Sword and Scale - Episode 138

Episode Date: May 26, 2019

The process of vetting those we allow into our lives is a precarious one. When young, prospective college student Brandy Rosine met Jade Olmstead online, it seemed to be love at first Skype. Things were going smoothly for the couple, they began living together for a short while until a restless Jade abandoned the relationship for a former flame. As Jade and Brandy continued to keep in touch despite Jade’s rekindled relationship with Ashley Barber, trouble began to brew within the love triangle.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Hi, my name is Ariel and I'm making this video because one of my oldest friends, Brandi Rosene, is missing. Hello and welcome to Sword and Scale Season 6 Episode 138, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Most good parents tend to be concerned about who their children befriend in their early years, and who they date later in their teen years. You may have heard a certain quote by the famous Booker T. Washington, associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company. This idea is commonly spouted by parents who are trying

to sway their children from hanging out with the wrong crowd. The reason for this is simple. While we certainly cannot directly control another human being, we are able to heavily influence them. And for some people, having that kind of power can be intoxicating. Unlike children, mature adults are more easily able to see how one simple friend choice

can shift the course of a person's entire life. We become like the people we surround ourselves with, her better or worse. Incidentally yet another great reason to stay off of Twitter. So what happens when a couple of codependent insecure people become close and start to negatively influence each other? Disaster can follow. There's no telling what a combination like this can produce. Bordman, Ohio is a suburb of Youngstown, with not much to do besides shop.

Bordman is one of those retail hubs in Mahoning County, which means there are a lot of stores to choose from if you've got some money bringing a hole in your pocket. Teenagers whose families don't fall within the upper level income range usually don't have the kind of money that allows them to spend all of their free time shopping. So many find themselves getting involved with drugs, alcohol, and sex. For Brandy Rosy, a high school student attending boardman high school, this was not the case, because she was diabetic. She couldn't experiment without call, even if she wanted to.

Brandy instead chose to spend her time immersed in music, both in school and in an extracurricular capacity. Even though Brandy was a bright, happy girl with a large group of friends, she struggled with her identity through high school. Relying on her friend and neighbor, Kristi Horvat, for advice and support. She's six years younger than me,

so she was closer to my younger sister, but she also lived behind me. She was a neighbor, Slaferin. I met Brandy when I was about 17. She was around 12. She would come over my house because she was good friends with my younger sister. And they both played instruments. Brandy would bring her electric bass, and my sister Jenna would play guitar, and they'd go in the basement and jam out. When Brandy was in high school, she was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities such as the Teen Advisory Board at the library. They had a pretty solid program with a Mormon High School. She was in orchestra. She played the operate base. She also played Dungeons and Dragons with her friends and she created a few bands

with other friends too. Brandy lived with her mother during her elementary school years and went back and forth between her mother's house and living with her grandparents later during adolescence, and the onset of high school. When she met Christy and her sister Jenna, they became fast friends due to their close proximity and shared love for playing music. Not long after Brandy used to come hang out with my sister, is when she started thinking that she might be gay. When Brandy began to realize that she might be gay, Christy helped by answering her questions and aiding in her self-discovery. Brandy saw Christy as a role model and valued her input. So she reached out to me and asked me what she should do about that.

That's when we really started to build a good bond. Yeah, she kind of asked me, like, you know, should I tell people, should I keep it a secret, should I try to change myself and how she's going to tell her mother and her grandma, things like that. When Brandi finally did gather the courage to tell her mother the secret she had been holding inside, she was met with acceptance and love. Something many other teens in the same situation do not receive. Brandy had been accepted into Youngstown State University, and when she graduated from high school in 2010, she planned to attend college the following autumn with a double major in

psychology and sociology. Brandy's friends, remember that one of the main reasons she chose this path, was so that she could help people. When Brandi really began to come into herself, she became a support system for friends and younger people entering the LGBTQ community, hoping to offer the same kind of guidance Christy had given her. Brandi was the first person I ever knew to meet people through dating apps, which seemed to be before her time.

But she would randomly talk about people from out of state. And so when she started talking about Jade, I thought it would just pass. But she actually did bring Jade to my house to meet me. Before she bought her my house, she didn't say much about her except for she's awesome, I'm going to love her. We'll play Mario Kart together and we'll all be friends. Jade Olmstedt was a year or so younger than Brandy, and she lived in East Liverpool, Ohio at the time. Only about a 45-minute drive from where Brandy was attending college. She met Jade online at the onset of her freshman year of college around September of 2010.

