True Crime with Kendall Rae - What Really Happened to Tamla Horsford?

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

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Plus free shipping with the code SoldaGenero10. Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. So happy to have you here. If you are new, welcome. So today I'm talking about a very highly requested case and this one after warning advance is so Frustrating it's incredibly sketchy how everything went down and I know you guys are gonna have a lot of thoughts on it Just like I did so today we're gonna be talking about tamla horseford and Again, just a warning this one is very very frustrating So tamla Iona Horsford was born in 1978 in the Caribbean. At age 11 in 1989, her family moved to the Bronx and she later moved to Florida when she met

her husband Leander. Tamla went by Tam a lot of the time for short and Leander went by Lee, oftentimes. Lee actually has another daughter from a previous relationship and she's pretty young when Tamla first came into the picture. But Tamla raised her as her own from the very beginning and always had so much love and care for his daughter. The two of them ended up really having a typical mother daughter relationship, even though they were not related by blood. Tammy raised her. I mean, from the time she was little. So I mean, she calls her mom and, you know, and Tammy loved her like her own blood. Eventually, Lee got a new job in coming Georgia,

and they all moved there, and we're very excited to start a new life. And they started building onto their family, and Tamla ended up having another five boys. She was a wonderful mother and truly cared for all of her kids and gave them so much time and attention. Tamla was also described as having a larger-than-life personality. She was incredibly fun, funny, witty, just an overall well-rounded person. She was also loving, kind, charismatic,

selfless, and she was very inclusive and just open to everyone that she came in contact with. And being a stay-at-home mom, she was obviously very protective of her kids and very proactive and involved in their lives. She was always involved in their sports and their school and just loved being a mom. Constantly up and down the field, I was running down. She would have her bullhorn out there, you know. Everything was camp stop greatness, you know, she would always, that was her favorite line on the, on the bullhorn because anytime the

wreaths would make a bad call and then we'd answer back, she'd say it's camp stop greatness. So their daughter grew up and she actually was expecting her first child in 2018. So, Lee and Tamla were about to be grandparents and she was really looking forward to that. She was a natural caretaker, so becoming a grandmother was just something that she had been always looking forward to and very, very anxiously anticipating. In 2018, Tamla and Lee were living in for Sieth County in coming Georgia. And I think it's important that we start out by saying that this county has a really long history of racism. Going back to 1912, Rob Edwards was actually lynched in the area for allegedly raping a young white woman.

And there was no actual evidence tying him to this crime at all. And hundreds of people in the community gathered and watched this happen. And it seemed that he was only convicted because he was the closest black man to the scene of the crime. And after this, a ton of people of color in Forsyeth were run out of town through threats of executions,

fear of arrest, and just ongoing violence and terror in the community. And it was actually deemed at the time to be one of the most successful instances of racial cleansing in the United States after the population went from 1098 Black residents in 1912 to less than five in a span of a few years. And sadly decades later, the county remained as racist as it's ever been. And a march was held to bring attention to the discrimination and racial injustices that were happening in 1987. And protesters were met with a bunch of angry members of the community who wanted to keep the town pure and free from color. God, plus America, keep from size county wide! So that kind of gives you a little bit of a background.

And as of 2020, Forsyeth remains a place that is dominated by white majority with only 4% of its population representing people of color. I'm sure there will be people out there who say that that information is irrelevant. I happen to think it's incredibly relevant to this case and the way that it was handled. So let's start with October of 2018. Tamla was about to become a grandmother and she was over the moon about that. And one day she receives an invite to a friend's party and this friend is named Jean. I used friends kind of loosely because the two of them had only met in August of that

year. So they really barely knew each other at this point. And they only knew each other because their sons played on the same football team. The only time that they had ever spent together was on Saturdays during football games. But Tamla was always looking for new friends, always super friendly to everyone that she met. And she'd actually been to Jon's house once the weekend before the party. She and a few of her sons went over to their house for a pumpkin carving party. And this was like the first time they had ever really hung out outside of a football game. So this party that Jon invited her to was a sleepover party. It was

Saturday, November 3rd, 2018, and the idea was that everyone would sleep over so that they were safe because they planned on drinking that night, and they didn't want obviously anyone driving home under the influence. Jean thought it would be a good way for everyone to relax, enjoy themselves, you know, wear pajamas, and kind of be a kid again with this whole sleepover party theme. So the party was actually coordinated by John's friend, Stacey Smith. And it was gonna be at John's house, but Stacey kind of figured out what they were gonna do

and invited everyone there. Stacey invited eight women, so there were 10 total there, including her and John, and their names were Madeline, Nicole, Marcy, Bridget, Jennifer, Sarah, Paula, and of course, Tamla. And Tamla was the only black woman that was going to the party. And although everyone knew Jean, most of them knew Stacey, some of them were just kind of meeting for the first time.

