toilet paper to clean himself. Christina then locks the dog in the bedroom, leaving them to their privacy in the living room. She comes onto him, whispering in his ear, and I know what you want. She's so eager, she doesn't even take off her top to have sex. Twice on the floor.

He goes into great, salacious detail about other forms of sexual activity she desired. After sex, things become mundane again. She asks him to fix her toilet that was running. He's in the bathroom thinking to himself that he's got to do something to end this relationship and he declares loudly to her that he won't be able to have an affair with her anymore because his wife is suspicious. Christina gets really angry and they start arguing, shouting at each other from different rooms according to Marvin. Marvin tires of the wall's barrier at which point he comes out of the bathroom with the tank lid, only because it was already in his hands.

She starts to humiliate him, because she herself is embarrassed, and because she wants to continue the relationship. So with curled lips, she calls him a name with an insolent snarl. Now, he's pissed. He loses control and punches her in the chest and then in the face. But this doesn't stop her. She's like a crazy woman, fuming and spitting with arms flailing back at him. The only thing he can think to do is to use the toilet tank lid in his hand,

which he violently swings at her with both hands. He can't remember anything else until she hits the floor. He knows he holds the power of her Christina's life. He sees that she's down but not dead, so he keeps beating her to the point of near coma. She's making a gurgling sound, so he hits her on the head with the lid until she quits making noise. Then in a moment of panic, he checks her pulse and tries to revive her with the stun gun. He finally gives up and sits in his car where he's trying to figure out what to do. His hand is broken from the fight, making it difficult to carry Christina anywhere. So he uses the dog leash, not to strangle her, but to drag her to and from the

car. Marvin tries to tell the jury at trial that she is dead when he drags her to his car. But then, expert testimony proved him wrong. She was not dead, and it was a slow and horrible death. You see, everything we just told you was Marvin's account of what happened. Not reality. According to the medical examiner, Christina was struck from behind on the back of the skull with the toilet tank lid. She fell to the floor and he continued to hit her with the lid. One of the strikes was so severe that it not only broke her skull, it smashed her soft brain. She was strangled by her own dog's leash, but survived these wounds only to aspirate creek water and her own vomit.

After being dragged to the car, from the car, and to her final resting place. He was clinging to life, all the way through, even when she was dumped into the water, but barely. This side of the story, the true side, is the one that landed, Marvin in prison, for premeditated first degree murder. When Christina's body was examined, Marvin's semen, with his DNA was found in and on her. The sex toys found on her bed were also covered with it. Of course, Marvin explained that he was such a prize that she couldn't contain her sexual

enthusiasm for him, and wanted to continue the affair. There was no way to determine whether Christina was a willing participant or whether she was raped. But more than a big handful of witnesses testified that she was in love with her boyfriend and would not have wanted any of these advances. The prosecution said the rest went a little something like this. Regardless of why he comes to her apartment, he brings a stun gun with him. They speculate that he was there for one reason and one reason only,

to rape her. He likely begins making increasing advances. She says no and resists, so he uses a stun gun to subdue her. In the middle of the act she regains consciousness and starts to resist again, so he starts by hitting her with his fist. It doesn't matter whether she's raped or it's voluntary. The outcome is the same. He kills her. Unfortunately, much of the evidence needed to nail this perpetrator was thrown out. Evidence like Marvin's confession caught on video.

A toxicology report showing that Christina's blood was negative for marijuana. The toilet tank lid he admitted using as the murder weapon. And a set of handcuffs bought days before the crime. Even without all the damning proof, the jury took under three hours to render a verdict of guilty, for not only the murder but also the abuse of the corpse. Marvin can blow VIII, all he wants about his sexual conquest, and aggrandizes his version to his advantage to his prison buddies for the rest of his life. This doesn't matter because he won't be eligible for parole for 51 years. The math says he will be a hundred years old if he is released.

And this seems highly improbable. Christina was indeed found close to the fish farm her uncle dreamed about. An uncanny coincidence. Or perhaps the universe sent a dream as a kind of sign to Christina's family about her location, so they could finally have some peace. If you enjoyed the show, please consider joining Plus at swordand 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. Customers are rushing to your store. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust or is it a real POS if you know what I mean? You need Shopify for retail. Did you know Shopify powers selling in person too? Shopify POS is your command center for your retail store. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify has everything you need to sell in person. With Shopify, you get a powerhouse selling partner that effortlessly unites your in-person

and online sales into one source of truth. Track every sale across your business in one place and know exactly what's in stock. Connect with customers in line and online. Shopify helps you drive store traffic with plug-and-play tools built for marketing campaigns from TikTok to Instagram and beyond. Get hardware that fits your business. Take payments by smartphone, transform your tablet into a point of sale system, or use

Shopify's POS Go mobile device for a battle-tested solution. Plus Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way. Do retail right with Shopify? Sign up for a $1 a month trial period at shopify.com slash sword and scale. All lower case. Go to Shopify.com slash Sourd and Scale to take your retail business to the next level today. Shopify.com slash Sourd and Scale.

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