True Crime All The Time - Jermaine Ross

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

47-year-old Jermaine L. Ross was a popular barber from Cahokia, Illinois. After missing an appointment, his body was found inside his home. Leading up to his death, Jermaine had alluded to having problems with unspecified people. Authorities worked to narrow down a wide suspect pool and identify the killer. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murder of Jermaine Ross. Police worked through many leads that didn't pan out until they finally hit upon the people involved. As is normally the case, each person had a different story to tell. And it would be up to the authorities to ensure the truth was revealed.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 468 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime. Mike Gibson. Give me, how are you? Hey, I'm doing good, man. How about you? I'm doing amazingly. That's awesome. We talked about it on Patreon, but and I think I mentioned it on here as well, but I'm in the process of setting up a new studio for video. And I've really been kind of sweating, the details, you know, what table to buy. It's a big decision. It is a big decision, but I finally settled on one. I'm really excited about it. So we're probably two or three weeks away from the extra episode coming out, but we're getting closer. I'm just glad I get it my side of the table.

Yeah. But like I said, on Patreon, with all of that increased room. Yeah. People are going to be expecting big things from you. And like I said, with great power comes great responsibility. Well, yeah. So we will see. We'll see.

Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Heather Mayhew. What's going on, Heather? Isaiah McCliny. Hey, Isaiah. Omen. Well, let's Omen you. Sherry Parkinson.

Hey, Sherry. Kimberly Carter. Hey, Kimberly. Christian Agent. Well, thanks, Agent. Crystal Gillie. Kili. I was like,

isn't there a Saturday Live character named Gilly? Well, there was Gilda Radner. I think there was actually a character named Gilly played by

Kristen. Wigg? Wig. Maybe. I think so. She was great. She was one of my favorites. Yeah.

And then last but not least, Chrissy Patron. Well, thanks, Chrissy. Yeah, we appreciate the new support. And then if we go

back into the vault, this week, we selected Sherry Valenz. Hey, Sherry. Yeah, so appreciate the continued support. We have an episode out right now on True Crime All the Time Unsolved, where we're talking about 52-year-old Lynn Messer, who went missing in 2014. And then two years later, her body was found on her family's farm property in Bloomsdale, Missouri. Raise a few eyebrows there, didn't we? Yeah, this one is a real head scratcher. Two years.

go by. And okay, at some point, you know, you expect to find someone's body. Yeah. It doesn't always happen. No. I think the location where it was found is what really confounds people. Because first of all, it implicates family members. It does. And then secondly, if they didn't know about it, why would a killer dump her body or hide her body on her family's property? Yeah. So make sure you check that out. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am ready.

We're talking about Jermaine Ross. 47-year-old Jermaine Ross was a popular barber from Cahokia, Illinois. After missing an appointment, his body was found inside his home. But leading up to his death, Germain had alluded to having problems with unspecified people. Authorities worked to narrow down a wide suspect pool and identify the killer. Germain Lavelle Ross was born on November 6th, 1970. His passion was barbering.

Germain's nephew, Metchie Reese, described his shop as vibrant. People came in just to hang out with Germain because he was the kind of person others were drawn to. I love a good barbershop. Well, you know, I would too. I'd love to find like a local barbershop, maybe like something from coming to America. Yeah. Where people are just sitting around, you know,

shooting the bowl and talking about sports. And, but I don't know if those exist in 2006 in the smallish town I live in. I think they're out there somewhere. You just have to go to the right one going there. And, you know, I know you don't have a lot of hair left. No. Because you've mentioned it a lot and it's obvious.

You're looking at it right now. I can see you. But you can go in there. They can lather you up a little bit. Smack your head around a little bit. Okay. Give you a little rent, maybe a little buff and shine and get you out the door. Yeah.

I just think it would be nice to go to a place where people know you. Know your name? As opposed to like the, and I'm not saying anything bad about the supercuts or the great clips or, you know, anything like that. Yeah. But, you know, you don't know who you're going to get. No, I get it. It's always nice to go somewhere where they always know your name.

It is. Yeah. Norm. But here's the other thing. And I know for a fact, I've never talked about this before. But I always thought that being a barber would be a lot of fun. I think it would be fun. I don't know why, but I have no experience with cutting hair whatsoever.

I just think it would be fun. would be very interesting, right, to talk to different people all day. You can really have some conversations while you're doing your work. And let's face it, I do enjoy like taking something and making it smaller, like cutting the grass or trimming hedges or something like that. That's always been something that I've enjoyed. Plus, you have a lot of power, right? Because who's going to Fiss off their barber. You don't ever mess with a person that cuts your hair, right? No, you might end up with a reverse Mohawk or something you didn't really want.

Now, I'm not talking about like don't mess with the Zohan. Like I had this burning desire to be a, you know, to cut hair. But I always thought in the back of my mind that would be an interesting job. You make a good barber. I can see it already. If a child's parents didn't have money for their haircut, Jermaine did it for free because he wanted them to look nice for school. Love that.