Now this party originally started as a kind of no-boys-aloud type theme. And it was supposed to just be women, but that ended up changing. There were two men there that night, Jose Barra, who is Jean's boyfriend, and Tom allowed type theme. And it was supposed to just be women, but that ended up changing. There were two men there that night, Jose Barra, who is John's boyfriend and Tom Smith, who is Stacy's husband. And even though they weren't supposed to be there that night, Jose wasn't feeling well. And he told John that he would just stay in the basement, watch the LSU versus Alabama game, and he would stay out of their way.

Those two were originally supposed to go out and hang out together. And then I forget which one of them was having stomach issues. So they said, you mind if we just watch the game and the basement will stay away from y'all because I have a theater room down there. And then Tom also decided to come and hang out with Jose because Stacy's sister was having a gender reveal party at their house and he wanted to be out of the way for that as well. So they figured there was really no harm in having them hang out in the basement.

And the LSU versus Alabama game was a big part of the reason that John even threw this party because she was a big LSU fan. Also, that was a good weekend for John because her four kids were staying at their father's house and you know she had the house to herself other than Jose and Tom in the basement. And the game was Saturday night and I wanted to watch the game and knew that we would all drink and said why don't we just do it here at my house as a pajama party slash slumber party so no one has to risk drinking and driving or calling Uber. And that my kids would all be at their

father's house. So we had enough rooms for everyone to sleep here. So the day of the party, John said that she was out and about all day, and she came home to Stacey Nicole and Madeline kind of setting up for the party, which was set to start at 7 p.m. When she got home, she went upstairs to get ready for the party, and when she came back down, pretty much everyone was already there. This was approximately 7-730-ish. So, Tamla texted Jean and Stacey and let them know that she was going to be running a little bit late, and she ended up getting there around 8-830-ish. Some of the women had their husbands drop them off, and they were going to pick them up the next morning. Tamla just drove herself over there. Before going to the

party, Tamla had expressed to Lee that she wasn't super thrilled about going to this party. She didn't really want to go, but she was such a nice person that she didn't want to offend anybody or make them think you know she didn't like them so she decided to go. Lee actually also had plans to go out that night but he ended up canceling to watch the kids because he felt like Tamla did deserve to you know go out and have a good time because she was such a good mother to her kids and always always taking care of them and didn't really take much time for herself so he decided to sacrifice his plans. He was a little bit upset about that but you know he got over it and the two of them said they're I love you, so they kissed goodbye and Tama was off. So everyone at the party said that Tama

came in in a great mood. That she seemed very energetic and excited to be there. And like I said earlier, she was such an outgoing, fun person that she was definitely the type that you would want to come to your party. She came hopping along into the front door, trying to take her boots off to be considered a new carpet. So she was hopping around trying to get her boots off, left and at the, whenever you call that hutch or whatever there in the dining room, she brought her bag in, laid it down behind the backside

of the sexual couch. It insisted that she was ready to put her pajamas on. So she put her pajamas on. And she was wearing a white onesie with gray paw prints all over it and also had on black and red socks with multicolor star patterns on them. So like most of the others who were there,

Tamela didn't know everyone who was attending the party, so she introduced herself to anyone she didn't know yet, and this included Sarah, Marcee, and Nicole. And she had also only met Bridget once before, so she kind of reintroduced herself to her. Tamla ended up bringing a bottle of tequila, a really nice bottle, as a gift for Jean, and Jean did not really appreciate this gift at all. Jean especially hated tequila, a really nice bottle, as a gift for Jean. And Jean did not really appreciate this gift at all.