The two girls stayed in contact over texts and through Skype calls, sometimes even spending the entire night talking and giggling, but the two had never met in person. A little over a month later, around late October, Brandy complained of friends about Jade's parents. Jade was not as lucky as Brandy in the family department. Jade was living in a religious household with parents who disapproved of homosexuality, and when she came out, her

dad in particular responded in an exceedingly unpleasant way. Her family had a lot of issues from drug use to neglect, and just plain cruelty towards the children living in the home. J.A.T. High School best friend Natalie was no stranger to hearing about the problems at the house. Yes, I did go to their house a small handful of times. We mostly spent the night at my house because my parents were much more laid back. Her and her parents had a lot of drama surrounding the fact that she was coming out as gay. She was raised pretty much just in a Christian household.

And then once she hit that age and she came out that she was gay, her parents actually, for a time, sent her to the local Christian school. This was such a stark contrast to the way Brandy was raised. That Brandy felt she may be able to help Jade come to the same place of self-acceptance that Christy had helped Brandy find when she came out as gay. She wanted to be a positive influence in Jade's life. Toward mid-November, the girl's relationship began to grow deeper, though they still had

not met in person. Brandy had started referring to Jade as her wife, and the two were in constant contact. When winter was in full swing, the air boned chilling in Ohio. Jade began to complain to Brandy that her living situation was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable, and Brandy told Jade that she could stay temporarily at her grandparents' home. This is when Kristi had an opportunity to meet this mysterious internet girlfriend after several months of hearing about her regularly. Brandy came over with Jade on our first meeting and we were having, I think we made tacos

at my house and we were playing video games. We just sat on the couch. Jade wouldn't, she didn't make a lot of eye contact. She wouldn't get her own drinks like she would ask Brandy to get her drinks and do things. She wasn't comfortable. I could tell she wasn't comfortable. I didn't know why. I was reserved. We talked about... she had said she was on Geodon, which is a medicine of some kind of... I think it's a mood stabilizer, but I remember like we had that common bond,

just kind of talking about mental illnesses, which in retrospect, it should have been a red flag. She was quiet, reserved, and timid. It was difficult for people and Brandy's life to get a taste of Jade's personality, because it seemed as though she didn't have one. Friends have said that she latched on to the personalities and interests of those around her, having a deep desire to be accepted. Well, Jade was always really sweet. She cared a lot about what people thought about her.

She was always trying to fit in with everybody you could tell. She really just wanted to be like. Jade's temporary habitation at Brandy's grandparents' home eventually turned into a long-term tendency. Now that the two were essentially living together, they became inseparable. Jade and Brandy were enamored in one another when they were together. It was like nobody else existed.

If she were hanging out with Jade, she wouldn't talk to anyone else, really. At least as far as I know, Jade is the only person who existed. But Jade also seemed very dependent upon Brandy, not only financially and for having a place to live, but emotionally, for instance, when she was at my house and I was on Thursday, Brandy's the only person

who could solve this problem. So it seemed kind of unhealthy in that way that Jade was too needy. Jade didn't have a job, but Brandy did. She was in school full time and working night shifts at Target. Because Jade didn't have any money and had no means of actually making any income. Brandy paid for anything and everything Jade needed and wanted.

She was so deeply in love. She would do anything for Jade. And everyone knew it. Brandy was a lover. So before Jade, she only had one serious relationship, but it didn't go as serious as Jade. So she was definitely her first complicated love. Brandy's first girlfriend was a girl named Jessica, and they dated for like a year, which

is astronomical, and gave relationships for teenagers, especially. But Brandy looked up to the girl and I saw it as, I don't know, I think Brandy admired her, but it didn't end up working out because the girl moved away. But as soon as Brandy got with her, it was like, I love this girl. You know, I'm going to marry her and nothing is going to come between us. But that fell apart and then she got with Jade and it was kind of like the same kind of love. So like Brandy's,'s I guess all or nothing though the two were still smitten with each other

The day in day out repetitive cycle of Brandy leaving to go to class and only returning home for a short time before going to work in the evening at Target became old for Jade Brandy had a car money and responsibilities Jade did not. She began to feel trapped and restless. Soon, the sweetness turned to bitter resentment as trouble and paradise continued to fester. The only other detail I know it got,

it seems like they had each other's social media passwords. And that was something that fueled the fire for the anger, like, Jade posted as Brandy at some point. And what it said was something like, my name is Brandy and I think I'm awesome. But I've also heard that Brandy had done the same thing to Jade. Like when Jade stole from Brandy, she posted as Jade and like said, I'm a, you know, I steal from people, something like that. So I think that just fed to the ugliness of the relationship.