Jermaine's sister Willa Ross Patterson said in her interview for the show, Real Murders on Elm Street. He wasn't perfect, but Jermaine was a person that reached out and helped people. He was a community person. You know, he had a heart. And I don't know, Gibbs, if you've watched this Real Murders on Elm Street, I think it's an ID show. I watch it on H.

HBO. Yeah. Max. And it has nothing to do with the movie. Right. But it's just murders that happen to occur on Elm Street. Oh. It's somewhere in, in the country, and there are a lot of streets named Elm in cities all over. And its own right, that's fascinating. Yeah. And it's a really good show. Metcchi Ross also noted he didn't splurge about his money at all. He didn't have a lot. But, you wouldn't think that. He let people stay with him that needed a place to stay. No charge, no rent, no nothing. You know, he'd give his shirt off his back. He was that person. He was a giving person. I wanted to say you guys are kind of similar, but you would charge me, Brent, but I don't think you'd even let me stay here. I've tried and you say no. Yes. Now, you did give me the shirt off your back once, but it was like it's seen its last day. You know, You know, and you're like, here, you want this shirt, you know? I'm like, well, it hasn't been clean in a while. It's got all these holes in it and stuff.

Well, you know, people always say that, right? This person would give you the shirt off their back. I mean, obviously, we know what they're talking about. But, you know, when you hear about what Germain was like, if a kid didn't have money for a haircut but needed one, he'd do it for free. Yeah. He'd let people stay at his place and not charge him a thing. I mean, that's kind of the definition of giving someone the shirt off your bag.

Absolutely. And to be honest, you know, if I really needed a place to stay, if I really needed something, one thing I know is I could always depend on you. Oh, absolutely. If it was real. Now, if you just said, hey, can I stay here for no reason? Then I would be very suspicious and I would probably turn that down. Jermaine was forced to shut down his barber shop in Cahokia.

due to a fire, he continued running his business from his home and also did house calls for some clients. Now, that's what I'd really like to find is someone who would come cut my hair at my house. That'd be convenient. Because you know, I don't like to leave my house. I know. I remember the days when, like, my mom would cut our hair, right? She put that kitchen chair right in the middle of the kitchen floor. And then put the bowl on top of your head and then just trim around towel around our head. Like it's going to stop all the hair from getting on us and, yeah, and cut that little bull cut. In early October 2018, Jermaine missed a few appointments. On October 3rd, one of his friends brought someone over to his house to get a haircut. When they arrived at

Germain's house, they noticed an odor and saw that the windows were covered with flies. According to one investigator, there were so many flies, it looked like a black tarp across the window. Oh, it makes me a little nauseated thinking about it. Well, that's some real Amityville horror type stuff there. Yeah, it is. Because you know, if there's flies, there's the babies that aren't flies yet, maggots. Most likely pertaining to the odor.

And we know what odor they're talking about. Sure. Right. Anytime you watch a show and there's a law enforcement professional and they talk about the odor of death, They all say the same exact thing. It's unmistakable. Once you smell it, if you smell it again, it's just there's no doubt about what it is.

You know exactly what you're looking at. So, you know, these guys show up to Jermaine's house. They noticed that the door was slightly ajar. So one of the men went inside and found Jermaine's body. He then ran to the home of a nearby officer, identified by his last name, Greer. Officer Greer recalled, I was working that day and I went home on lunch.

And actually, I lived literally right around the corner. Heard someone knock on the door, knocked on it again. And Willie that works at the convenience store. He was there. And he said, Ross is dead. Ross is dead. So I just ran out. I didn't know what kind of situation it was.

Went up. The door was cracked. I could see his, the TV on. You know, the stench. I mean, it was bad. I just put my head inside the door. I called the chief like, hey, we got a body over here. And it sounds to me like he didn't even have to go in and see the body.

I mean, as soon as that smell hit him. Yeah, he knew. He knew what he was dealing with. Police initially thought Germain died of natural causes due to decomposition. He had most likely been in his home for three or four days before he was found. CSI grant hints from the Illinois State Police arrived to investigate the house. Hens recalled that an officer essentially told him he's just dead. It's a natural.

Don't see any injuries. It really smells in there. And I'm going to wait outside. Okay. I've seen enough. I'm good. I'm going outside. You guys go ahead and take it from here.

Hey, you know, I know we're harping on it, but, you know, this odor, this smell is not something that everyone can handle. Yeah, it's, uh, there's a few smells that I have, uh, that you have,

that I have smelled, that you have right now, that you're emanating at this moment. No, no, no, no, no,

but I mean, uh, I've been out by a mushroom farm once. That was pretty bad. Uh, obviously I've been, you know, there's,

there's, there's pig manure, which is not pleasant, but chicken manure from the big chicken farms. Mm-hmm. That is probably one of the worst. the worst smells that I can ever imagine. Not imagine because I've smelled it.