Jean especially hated tequila, and made it very clear to Tamla that she was not going to be drinking it. And at one point, Tamla went out to smoke a cigarette and all the women kind of passed around the bottle and no one really drank it. So Tamla ended up being the only one to really drink at that night

and she had several tequila waters throughout the night. She brought a bottle of tequila as my gift and said it was a tequila from Mexico. And I said thank you but I don't drink tequila. And she said no, you don't understand it's good. And she opened it and I smelled it and I threw up in my mouth and said no. So she offered it to other people. Because she's the life of the party. She's always been the life of the party

and everybody's like, mm, can't drink tequila. Stacey and John, I can remember it vividly. They were over here by the bar and they smelled it and I saw John go like this, like, no way. Number one she doesn't like tequila but number two she was like I'm not drinking that stuff and then St. West Aces are then all of us were sitting on the couch and Tam was on the back porch smoking at the time and I was sitting on the couch right here and they all just smelled this stuff. You've got to smell this it's awful and every one of us smelled it and we're like,

I don't like anything to do with that. You know. And then that was it. I didn't see her make a drink, but I wasn't paying attention. You know. Nobody was doing shots that I had been thinking not while I was here. So I didn't even see that. Thank you.

But that's the only liquor that I saw that she was excited about. She had brought it and it was imported from Mexico. She was all excited. The only two women who were not drinking at all that night were Sarah and Nicole. And that was because they were planning to go home. They did not want to spend the night. Now pretty much everyone there has a similar story of how the night went. They just hung out, had snacks, watched the game, and throughout the night people started having more and more fun because they were drinking more and more and kind of relaxing around each other.

Pretty much everyone handled their liquor pretty well, kept it under control except for one guest, and that was Jennifer. It was very clear, very quickly, that she already had too much to drink. Now she had a history with alcohol as well. She had actually received a DUI in the past so no one seemed to be too shocked that she was the one to drink too much right away. And throughout the night, Tamla went outside several times to smoke a cigarette and even though she was the only one who smoked according to people at the party, she normally wasn't alone outside.

Someone normally went with her. Do you remember her going out on the deck at any time of smoke cigarettes? Yeah, that's when I sat down and talked, like I had just met her, but I, like early in the night, we went out on the deck for probably about 10, 15 minutes, and we were just talking and everything because her son's name is Gavin. My son's name was Gavin. So we're just talking about silly stuff like that and she's a Libra. I'm a Libra.

So we thought it was cool and then we went inside and she kind of like wandered off and like with the other girls and just started mingling with all the girls. So Madeline, who's actually John's aunt, decided to smoke some weed with Tamla at the beginning of the night. And Stacy also said that she had just one puff. However, they had to stop because John saw them doing it, went outside, got really upset and made them stop. And Stacy actually does admit to having one puff as well. And the reason that Jean got so upset about them smoking weed is because Jose was there and Jose was actually a pretrial probation officer in Forsyth. Now even though Jose and Tom said that they would spend the night out of the way of the party downstairs watching the game, they did come up to eat with

the girls at half time. Madeline told them that they were welcome to eat. She had made gumbo for everyone, but she did ask them to leave at one point and go grab some ice at the gas station because they were all out of ice for their drinks. So after this, the night continues with all the women and the men on the main floor of the house watching the end of the game. So at one point, Tamla decides to FaceTime Lee and Sega Knight. She also has all her kids get on the main floor of the house watching the end of the game. So at one point, Tamla decides to FaceTime Lee and Sega Knight. She also has all her kids get on the FaceTime and Sega Knight to her as well.

And she has pretty much everyone at the party hop on the FaceTime as well and just say hi to her kids. And everyone said that Tamla was very energetic and seemed to be happy to be there, even Lee, who said, you know, earlier, she didn't seem to want to go, said that once she was there, she seemed't seem to want to go, said that once she was there, she seemed like she was really having a good time and seemed in good spirits. Tamla also made a second FaceTime call later that night to her

daughter as well, you know, just saying hello. So the last person to actually arrive to the party was Paula, and she came in around 10 o'clock, so pretty late. And by this time, Sarah and Nicole, who had always been planning to leave, were getting ready to leave. The two of them have estimated that they left the house around 10.30 pm. However, this is right around the time

that Tamla was face-timing Lee. And so it's not exactly clear if that's actually when they left, but probably pretty close to this time. So once the football game had ended, those who were still there decided to play a game of cards against humanity. And obviously that's a really fun game to play when people are drinking, but it can also get kind of hard to keep up with and, you know, stick to when there's people who are really drunk in the group. So the game didn't last too long, but while they were playing, everyone said they had a good time.