On January 23, 2011, after Brandy had left for work, Jade opened the tin by Brandy's bed that she knew had valuable stored inside. She stole about $300 in cash and took off. Jade disappeared from Brandy's grandmother's house. Brandy was with her grandma at the time. She was letting Jade stay in the basement with her. Brandy went to work. She was working at Target. And while she was gone, Jade went into her tin with her money and an extra cell phone that she had and left. I remember Brandy came over the next day and she was

like you know complaining about of course and she said she wanted to keep her number out of her phone so she gave me her phone number as the brandy probably hadn't memorized but at that point she said she didn't want to ever talk to her again. When Jade vacated Brandi's grandmother's house without any mention of where she was going and when she would be back, Brandi was feeling understandably deserted. Christie was happy to take Jade's phone number so that Brandi could delete it. But the very fact she had entrusted the number to someone before deleting it in her phone showed that she had intentions of contacting her again some day. Brandy moved away from her grandmother's home and got an apartment, attempting to mend

herself after having been betrayed by the love of her life. She tried to date other people and move on, having little success holding on anything meaningful for very long. Before Spring announced itself in Northeast Ohio, Brandy had forgiven Jade and began reconciling their relationship. The two were back in contact after a little more than a month. When all of a sudden, Jade requested that Brandy come pick her up from built more Maryland, where she had been staying with family. The drive to Maryland from Ohio and back amounted to almost 10 hours. Brandy's younger sister Stephanie was taken aback. She could not understand why Brandy would agree to do such a huge favor for someone who had already treated her so badly.

Toxic relationships, after all, tend to wreak havoc on everyone involved. Brandi explained to her sister that she felt she needed to be there for Jade, and commenced to driving across state lines to rescue Jade, hoping for a romantic reunion. When they got back to Brandy's place, Jade wasn't there for more than a couple of hours before her former flame Ashley Barber came to pick her up. It seemed that Jade had once again taken advantage of Brandy's devotion to her, and used her to snag a ride back to Ohio only so that she could escape to Ashley's house in Cochranton, Pennsylvania to rekindle their relationship, leaving Brandy out of the mix. She likes to make herself known as super bad-ass, no one mess with me.

You know, she had a lot of tattoos and piercings, which whenever you're in high school, especially not as much as by the ones. She definitely put off this vibe that she was not to be mess with. Ashley and Jade went to high school together at East Liverpool in Ohio. Ashley was one of Jade's first serious relationships, if not her, very first love. The two split after about a year of dating, and Jade began her relationship with Brandi during her senior year of high school, when she was earning her diploma by taking classes online. of high school. When she was earning her diploma by taking classes online. When Brandy and Jade started talking again,

while Jade was staying with Ashley Barber, their communication seemed friendly. I have friends that told me that Brandy would head out there and pick Jade up and they would just drive around to hang out. So I assume that Ashley did not know that that was going on. But it just seemed like they were trying to be able to be friends. Ashley was a misfit. She was a negative and problematic person.

Never had many friends. And she struggled with depression, asleep disorder, and borderline personality disorder. She was possessive with Jade and was wary of anyone who could pose a threat to their union. Ashley put on a macho facade, making it seem as though she thought she was a force to be reckoned with and had unmatched game with women. Her homosexuality was a large part of her entire persona and she was a self-proclaimed butch lesbian.

In a YouTube video, she posted in April of 2012, she can be seen making the same faces a 13 year old boy might make when he's trying to look cool while flirting with his middle school crush. She raises her eyebrows and bites her lip unironically. The whole video gives the viewer the same feeling that is brought on when watching a cringy Tik Tok compilation. Her video is titled, Shit Butches Say To Femmes, that she refers to herself as AJ System. video about things but you say to them because I realize I couldn't find one online. And I think they're funny and so we could start doing that. So are you the type of girl with a boy in the side? I bet you I can live that. No, really watch, I can. Can I get your

digits so or do I just carry you home? Ashley may have been one to attract trouble, but Brandy, on the other hand, was not one to stir the pot. She had no intention of disturbing Jade in Ashley's relationship. Jade would reach out to Brandy when she and Ashley were having an argument, or when she wanted Brandy to buy her something. It seemed Jade had Brandy wrapped around her finger, using her when she wanted something Ashley could not provide, and vice versa. Shortly after Brandy brought Jade back to Ohio from Baltimore, she posted this status on Facebook. She just bought me new DC and band shirts. I'm busy this weekend.