Right. Remember maybe? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, the worst smell I can remember. Yeah, I don't know what you're doing at all these places. I'm assuming these are all stories in and of themselves that you will tell at a later date.

Hence described details of the death scene in his interview for the show, the real murders on Elmstreet. When he walked in, Jermaine's body was immediately to the right on the couch. He was completely new. He said Germain's home was fairly disorganized, but there didn't appear to be evidence of a struggle. He agreed that based on the level of decomposition, Germain had been dead for at least a couple of days.

CSI hence didn't observe any obvious injuries, most likely due to the decom. However, there was something unusual about the scene. There was a coffee table in front of the couch. on that coffee table was a can of comet, an abrasive cleaner that is not typically used in the living room. The cleaner was also found on Jermaine's genitals. That's strange.

You know, I grew up in a house that either we use comet or Ajax to clean the bathroom. I mean, to the point, look, was me and my two brothers and my dad and my mom hate it cleaning the bathroom after us guys. I'm sure they did.

So my mom would go in there on Saturday, mornings and take a half a can of comet and just pour all over the toilet the toilet the floor around the toilet the sink said when you get this all cleaned up then you can go enjoy your Saturday and and you're just you're just out there scrubbing your sprubbing away your pee stains away and stuff like that so yeah i mean obviously there were a lot more cleaners now than there were when we were younger comet was one of the big ones i mean who didn't have a can of comet that they used in their bathroom. But it's not something you would use in your living room.

No. And it can be pretty abrasive. Yeah. Especially on one's genitals, I would imagine. Exactly. So this is a big mystery. The cleaner also appeared to have been moistened and wiped on the deadbolt, an interior door knob of the house.

And so if you're an investigator, Gibbs, and you kind of see this detail or you're let in this detail. What do you think it? So you're wondering, what are they trying to get rid of? Fingerprints off the door, handle, the doorknob, and, I don't know, can you dust somebody's genitals for fingerprints? I think you can get fingerprints off of a body, but I mean, you're right. That's really the only thing that I can think of. Now, whether Comet does that or not, I don't know, but the person may not have known that. Germain's body was taken to the corner's office where X-rays showed a bullet that pierced Jermaine's heart. The bullet entered through his buttocks and traveled upwards.

Oh, wow. Okay. That's a strange one. Now, we know bullets can travel through the body, but to be shot in the buttocks, as Forrest would say, and have it travel all the way up to the heart. First of all, you're at a strange angle. Well, I'm saying there's a certain position someone's going to be in to get that shot off.

Yeah, you're either standing and they're like somehow underneath you firing upwards where this person is laying down and they're kind of firing from a low position right, right behind them, right on top of them. It's strange. And so you've got to figure out what to make of that. Yeah. And we already said that he was found nude. so you have to factor that in as well.

What kind of activities were going on at that time. Yeah. But I mean, the thing that was evident was that Germain's death was not natural, right? He was obviously murdered. Investigators returned to the house and found a bullet hole in the wood frame of the back of the couch. So the next task was figuring out who wanted Germain death. Authorities called in the major case squad of Greater St. Louis, a multi-jurisdictional task force comprising nearly 600 investigators from 120 local

law enforcement agencies in Missouri and Illinois. Now, that's an impressive special force. It's a large task force, right? 600 investigators from 120 different agencies. Officers canvass germane's neighborhood asking for information. Cahokia, and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, is a small community. community just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri. It's the type of place where people care about each other. The murder was shocking to the residents because Jermaine was so well liked.

Germain knew a lot of people and had many connections because of his work as a barber, which only widened the suspect pool. Yeah, I'm sure it didn't help narrow it down. No, because this is a guy who interacted with a lot of people, right, on a, on a daily basis. But you think about this being a relatively small community. And we touched on this before, right? These types of murders, they really shake smaller communities. Now, if you got a larger city that is used to dealing with murders, you see it on the news.

Okay. You don't know the person. It probably doesn't hit the same. But in a small community, this would hit hard. Well, it would. Especially with Jermaine being a well-known guy. Well, normally after something like this happens, the local barbershop is just buzzing with all kind of activity. Well, that would be the place probably people would congregate, right, to talk about what's going on,

maybe throw around theories about who was responsible. But I don't know if that could happen in this case because. because Germain's the barber and he's the one that's been killed. One neighbor identified as Dionne H, told police she had some information. She recalled in her recorded interview that Sunday night, around between midnight and one, I heard two gunshots go pop pop pop. I looked out my back window. It faces Ross's kitchen window.