After the game, everyone was getting kind of tired and started getting ready for bed. Marcy actually took Jen to bed because she was by far the most drunk of everyone there. And they went into one of the bedrooms around 1245. They watched Shrek and passed out shortly after putting it on. After this, everyone else started kind of winding down and it was about 1, 115 at this point. So when they all start talking about going to bed and deciding who's going to sleep where Tamela mentions that she would rather go home But Stacy Tom and John were not into that idea. They said she needs to stay the night and not get behind the wheel of a car

Since she had been drinking when Lee found out that Tamela had wanted to go home that night He said that she would have been absolutely fine to drive home and would have made it home safely. One thing I do know about my wife, and this is, I mean, it may not be a good thing, but we're both from the islands, and we both grew up drinking. And she could handle the liquor. She could handle, I mean,

and she would drink like straight shots at the Kayla, but my wife would have made it home I can guarantee you that 100% 100% You would have made it home. Oh, yeah, 100% she would have made it home Eventually Tamla agreed to stay the night and John said that she just didn't seem ready for bed She was telling other people there that she wanted them to stay up with her and hang out for a little longer But the whole group was really insistent on going to bed.

They were tired. So most of them hit the sack at that point. Sean and Jose said they're going to knights to everybody and they went upstairs to their room. And around that time, Stacy said that Tamla seemed very upset about not having a sleeping buddy that most people were sleeping with someone else at the party. And she was going to be sleeping by herself. So Stacey says that she put her phone next to Tamla's in the living room so their phones could sleep together. Whatever that means.

I left my phone downstairs because she said, Tom was selfish because she didn't have sleep in buddy. So we put our phones there. She said, well, our phones come sleep together. We laughed and hugged and she, she said she was going to smoke and that went to bed. So at that point, Stacey and Tom go off to bed and Tamla and Bridget are the only ones still up. At this point, Tamla and Bridget are just hanging out

in the kitchen together, talking. And at some point, Jose goes down to get his phone charger from the basement because he left it down there and he saw them in the kitchen. Didn't think anything of it goes back upstairs. I went down the basement to grab my phone charger that I left in the theater room and the staircase is kind of obviously right underneath each other going from basement to upstairs. So, I mean I didn't really look at who was still up. I mean I came up to the basement and took the door, saw a family in the kitchen, just

had glancing over and saw she was there. Who was she with? I just saw her by herself. Okay. From that, I guess that vantage point from coming out from the basement, there is that wall there. So I just kind of saw her through here kind of up where the stove would be. I can't see anything back in the kitchen. And I just want to stay there. So Bridget actually decided not to spend the night there after all. So she was still up

and hanging out with Tamla because she was waiting for her husband to pick her up. She said the reason she didn't want to stay the night is because she had really bad anxiety and felt like she had to keep one eye open while she slept if she was at someone else's house. So her and Tamla were hanging out in the kitchen waiting for her husband Gary to get there and pick her up. And Tamla was actually having a bowl of gumbo,

and they were just kind of hanging out. She told Bridget that after she finished her gumbo, you know, her plan was to go smoke a cigarette outside and then head to bed. And that's what Bridget thought she was doing when she left. When Gary arrived to pick up Bridget, Tamla actually, according to Bridget, walked her over to the door, gave her a hug

and a kiss on the cheek and said, good night. Now, something pretty interesting and also very helpful in this case is that John's house has an Xfinity Security System that logs anytime the door to the house was opened or closed. And this is just for any doors leading to the outside. So not doors within the house, just the front door and back door.

The system also sends alerts to John's phone with the name of the door that was open or closed, and the time that it was opened or closed. So the system recorded the front door opening and closing at 147am, which is consistent with the timeline of Bridget being picked up by Gary. Then two minutes later, at 149, the back door was opened and then shut one minute later at 150, which is consistent with Tamla going outside to smoke a cigarette and then shutting the door behind her. A few hours later, the system ends up picking up the front door, opening and closing at 4 10 a.m., which is actually when Marcy left Sean's house to go back home.