Tell me she didn't just buy your love. Wait, that's all she's doing. Maybe I don't have the money. Maybe it's because I have a car and I have to pay for gas. Maybe because I won't take money from my grandparents. Maybe because I just spent $100 picking you up from Baltimore, bringing you here. Then you leaving an hour after we got back. I was your best friend. You promised me you'd see me this weekend. God, why do I pick up such awesome friends?" Brandy was upset because Ashley had apparently bought some new things for Jade, and as a result, Jade cancelled her plans to hang out with Brandy. It seemed that whichever girl was doding on Jade financially would be

the one to get her attention. What Ashley didn't know was that Brandy also bought things for Jade and that the two spent lots of time together hanging out in person, going on adventures. To successfully pull off this duplicity, Jade probably worked hard to lie to Ashley about where she was, where she got all the new things she was bringing home, and who she was in contact with. Ashley though began to catch on, and soon her mind was alive with deep hatred for Brandy. Not much time had passed before Ashley took to social media to publicly bash Brandy's

character, and even began to hunt down Brandy's friends, personally messaging them and saying disparaging things about her. One friend recounts receiving a message from Ashley advising that she shouldn't be friends with Brandy. Ashley claims she was manipulative, abusive, and had everyone in her life fooled. She finished the message with one final sentiment saying, by a beaties does. So toward the middle of May 2012, Brandy was finally starting to feel herself again. She brushed off all the mean things set about her online and was attempting to get on with her life.

On Thursday, May 17, she told her grandmother that she was going to visit her longtime friend, Riannan. She began to drive over to her friend's house that morning. That same day, Ashley Barber posted photos on her Facebook page displaying bruises from a fall down the stairs. Her girlfriend Jade drove her to the emergency room to make sure there was no serious underlying damage. Because from the outside, the bruises on her arms look troublesome and severe.

Brandy and her friends regularly use social media platforms like Facebook and 4Square to update their locations and activity. When Brandy went silent for the remainder of the day and into the night, friends became concerned. Saturday morning, brand new friend, Brian, and texted me and said, have you seen Brandy lately? I haven't been able to get a hold of her since Thursday. And so this was Saturday morning. And I knew if I was hearing from Brian, I had like a month prior to this, we all went, we played pool together. So it wasn't super unusual, but I never had texted her before so I knew that something was wrong As soon as I saw that she texted me the concern of Brandy's friend Christy heightened when Rianne and told her

She hadn't heard from Brandy since Thursday Brandy after all said she was driving over to hang out at Rianne's house The problem was she didn't drive to Rianne's hang out at Reannan's house. The problem was, she didn't drive to Reannan's. She drove around 80 miles to Cochranton, Pennsylvania to see Jade and Ashley and hang out at Ashley's parents' house with the two girls. Reannan told Christie that Brandy texted her around 9.45

Thursday morning to give her the address where she would be, Drake Hill wrote. She also mentioned that she had a funny feeling about going, but decided to drive over anyway. Thinking it entirely possible that Brandy had gotten lost on the way to her destination was without her insulin and maybe found her way to someone's house to ask for help, Christy went on the hunt. She was hoping that maybe she would see Brandy's car parked along the side of the road. Later that day, I think, is when I made one of those homemade flyers that's it, with Brandy's

picture and said, have you seen Brandy contact, whoever, and started sharing that and giving it to my friends to share on social media. And I had to work that night. But the next day I went out, that's when I asked Rianne for the address because Rianne has kids. And there was no way she could go out there. But when I got the address from her, I drove out to Drake Hill Road,

which I didn't know what I was looking for. At the time I was looking for a car, I knew she'd drove a Kyrio. Maybe tire tracks. But as I was looking for a car and you should drove a Kierio, maybe tire tracks. But as I was going through the dirt road to get to the address, I remember I texted Jade. I asked my ex for her phone number because Brandi had given my ex the phone number of course, so she could delete it from her phone at some point in time. But I texted Jade and I'm like,, it's Chrissy Brandy's friend. Coming out to your neck of the woods, see if I see any sign of Brandy.

And she replied and she said, be careful, it's bear hunting season. Some people appear to not only gay people and are the cops doing anything. The Western Pennsylvania is notoriously conservative. The comment Jayden made was a strange one, and almost seemed like a threat. I didn't get to the end of getting to the address. First I thought that was weird, but I kept going anyway. It was dark by the time I got to where the address was supposed to be, which was different. Now I know in retrospect the address was in the wrong place on Google Maps at the time.