It's dark out, no light on in Ross's house. She explained that she looked out her back window because that was the general area the sound was coming from. The noise occurred in the first hour of September 30th, 2018. All right. So we got a potential timeline or a beginning of one. Yeah. I mean, someone who's, you know, helping to narrow down the timeline. She continued by saying, I didn't see no movement of nobody, no vehicles.

and I went back to bed. And this is something I know you and I have talked about before. You know, you hear noises outside of your residents. You think, well, man, it could be a gunshot. It could be this, could be that. Maybe you go out to investigate, you look out your window. You don't see anything. What else you're going to do?

Are you going to call the police when you don't really know what's going on? Probably not. Most people wouldn't. I don't think today many people would. Maybe back, you know, 50 years ago, or not even 50, maybe 80 years ago, maybe somebody would have. I don't know. I just don't think people are that interested on what's going on out there unless they can really see something. Well, my thought is people don't want to be wrong.

I think there are a lot of people who think, oh, my gosh, I'm going to call the police. They're going to come out. nothing's going to be wrong and I'm going to look like a fool. Yeah. So I think that would probably keep quite a few people from calling. Dion revealed that Jermaine was having some problems in the neighborhood. They spoke to each other occasionally because she had lived there for years. Germain mentioned that his door was kicked in and people were after him.

But she didn't know what was going on. Okay. So we're getting more pieces of the puzzle. I mean, that's pretty serious. someone's kicking in your door. And to say people are after me. And then to all of a sudden wind up dead, it's, you know, it's something that I'm sure would at the very least peak the interest of police.

Approximately 11 hours after Jermaine was found. His nephew, Mecci or Michi Ross, I'm not sure exactly how you say it, learned about his death. He was in shock, but he knew something that could be helpful. to the investigation. According to him, Jermaine was the kind of person who always spoke his mind. He said that the last time he ever saw his uncle, Jermaine said, I have some problems with some people over here. You know, speaking your mind can be a really good thing, but it also can cause some problems when you speak your mind. Well, it depends on who you're speaking your mind too, right? Some people,

will digest what you have to say and okay, maybe agree with you or even if they don't, they'll disagree with you in a non-combative way. Right. But some people, they don't have that kind of filter or whatever you want to call it where to them any sort of disagreement is like provocation for action. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You got double yet out of that.

But here's the second instance, right, of somebody saying that Jermaine had told them he was having problems with some people. Now, Jermaine never said exactly what his problems were. He did mention that he kept a gun on him for protection. Michi told Jermaine that his gun wouldn't matter if someone ran up on him. But Jermaine didn't seem concerned. He said he wasn't afraid to die. Okay. I mean, I guess if you had that attitude, maybe it makes it a lot easier to say what's on your mind.

But could that also, you know, just be bravado, something that somebody would say, are you really not afraid to die, or are you just trying to look tough to someone you're talking to? And this was about two months before he was killed. Michi told the real murders on Elm Street, it was almost like he knew something was going to happen, but he just didn't know what. Former state, Clare County state's attorney Brendan Kelly was one of the individuals involved in the investigation. According to Kelly, it was normal in Cahogia for people to be reluctant to talk to police due to distrust or fear for their safety. But in Jermaine's case, several people reached out.

right away with information. And that might be because of the type of person that Jermaine was, right? We talked about him. He was very well liked. Yeah. I assume that when people heard he had been killed, maybe more so than others in the area with whom they didn't know as well, they wanted to really help out. And he was also very well connected.

Yes. Kindle T. Germain's former client was one of these people. He said in his police interview, Germain was a pretty cool dude. He didn't really bother nobody, talked a lot, drunk a lot,

but he didn't seem like a troublemaker or nothing like that. Kendall mentioned that he heard a younger man beat Jermaine up, four to five months before his death. Okay. So if you're the police, you want to know who this younger man is.

Well, sure. And why did he beat him up? Was it over what? Because he mouthed off to him. Was it a bad haircut? Money, you know, infidelity on somebody's part. We don't know.

But I think when you beat someone up months before that person is killed, okay, police are going to want to talk to you. You're going to be on the radar. At the very least, you're going to have to be ruled out. And man named Willié mentioned that Germain always kept a pistol in his barber cart. And I feel like that's something I would do if I was a barber. Just keep it right there in your cart. Not a sight. I mean, I would hope that it, you know, just wouldn't be sitting there where anybody could see it. But, you know, there could have been times where he's there alone. He could

have been there alone a lot of times and felt as though he needed protection. But it also could have something to do with the fact that he kept telling people that he was having problems with. with other folks, and so he was a little on edge, maybe. Ronald R also mentioned the gun and said Germain was angry. Did someone stole it from his barbershop? He knew that Germain was having problems, but he didn't know what those problems were. Well, like he've already said,

it seems like everybody knows he's got some type of problem going on, but nobody knows with who and what it's about. Ronald also mentioned that Germain recently came into some money because of the insurance payout from the fire that destroyed his barbershop. He had just gotten the payment a couple weeks before the murder. Jermaine said that people had talked about robbing him. So bit by bit, Gibbs, we're getting, you know, pieces of the puzzle. And I would think to investigators, you know, they're trying to put it all together.