Marcy said that she left early because she started a new job working at coach at the local outlet mall. So she said that she had set an alarm to get up and go home so she could shower and get ready for her second day on the job. But we actually find out later on that her shift doesn't actually start until 10 30 a.m. So 430 seems pretty early, pretty out of the ordinary to be going home and getting ready for work, but who knows? So Paula, who was last to arrive at the party, ends up being the next to leave and she left at 7.30am. So sometime between 8.30am, Stacy and Tom wake up and they head home to get back to their kids because her sister was watching them. Before she left,

Stacey went into the living room to grab her phone and she, you know, had left it next to Tamla's for the night so that their phones could sleep together, whatever. And she remembers seeing her phone and being happy that Tamla decided to stay the night. So Madeline, who, again, is John's aunt, wakes up between like 8 and eight thirty a.m. and she kind of lingered in bed for a bit before actually getting up to do her typical morning routine which involves making coffee. And during this process, Madeline walks by the window and sees that Tamla is outside on the ground face down in her pajamas and isn't moving.

And strangely enough, the first thing that Madeline decides to do is get down on her hands and knees and pray. I went get the coffee maker started and I went stand by the window and I was just staring at the window and I saw those downmation pajamas, damn. But I couldn't remember her name. Cause that was the first time I'd met her.

So I didn't start the coffee. I got on a niece and I said, a prayer. Obviously, many people are upset and just weirded out that the first thing she decides to do is pray. It seems like in a situation like that, you would immediately take action and try to help the person. Why wouldn't she go check and see if Tamla was breathing

see if she had any help? Instead, she starts praying. It's just weird. After she finished praying, she gets up and she goes and tells Jose what she has seen. Madeline said that when she got to Jose and John's room that she could hear water running she thought it almost sounded like they were taking a shower and she kind of lightly knocked on the door so she decides that instead of interrupting them because they could have been the shower together

that she was gonna go downstairs and briefly look at Tamela one more time. She said she just went down there for about a minute and then went right back up to their room. This time, she knocked a little louder and John told her to go ahead and come in. Then Madeline said she needed to talk to Jose right away. John asked her why she needed to talk to him and she said she saw her friend from the islands, laying outside on the ground, not moving.

So then it went knock on the door, louder. You never went out there. Do you know? No. And that's when I told Jose that I knocked on the door. John said, come in and he was sitting up in bed. And I said, Jose, and I looked at John, and I said, I just want to talk to Jose. I want him to come downstairs with me. And John said, why? What's wrong? And I said, um,

your friend, your friend from the islands is laying in the backyard. And she's not moving. This whole running water thing has been very confusing because Jean and Jose said that they were not showering that they were actually asleep and they were woken up by Madeline's knocking. I don't know what the sound she was hearing was or if she even heard a sound or maybe the water was coming from somewhere else,

I don't know. Jose said that as soon as Madeline told him what she saw, he quickly put on clothes and ran downstairs to see. And John also said that she got up immediately put on her clothes and asked Madeline if she needed to call 911. They ended up calling 911 at 8. and E. Okay, what's going on? We have people over last night with the drinking.

Most of us went to bed, one of them stayed on the balcony. She was drinking and we just went outside and she's going face down in the back yard. I'm guessing maybe she fell off the balcony. Okay, is she breathing? I don't know. I don't know if she's sitting down. Okay. How old is she? 41. Here, hold on. Hey, does that work?

Hey, have y'all checked the scene? She's breathing? She's not moving one bit. She's not breathing. I just tried to set her touch for a she's completely face down in the yard. Do you see any blood or anything to wear that from where she fell? I don't know if I should move her over. I mean, she's completely face down.

Okay. I mean, can you just check and see if she's breathing? If she's not breathing and you notice it's gone, then just like a where she's at if she's breathing. If she's not breathing and you know she's gone, then just like the worst is that it's she. Okay. I'm completely not sure. Do you know if she was suicidal at all?

I have no clue. I've met her one other time. You know, like my girlfriend said, over last night, she was the last one I saw before everybody. I mean, everybody was typically put off the bed. She was the last one of saw before everybody, I mean everybody was typically put off the bed. She was the last one on the kitchen. She was just thinking of waiting around to ride or waiting until the morning. Okay. How far is the word she would have felt from how far it's the deck from the ground? I would probably say, maybe 20 feet.