So I wound up at a church parking lot and turned around and came back to young soundless more questions and answers. The search for Brandy continued. Friends and family made posters and handed them out everywhere. One friend even made a YouTube video to help spread awareness in the hopes that those who saw it would keep a sharp buyout for the girl or her car. When Brandy's mother filed a missing persons report, they increased the importance of the notification due to Brandy's medical needs. She was without her insulin, and she needed to be located quickly. Hi, my name is Ariel, and I'm making this video because one of my oldest friends Brandy

Rosene is missing. She hasn't been seen or heard from since May 17, 2012. She left Weaver Township at Ohio on Thursday, saying she was headed for the Erie area. Since then, she hasn't answered her cell phone or come home. Friends have tried calling her, and on Monday evening, two people managed to get her cell to wing, but there was no answer. We think she's in an area with no signal but that herself on isn't dead. We're all desperate for news of Brandi because she is without money and more importantly

insulin. Brandi's diabetic and we can have medicine soon. Photos will follow at the end of this video both of Brandi and the car she was driving, a blue grey 2002 Kia Rio with Ohio license plates. Brandi hit short, dark blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore thick, rimmed glasses, black, and his gauge deers, approximately five, three, or five foreign height.

And Brandi, if you're seeing this somehow, everyone is desperate for information and news about you. We just wanna know that you're all right. If you can contact anyone in any way, please do. And please try. Jade Olmsted was in communication with Brandy's mother over the entire weekend after her friend's disappearance, and she seemed concerned.

She frequently asked Carrie if she had heard anything from Brandy or from the investigating officers. The two kept each other up to date on findings and carry asked Jade to keep an eye out for Brandi, her car, or anyone who may have seen her. Chrissy had gone searching for Brandi's Sunday, May 20th, and on Monday, the 21st, after things were beginning to look grim, Brandi's cell phone pinked in Medville, Pennsylvania. Her cell phone pinged a tower.

They tried and gladed it to Lyndon Street in Medville. So we all had like tremendous hope that you know something her car and at a gas or whatever. Something about her diabetes and she has to be in Medville. So we all went up.

It was Brandy's mother and I, her cousin, my mom and a couple of of each of our family members. That went door to door in Medville, with the little poster with her picture. And some people said they had seen her, you know, they thought they had seen her, but most people said no. And after a few hours of doing that,

and some lady holding our hands and praying with us, in hopes that we would find Brandy, Carrie was frustrated, and she's like, you have the address, Christy, let's go there. So we went to the barber residence. The address Brandy had given her friend, Riannan, which was then passed over to Christy. Was that of Ashley Barber's parents' house in Cochranton, Pennsylvania? This address which had taken Christy to a church parking lot on her first attempt, took them to the correct place in the daylight, and they arrived in the driveway of Ashley Barber

and Jade Olmsted, that Monday afternoon. There are two cars, so we both parked in the driveway, and as we were getting out of our cars, Mr. Barber was sitting on the stoop, and Jade and Ashley were coming up from the left out of our cars, Mr. Barbara was sitting on a stoop. And Jade and Ashley were coming up from the left side of the house. And they met Carrie in the middle of the yard, the front yard, and Carrie's been carried to the manor, where's my daughter? And Jade was very timid and quiet, and I don't know, she never ended up here. Jade was claiming that though Brandy had planned to drive to Cochranton that morning, she

never actually made it. And they too were wondering what could have happened to her. And Carrie said, bullshit, this is a lot, she said she was coming here, she was here, where's my daughter, and actually put her hand in front of Jade to push her back and she was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't talk to her like that. We don't know where she was. We were at the hospital and actually held up her arms and they were both solid bruises. She's like, I felt on the steps

we were at the hospital, I should say we didn't see Brandy. And then the dad on the stoop said, you know, she could have gotten lost. That's what I think happened when we put my address in the GPS. It doesn't bring you right here. I'm like, well, I can attest to that. That's true, but I mean, especially if it were in the daylight,

we left there again with nothing else more than that. Mr. and Mrs. Barbara were not home the entire day that Brandi had planned to drive over to their home. They were not there to see whether Brandi had actually arrived or whether the girls were truthfully awaiting her that Thursday and she did not show up. That same night, the night Christie and Carrie confronted the two girls in their front lawn, the police found Brandy's key a Rio in the Barbers Garage. Ashley Barber's mother had informed police of an unrecognized car sitting in their garage, and she didn't think it would be pertinent information until Carrie and Christie made a visit. But I did hear that Mrs. Barbara contacted the police

and told them it was in there, because she knew that we had come to the house, and she knew there was a random car in her garage. So I do think she had something to do with the tip to the police about the car being in the garage. However, still the next morning, the police contacted Carrie and asked her to come get the car. So we had a missing girl. Anyway, that prompted her to contact the Cleveland FBI.