Who would want to kill Jermaine? He's having some issues with people. Well, if he came into a bunch of money, that would be a possible motive for murder. Sure. And you don't really want to broadcast. You got a lot of money, you know, that just came in. That's not typically a good thing to do. Well, and Ronald even told Jermaine that.

He said, you need to keep your mouth shut and stop telling these people that you got money, especially if you're over here by yourself. Then Jermaine pulled out his little gun he had on the side. he said, oh, I got something for their asses. Yeah, but why even cause that to be a reason for people to do something? Yeah, I get what you're saying. I mean, is it natural for some people to want to, I don't know, kind of flaunt when they come into money or that they bought something expensive? Yeah, for some people it is.

But it's not always the smartest thing to do. Jermaine didn't say who specifically talked about robbing him and Ronald didn't know who it might be. So, you know, we talk about like these pieces kind of starting to trickle in. But investigators are still at least with the information they have right now, not really any closer to who the actual culprits might be. Yeah. They're starting to get some noise about what the motive might be. investigators learned that Jermaine got the insurance payout 11 days before his body was found and he spoke about the money with numerous people.

Like we said, not a good thing to do. No, but also if it was one or two people, okay, maybe that narrows your suspect pool. But if he's telling everybody that comes into the barbershop or that he knows around town, well,

that suspect pool could be pretty deep. Sure. And they go out to lunch with somebody or have breakfast with somebody. Oh, did you hear about such and such got a cash payout of X amount of dollars? He's just waving that money around. Well, and it was said that he showed one of his clients named Willie about $10,000 in cash. And Willie told Germain he should put it in the bank. Definitely shouldn't be flashing it around.

I remember, I don't know, a few months ago at the senior home, somebody in the front row was just flashing all kind of $1 bills, you know. Fistful of dollars. I was like, man, you know, you shouldn't really, you know, do that. Somebody might want to try to take that way from you besides you giving that to me. I was going to say, you're going to end up with all of them eventually. So I try to. What's the problem?

Providing some contacts in her interview for the show. Germain's sister Willa Ross Patterson said that Germain had been working since he was young, but he never had a lot of money. Jermaine told her that he received about $25,000 from the insurance company, but she knew that sometimes he said things that weren't accurate. However, in this case, it was true. Now, you could say $25,000 is a lot of money. Some people might not think it's a lot of money,

but if you're a person who's never really had money, $25,000 is a ton of money. It is. And if you're a person out to get some quick cash, finding out that someone has $25,000 in cash, that could be pretty tempting for a criminal. And murder might be the quick and easy way to get it. You know, people murder for less. Oh, no doubt about it. However much cash Jermaine actually had, it was nowhere to be found.

The only cash investigators found were two $100 bills crammed under the mattress. So if they knew that he had or received $25,000, but they can't find it, what are investigators to think? Well, they had to think that somebody murdered him and then took his cash. Yeah, I don't know what else you would think. Investigators were focusing on a new lead, centering around a woman named Melinda Graves, who was claiming she had information about Germain. She came into the station and told police she and Germain lived in the same area,

and she knew he was a barber. Melinda seemed scared and nervous and claimed people were accusing her of killing Germain and stealing his money. She claimed a man in a black car, threatened her and demanded that she give him. him the money. She stole from Germain. So this woman was really scared and she wanted to tell the police what she knew. She admitted she had been at Germain's house the night he died. Melendant, her friend Jasmine Madison, who was in a romantic relationship with Germain, walked from Jasmine's to Germain's house on Saturday, September 29th. Germain wanted to spend his money and have a good time. So they were partying.

with him. When they left his house, Germain was still a lot. Melinda was adamant. She didn't kill Germain and that Jasmine was not involved either. So her and her room, he went down and had a little good time, a little party. And she's saying, after all that was done, I went on home. And he was alive and fine when we left. But she is putting herself and her friend at the home. Yeah. The night he was murdered. But she also has this story about this mysterious man in the black car. Right.

Threatening her saying, Hey, give me the money that you stole from Germain. At first, police believed her story because in the majority of cases, the killer is a man. And yeah, I mean,

let's be honest. Most killers are men. That's true. Women kill. We know that. We've talked. about many of them over the years, but statistically, most killers are men. Investigators focused on finding the person, allegedly threatening Melinda.

They also needed to speak to Jasmine Madison, but she was nowhere to be found. Police were worried. They didn't know if Jasmine had been abducted and murdered, or was she possibly involved in hiding. And I'm sure one of the the questions they had Gibbs was, you know, did Melinda come in and tell this story because she was scared or because she knew that she had to put herself at Jermaine's house that night and she wanted to get ahead of things. I mean, both sound like possibilities. And obviously, one would most likely mean she's innocent. And the, other one not so innocent.

Yeah. On October 4th, investigators re-interviewed Melinda to try to get more information. She was still scared and frantic, but during this interview, her story changed. She recalled, so we're walking down the street to the dude's house. I sat down on the couch and were drinking malt liquor and smoking my cigarettes. She claimed that Germain went into his bedroom and took some money out to show them he then took the money back to the bedroom. Melinda got up to use the bathroom.

When she returned, Jasmine and Germain were having sex. She decided to go into a different area of the house, to give them some privacy. She admitted to walking around looking for the money. She checked his bedroom first, because that was the most likely place to find it. And like you always say, Gibbs, never a good sign. when someone's story changes, especially a change like this because it's so dramatically different.

How strange would it be to go to this guy's house with your roommate? And when you get there, you go to the bathroom and come out and she's having sex with this guy. Well, it could be deemed strange. We also have to take it with a grain of salt, right? Because she's changing up her story, which means she might have a problem with. with the truth. Now, if you're talking college days, for me, not that strange. You know, there was a lot of weird stuff going on. The old, uh, sock around the doorknob. If I was lucky. Yeah. Now, Melinda acknowledged that this looked bad for her, but she had a good reason to want the

month. She was the guardian for her 12 year old brother and was in a bad spot financially. Her house burned down and she needed a deposit for a new place for her and her brother. Melinda said she was desperate, but she didn't find the money, so her search was pointless. It just seems so weird that everybody's okay with stealing this money. Well, because she needs it. She has a good reason for stealing the money. You know, a lot of people need money, but it's never okay just to go steal it. Right.

It just sounds strange, right, to say, well, I had a good reason to steal it. I needed it. Now, this is what I needed it for. According to her, it wasn't for drugs or anything like that. It was because she had to take care of her brother and she needed a place to stay. But to your point, a lot of us have been in financial binds. The answer is never to go steal money from someone else. Right. It's just not. She rejoined Germain and Jasmine. And Germain made a phone call to buy some money. cocaine. Five to seven minutes later, a man barged into the house without knocking. Melinda didn't know who he was. He demanded to know where the money was and pulled a gun out. He then shot Germain.

Melinda said she and Jasmine fled. On her way out, she saw a black four-door vehicle with a dent in the passenger side. Melinda once again expressed her fear that the man would try to find and kill her. she said she didn't call the police after she ran away because she was scared. Well, that's definitely a change in the story. Yeah. I mean, she's keeping some of the things similar, but the changes are massive, right? I went looking for the money, couldn't find it. Then all of a sudden a strange man barged in, shot Jermaine.

She and Jasmine were somehow able to. escape. And you have to ask, okay, how is that? Yeah, why would he let you guys go? If you're willing to shoot Jermaine, are you going to leave two witnesses a lot? Maybe, but most likely not. Well, at least with a second story she's telling, she's getting more creative. Well, and you have to ask the question, right? Why is she getting more creative? Why did she have to change her story in the first? place. Was it because police presented her with some things that kind of disproved some of the things she had said in her first statement? I don't know that to be a fact. It's what we often see, right? People change their story to fit the facts that are presented to them. But it's a big

change from when we left, Jermaine was fine to we saw Jermaine shot and killed. We saw Jermaine shot and killed, but were able to flee unharmed. Police questioned Melinda's story because of the stark differences from her first interview, where she said they partied together and Germain was alive and unharmed.

When she left, investigators obtained security footage from the neighborhood showing a black vehicle matching Melinda's description. A man identified as Modi drove a similar vehicle. Modi knew

Jasmine Madison. So investigators were hopeful there was a connection. Modi came into the station for an interview. He said he knew of Germain, but he had never gone to him for a haircut. When Modi was informed that his car was identified on the night of the murder, he replied, hell no, that's impossible. He claimed he was at home that night and had people who could verify this. And I'll be honest with you, when I watch any show, true crime show, especially when they have actual interrogation footage, that to me is often the most interesting part of a case, you know, to see someone's reaction, real reaction to questions that are asked. And then for them to, you know, give an explanation or to answer a question, only to have

investigators kind of tear a hole right into it with some other evidence. And then for that person to kind of switch up. I mean, that to me is is the fascinating part. Now, Bodie right now is not doing that. No. He's saying, you're telling me that you saw me in my vehicle there and I'm telling you that's not possible because I was at home and I have people who can prove that alibi. He said he didn't know where Jasmine Madison lived, but she had been to his house a few times. She was there last on Sunday. Although it seemed like a promising lead, it turned out to be a dead end. Modi was not involved in Jermaine's murder. So he was, you know, right to stick to his story because it was the truth. And the truth is always usually pretty easy to stick to. Yeah. And it will set you free.

sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes people are convicted even when they tell the truth, but eventually another anonymous witness came forward and revealed that Jermaine was having a hard time financially. Before the settlement, he didn't even have running water at his house. At the time of his death, he was trying to get his water turned back on. It's pretty rough. Yeah, I mean, that's living rough if you have no running water.