The Pennsylvania State Police seemed to think that a thorough search of the car, the car that was found at the last known location of a missing person, was not necessary. They did a registration check on the vehicle and determined that it did belong to Brandy. They had been informed that the girls were claiming Brandy never arrived at the house before the car was found there, and yet they still neglected to conduct a thorough investigation of the vehicle. Brandy's mother Carrie did look at the car to confirm that it belonged to her daughter, and the most alarming realization was that the car had been completely cleaned. It was spotless, vacuumed, wiped down.

There was not one single Arby's cup or Taco Bell bag in sight, all except for a single gas can in the back seat. This was strange because it was so unlike Brandy to have a clean car. Everyone who knew her could attest to the familiar clutter that greeted them in the passenger seat when they opened the door to get in. The wounds in diet and sports drinks was just apparent in her car and she always had like her backpack with her video games in it. Someone had made a point to clean out this car and it wasn't Brandy. Quickly realizing that the state police were not taking the matter as seriously as she

had hoped, Carrie decided to enlist the help of the Cleveland FBI. Within an hour after Carrie Rosene contacted the Cleveland FBI regarding her daughter, the Pennsylvania State Police called her and informed her that they would be indeed seizing the car and would be blocking off the entire Barber residents for a thorough search and investigation. Before they did this, they wanted to go back to the home to speak to Ashley and Jade. The problem was, they were gone. The girls had fled after Carrie and Christy made a visit to their home and began asking them uncomfortable questions. They felt everything began to close in on them. And in their minds, the best solution was to run.

I think it was Wednesday when Trooper Eric Mallory was leaving his shift that he saw the girls who fit the description because now they had run. So they all were notified what they look like and what to keep an eye out for. So he saw them going across a freeway with shopping bags with their belongings in them and getting to a black car. So he turned around and followed a black car and pulled them over. I think it was somewhere in in mid-villagant when he pulled them over, but somehow he got them to go willingly, which is probably pretty skillful on his end. But the driver of that car just said, Jeta just asked for a ride. So he apparently didn't know anything about what was going on.

When all fingers are starting to point suspicion in one direction, running away from the problem tends to make things look a lot worse for the suspect or suspects. An innocent person tends to stand their ground and insist upon the truth. A guilty person tries to evade officials, shifts blame onto others, and makes up false stories about what happened. The most short-sighted criminals try all three. When the girls were questioned by police about the car they found in the garage, registered to Brandy, Ashley and Jade now claim that Brandy did arrive at the home that Thursday.

But she gathered up all her stuff, decided to give her car a quick tidying, and walked down the road to meet up with some other woman named Jamie, never to be seen again. Ashley and Jade's lies were beginning to catch up with them. Their story did not match up with the texts that were sent from Brandy's phone that Thursday. At 9.45 on May 17, Brandy had texted her friend and said, I'm going to this address. I have a funny feeling, you know, so here's the address. But at 12.30, she sent another text message that said, she wasn't feeling well, she was stopping at Subway because she didn't have her insulin, so she needed sugar. And then at 2.30, her phone texted the

same friend and told her that she had been given a bad address. She was at a church and turning around and going home. If Brandy herself was telling this friend that she turned around and left the barber residence, there would have been no reason for her card to have been parked in the garage at the time the police found it. This leads investigators to one burning question. Was Brandy the one who sent those messages herself, or had someone else sent them on her behalf

to cover their tracks? When the police found out that they were in the garage, while the girls were in custody being questioned, officers got to work searching the property. Mr. and Mrs. Barber allowed the officers to freely enter the home, and they walked straight back to Ashley's bedroom, where all of Ashley and Jade's belongings were. The two had been sharing this room while living with Ashley's parents. Once they entered the bedroom, they quickly noticed a pair of tennis shoes, with clear indications of blood spatter on them.

At this point, the investigation was intensified, as the officers began to heavily suspect vowel play. As the troopers made their way into the woods behind the home, some of them began to smell the pungent aroma of death. What officers found in the woods behind the barber's home was indeed Brandy Rosene's partially decomposing body, buried in a shallow grave. When Jade and Ashley realized the body had been found, they began to change their tune. Explaining that Ashley's father was homophobic, he was upset when he saw Brandy's car in the driveway.