The Major K-squad was able to locate Jasmine Madison, who had been afraid to talk to the police and was in hiding due to outstanding warrants. Jasmine insisted she wasn't a murderer, saying, I don't care what Melinda said. I know what happened. Overall, Jasmine's statement lined up with Melendez, but Jasmine had more details. She said she and Melinda walked over to Jermaine's house on the night of,

September 29th, Jasmine acknowledged that she and Germain had a romantic relationship and she knew that he had the settlement money. Germain brought out money that night. After he put it away, she and Germain had sex on the couch. Melinda then appeared with Germain's handgun. She demanded the money and shot Germain two times. After she shot him, Melinda told Jasmine to pour comment on Germain's genitals and his legs. Afterwards, Jasmine was so frightened that she grabbed her clothes and ran home naked. So, yeah, I mentioned, right, the stories are somewhat similar, some aspects of them are. Jasmine definitely has more details, namely the comment being poured on Germain,

but undoubtedly gives the big difference here is that. it wasn't a strange man who came in and shot Jermaine. It was Melinda. And unlike Melinda, Jasmine's story never changed. She maintained that her version was the truth. Just trying to figure out why I put a comment on your inner thighs and your junk. Well, I don't know if Melinda thought maybe she was trying to erase evidence that Jermaine and Jasmine.

had sex, like she didn't want either one of them really to be placed at the home that night. Yeah. That's the only thing I can think of. I'm also not sure this is a well thought out plan here. I don't think this was the Italian job where you spend months, you know, kind of mapping out this elaborate plan. Right. Yeah. Definitely a spur of the moment kind of thing. Or at least a day or two of, hey, we know he's got this money. let's go get it. But this fact that Jasmine's story never changed. If you're investigators and you're looking at the two of them, who looks worse?

Melinda does. Yeah. First of all, she's already lied. She's already changed her story. And Jasmine's story puts her as the killer. So, no, it doesn't mean it's true, but I would think in the eyes of the authorities,

she looks to be in a worse position. Yes. Other sources also told investigators that Melinda had recently been spending money on new clothes for her younger brother. That's a tell-tale sign. Yeah, it can be. If you remember Goodfellas after they made that big Liftonza score. The whole thing was don't be flashy. But what did people do?

Oh, bought new Cadillac, came in with a new fur coat on. Yeah, they were flashy all right. And they wound up dead. Police were able to speak to Melinda's brother, who overheard Jasmine and Melinda talking about going to Germain's house and taking his money. After the shooting, the women took the metro link to St. Louis. The gun was stored in a lunchbox, and it was disposed of somewhere on the Gateway Arch grounds. Seems like a very strange place to get rid of. of a murder weapon.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. On the grounds of the Gateway Arch, something visited by how many hundreds of thousands of people a year. Yeah. Not a lot of thought was put into that one, I don't think. Doesn't seem like it, you know, a swamp deep in the woods. Just the exit before would have been a whole lot better. A better place.

Police confronted Melinda with this new information. And she broke. she asked how long she would be away from her brother and asked what would happen if she got a life sentence, which seems like a strange question to ask, what would happen if I got a life sentence? You will spend the rest of your life in prison. Now, maybe she was asking, when could I be up for parole? Would I be up for parole? I don't know.

Finally, Melinda admitted to shooting Germain twice, saying that she panted. after doing so. And again, I don't get the sense that, you know, Melinda is a mastermind criminal. She's not a hitman who's experienced with killing people, I don't believe. I think she learned about this money. She wanted to get her hands on this money.

And she was willing to kill to get it. That's what she did. But like we talked about, right? I don't think there was a ton of planning. that went into it. I don't know that the decisions made after it were very good. Investigators never located the money or the murder weapon, but the facts of the case. And Melinda's own statement secured charges.

And, you know, there are a lot of cases where authorities don't have everything, right? They don't have the murder weapon. They don't have, let's say, maybe. great forensics, a lot of the evidence is circumstantial. But you know what is really nice to have? The perpetrator's own statement that they committed the crime, that's always nice. Backed up by the other person at the scene. Yeah, her friend.

Yeah. On October 5th, 2018, Melinda Graves was charged with murder and intent to kill or injure. During a press conference, police captain Dennis Plu stated that robbery was the motive. On November 26, 2019, Melinda pleaded guilty to first degree of murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life. The following day, Jasmine Madison was charged with obstruction of justice for using comment to try to remove evidence from the body. The St. Clair County State Attorney's Office had taken Jasmine's case under advisement but did not charge her until Melinda's proceedings were finished. Jasmine pled guilty to obstruction of justice in evidence tampering. That was probably pretty minimal.

Yeah, I actually didn't see where it said what she got as far as time, if any. I mean, it could have been a suspended sentence. I didn't actually see. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, she poured some comments. But it was on a person who had just been murdered. That's true. So you can look at it as, okay. all she did was sprinkle some comment to, in a way, she participated in the murder, at the very least in the aftermath.

Yeah, the cover-up of the murder. Melinda's projected parole date is October 2043. She'll only be 55 years old, Gibbs, if she gets out at that time. It's a big if. It is an if, but not to. to say that, okay, she wouldn't have spent, you know, 25 years or close to it in prison. But at 55, presumably, she would still have a lot of life to live. Yeah.

Whereas that didn't happen for Jermaine Ross. And that's always tough, not just for the victim's families and friends, but I think it's tough for anyone because it's very easy to put yourself in their shoes. How fair is it that this person at some point gets to go free, live their life, they're free to marry, they're free to travel, and we'll never see our loved one again. Well, exactly. You know what I mean? You robbed him for what? Some rent, some clothes. You're saying it's okay. to murder somebody for petty things like that. Well, we know what the motive was.

The motive was money. It was financial. I think what's hard for people to square is ending someone's life for materialistic gain. I mean, there's very few instances where you could make the argument that ending someone's life was good. Now, there's self-defense and there's things like that. Obviously, we're not talking about that here. This was just straight up greed. Sure it was.

She was in financial straits. She needed money. She knew that Jermaine Ross had come into this amount of money. And she was willing to kill him to get her hands on it. And what a weird way that she did that. Decided to shoot him from the buttocks up. Well, and there really wasn't anything. in the research that kind of laid out the positioning.

Yeah. So that's, there's, there's a lot of different ways this could have gone down. But my thought is he was either laying on his stomach and she came up behind him and shot him in the rear end. Yeah. Which seems like a strange place to shoot someone if you're, you're trying, but maybe she wasn't trying to kill him. I don't know. I can't imagine that she would shoot him while he and Jasmine were in the throes of sex. That would be pretty dangerous. Jasmine would be like,

what the heck, man? What are you doing? That could it went into me. But I don't know. There just really wasn't that much out there about it. Yeah. Strange. In her interview, Jermaine's sister asked Melinda why she killed Jermaine. But, she couldn't give an answer. If Melinda was telling the truth, she most likely did it because she was financially desperate and thought she could easily get away with taking Germain's money. Seems the most plausible reason.

It does. With everything we know, that does seem to be the most likely reason. I mean, I feel bad for Germain's sister, family, you know, friends, customers, you know, didn't need to happen to whatever. happened to him. It's a shame. Unfortunate. And totally senseless, right?

And Melinda gets every year she's in prison. She deserves it. Yeah, absolutely. And I think some would argue that 25 is not enough. But I don't know that it's a guarantee, right, that she'll get paroled. Depends on what she's doing in prison. Is she remorseful? Who knows? But that's it for our episode on Jermaine Rock. We got a voicemail, Gibbs. You want to check that out? Let's hear it. Hey, good morning, Mike and Gibby.

This is David Taylor calling out of El Paso, Texas. And I have a couple things. I've been saving one, my call-in, from your Carla-Fa-Tucker episode and not having anything to do with Carla-Fa-Fa-Tucker. I wanted to hear a little bit more about the good times you had at OU. I spent a lot of time at OU on the weekends and did the Court Street shuffle a few times. and was just wondering if anybody over that way made the trip as well because you and I are about the same age.

And then on the other one was I just listened to that Ed Dean episode one and you were talking about sewing. And as it would be, I am a sewer, so I sew everything by hand. And I was sitting here sewing on a jacket when I was lifting to good old Ed Gein sewing up a bodysuit. But just had to get a chuckle out of both of those. So, yep, as everybody said, keep your own time ticket. I don't have any recommendations. So there's enough love mouth there to go

around. I just sit here and listen. Thanks and have a great day. All right. Thanks for the voicemail. Yeah, unfortunately, I did the court street shuffle way too many times. It was the cause of me only lasting two years there and being forced to come back home and take a different route. But, I mean, that place is fun. There's nothing to do there. but party. That's why it used to be the number one partying university, you know, always made that top of it. It did. Yeah, it was number one a lot of the years. Just because it's in the middle of nowhere, kind, and there's nothing else to do. Exactly. You know, he says he's from El Paso. I was just

trying to remember that show. We watched that map of Texas. Oh, you're talking about the funeral director who killed the elderly lady? Yeah, yeah. that Jack Black Yeah But that guy didn't talk about El Paso, did he? I don't know, he just did the, was it Jack Black or somebody else? No, Jack Black played in.

But they did that map of all the different, like, what different areas were. And I'm just trying to think, where was El Paso on that map? Oh, I don't remember. I don't know if he talked about El Paso specifically. The only part I really remember was Austin. Yeah. That's the one that everybody got a kick out. But we appreciate the voice.

smell very much. We do. Thank you. All right, buddy, that is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and givey, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.