He was upset that she was over at the house and he didn't approve of homosexual behavior. That's when he walked up to the three girls in the woods, spouting off homophobic remarks, and Brandy became hostile toward him. Ashley then told investigators that her father picked up a shovel and began to hit Brandy with it. District Attorney, Francis Schultz, was interviewed by news outlets and noted that he didn't believe for a moment that Ashley's father could have been the one to blame. The police were working with the barber's cooperation over the house and had direct contact with both Mr. and Mrs. Barber.

Attorney Schultz could pin no motive on Ashley's father and saw no rational reason that he could have been the one to savagely end Brandy's life. That was, after all, Ashley, who was known by everyone to be fraught with trouble and aggression. Ashley told investigators that she had information for them, truthful information, and that she would agree to illuminate the situation with authenticity under one condition. Before agreeing to give any information to investigators, Ashley demanded to be allowed to look Jake in the eyes and talk to her. Officials wasted no time and allowed the two to see each other.

If it meant they would get a full confession, what was the harm? Jaden Ashley sat at a table fully aware that they were being recorded. They whispered that they loved each other, and both began to unravel the truth about what happened on May 17th. It was planned, Ashley told police. Jade came clean and admitted that the two had sent Brandy an invitation via text to come hang out at the house. Ashley knew her parents would be gone all day.

They would be able to corroborate whether they saw Brandy at the house or not. It seemed to be the perfect plan. The two girls lured her to the house in Cochranton, and once there, they coerced her into the woods behind the house. They told Brandy they had been building a fort, and they wanted to show it to her. They led her back into the woods, jade in the front and ashly in the back, sandwiching Brandy. Each girl was pouring over the plan they had discussed in detail during the day's prior.

This was a plan they had devised together, and it was about to be put into action. Jaden Ashley had dug this grave ahead of time, so that it would be ready for this particular Thursday. They had come up with a code word to set the plan in motion. Jade would say, hey babe, which was Ashley's cue to come down hard on Brandy. When Ashley heard Jade speak those words as they were walking back into the woods, she charged. In Ashley's confession, she recounts seeing Jade holding Brandy in a headlock and seized the opportunity to run up and begin beating her while she was held captive.

As the two girls continued to beat Brandy with their fists, she fought back. She screamed and begged Jade to stop, hoping that someone in the area might hear her cries for help. Ashley's neighbor was mowing his lawn next door, and it's hard to imagine how he was unable to hear the drawn out commotion, taking place only about 400 yards from the rear wall of Ashley's house. Ashley said she knew that if Brandy ran, she wouldn't be able to catch her, so they made sure to hold on to her and hold her down at all times. Ashley was beginning to get nervous that Brandy could still escape. So I started being her handle for truth, so I thought that's where the blood started coming. As Ashley began to escalate the violence, Jade followed suit, grabbing a shovel.

The bruises Ashley had posted on her Facebook and blamed on a fall down the steps were really caused by Jade accidentally hitting Ashley's arms as she beat Brandy. Ashley was holding Brandy down to allow Jade to swing the shovel over and over and over again onto her former lover's body, and in the meantime, she accidentally hit her current lover. Jade tearfully tells Officer Mallory about the sounds of Brandy screaming for her life as all of this took place. Ashley admits that she tried to choke Brandy with a rope, holding it around her neck and pulling her head upward,

then letting her head slam down onto a tree stump, over and over again. All the while, Jade was continuing to hit Brandy with the shovel. She was gasping for air and she was saying Jade stopped, the girl was laying out puddle of her own blood. What do you think made you angry about that? That she wasn't fighting anymore. As Brandy struggled to breathe, Jade and Ashley dragged her to the grave.

They dug far in advance and they pushed her in, but they weren't finished with their sick games just yet. I picked up a big boulder because I can tell that she was still breathing. I walked over to the top of the grave and I snatched her face. Jaden Ashley wanted to make sure she was dead before they covered her body with dirt, so they grabbed a bottle of water and poured it into Brandy's nose and mouth, watching for the water to bubble. They were trying to drown her on land. When they saw no gurgling, no breathing, and no signs of life, they began to cover her

with loose dirt and camouflage the body. They hid some of Brandy's belongings in Ashley's bedroom and burned the rest of them behind the house. The girls used Brandy's phone to cover their tracks, making friends think that Brandy never made it to the address she sent out. They drove to Medville in Brandy's car when they cleaned it out, which may have been why her cell phone pinged on Lyndon's street. which may have been why her cell phone pinged on Lyndon Street. Do you think she was still alive when your baby was born? I don't know, I don't know.

Her intentions were to bring her over so we can't help her. Okay. There it is. When the autopsy report came back, it was determined that Brandy's cause of death was suffocation. Suffocation on dirt and mud from her pre-designated grave. She had indeed been buried alive by someone she would have done anything for. If you thought you had the whole picture figured out, actually having been the aggressive and cold-hearted one in their confession and Jade speaking only through tears, you'd be

wrong. Though it seems one of the girls was showing signs of remorse while the other was not, the truth is much more sinister. Before leaving Brandy's body alone in the dirt, the girls wrapped a t-shirt around a tree near the grave with masking tape. They had written messages on the T-shirt and on the tape holding the shirt to the tree branch. I fucking enjoyed smashing her face in. Ha ha ha. Oink oink oink.

The messages also included these sentiments. Should have had a V8. Notorious. sentiments. As if this evidence weren't damning enough, the girls each wrote in separate journals about their experience. Ashley's journal reads, actually felt good to claim my actions. I've never been so alive. Never. I just want to do it again and again. Why lie? I'm addicted. I don't feel guilty. I feel like I have a purpose. If people knew at all times the reality of the fact that I could take their lives, Maybe they wouldn't judge. Jade's journal says, I told myself I wasn't going to write about this

because it's too much evidence. But the temptation not to get it out is too much. Yesterday was beginning a whole new life, a life of torment, evil, blood-stained hands and splattered clothes. I found my calling in a new addiction. Something the world looks down on. But us, we crave this life to be known for.

The images of this beautiful memory will fill the void now. Eventually, we'll want another kill. I will seek other methods and do my twisted plotting. That shovel was fucking perfect. I wrote to Jade too. I threw it away because I was ashamed of myself for giving her such attention, but like I used to, I was having dreams like of me talking to her and like asking her why the fuck did you do this to my friend? And so I wrote her and basically said that it was probably the meanest I've ever been in my life. So I hope she didn't keep my letter. But her reply was, I had written her at the end of April and she replied and she said,

nice of you to think of me near May 17th. May 17th is every day for me. I'm in here being remorseful, but Ashley is bragging about it to the other girls. Yada yada yada. Just put a lot of the blame on Ashley. That's the hardest part for me, I think, is Brandy's little sister. She just had a baby, like literally like a week ago. So Brandy would have been an aunt. She would have been graduated from college by now and actually have her life, shouldn't

have any of the saddest part, I think. Jades friend Natalie had also contemplated writing to Jade, but had decided against it for now. You know, I don't really have a whole lot to say except I just, I don't know, I have a lot of regrets and I can't help but feel like maybe and of course this isn't all on me, but maybe if I had stayed closer in her life, I don't know, maybe I could have changed something, but you know it is what it is and there's nothing that can be done now so I hope that you know whatever she's doing in prison, that she's trying to find some way to move

forward. I don't know, I just feel bad for Brandy's family still even after all these years. Though both Jade and Ashley will spend the rest of their lives in prison with no chance of parole, Ashley may be sitting in her jail cell, feeling like Brandy's murder was the best decision she ever made. Prison is treating her quite well after all. But I know that Ashley Barber is, she's transitioning and wants to move to a male prison. She's on testosterone, I think she's been on testosterone for a while.

And I think she's going to go into certain, that's her plan is to undergo surgery and then go to a meal prison. But I feel like if she does transition, goes to a meal prison, my hope is, they'll take care of her there. Though we may never know the true motive for this heinous crime, many speculate that it was a twisted display of the couple's love

and commitment to each other. Ashley wanted Brandy out of the picture, and Jade agreed to help her fulfill not only her sick internal desires, but to show Ashley just how deep her love was. I don't know, I guess if, if nothing else, just gotta take it as a lesson to be careful about who you select to be in your life, because your brandy didn't deserve to die that way. I mean, I don't think anyone does, but especially someone who was selfless as she was. Brandy was a shoulder to cry on and a trustworthy ear to confide in for so many of her friends and classmates.

She was cremated and a few of her closest friends and family, including Christie, wear her ashes on their necks inside a necklace. As for the rest of the lives she made an impact on, those people visit a bench at Youngstown State University dedicated to Brandy. When we make a decision to let someone into our lives, it's impossible to know the far-reaching effects they can have on us. Some people will uplift us with positive

influence and motivation. Some will drag us down with negative thoughts and behaviors. And once in a while, the few most unlucky will allow someone into their life that will kill them. Here's hoping that one of those people is not in yours. That does it for another episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, choose your friends wisely and stay safe. you you