Okay, you know, 20 feet from where you'll be on the railing, the railing itself is ready for the half or feet. And Jose never performs or attempts to perform CPR on her or any other life saving techniques, even though he is professionally trained.

So according to the official crime scene report, police units were dispatched at exactly 9 a.m., and they arrived there at 907. The responders who came to the scene include detectives from FSCO, Major Crimes Unit, a crime scene investigation unit, and an investigator from the ForSyth County Coroner's Office. So sometime between 850 and 9 when everyone gets there,

Jen, who was the one who drank a ton that night, said that she was woken up by all the chaos. And she says this is when she learned that Tamla was outside, found on the ground, and wasn't moving. Now, something extremely crucial to point out here was the way that everyone reported seeing Tamla's body on the ground versus the way that police claim she was positioned when they arrived. And we actually hear for ourselves in the 911 call that Jose says that she is face down

without her head being turned to either side. She is literally face down. And everyone else said that when they saw Tamla outside, that she was face down with her arms right to her side straight, and that her legs were also just straight out. She was face down with like her arms or down like she just face planted. Is the best way I can describe it?

Is her arms really by her side? Yeah, they were by right side palms up. But allegedly, this is not the way her body is found when police get there. Instead, her left arm was bent at the elbow and extended away from her body. And having an arm bent out like this would indicate that she may have tried to brace herself for impact on the ground, meaning she could have tripped or fell. So the official distance from the balcony to the ground was measured at 14 feet and 10.5 inches.

And again, everyone who was there says the image of her lying face down with her arms to her side is burned in their brains. I am telling you, Jen saw it, I saw it, Jose saw it, my aunt saw it. I will never get that image out of my head that that woman's hands, it was so just unnatural that they were down by her side. And I'm like, even if she fell,

why didn't she try to stop? Like, that's my first thought is, I guess I would put my hand like, how do you land like that? And I'll never get that image out. I don't know who failed in documenting what, whether the corner, the officers on the scene. I don't know if it's somebody moved her.

I don't know, but that is what I saw. So a lot of people have questioned whether it's possible that the police actually moved her arm out to fit the narrative that she tripped or fell because it would have been a lot easier to close the case and just roll it in accident. And considering the racist history of this county, a lot of people have pointed out that they would not be surprised if that was the case. The upper deck was also not a place where people were hanging out during the party. And the only time that they were on the deck was once,

and they were trying to turn on the fire pit, but they gave up because they realized that there was no propane in the tank. The initial observation of Tamla's body was that she had a few visible injuries. This included cuts to her wrists, her legs, and the side of her face. After the initial observation of the crime scene,

Tamla was brought to the medical examiners for an autopsy. And while the investigators were in the backyard, Jean, Jose, Madeline, and Jen, were all brought inside for further questioning. Jean was also asked if she could call back the rest of the people who are at the party so that they could interview them as well.

And it's really important to note that everyone who was still there were left in a room together unsupervised, able to talk to each other while they waited for questioning. So not long after the police had first arrived at Johns House and found Tamla, they ended up going over to tell Lee what happened to her. And he was immediately met with disrespect. When they first knocked on the door, he was going to the bathroom, so he asked his son to answer the door, and they quickly came to him and said, Dad, there's police here. So he finished up and met them at the front door. They asked him three times if his name was Lee, and he

kept asking, what does this pertain to. And they kept asking him, are you Lee? And every time they got more aggressive and louder. The last time that he asked what does this pertain to, they got fed up and they told him, your wife. She's deceased in a very cold and aggressive tone. He said that it was said to him with no remorse, no sympathy, no care at all.

I finished using the restroom, go downstairs and I said door and the cop says, is your name Lee? And I said, and what's this pertaining to? And he said, is your name Lee? And I said, I'm going to ask you once again, what is this pertaining to? He said, is your name Lee? And I said, actually, no, it's not, it's Leander. But once again, what is this pertaining to? And he said, well, your wife is deceased. So he said, it's about your wife, she's deceased. That was his exact words.

It's about your wife, she's deceased. And I said, what? I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And they wouldn't even let Lee go over to the house himself. They just told him what happened, which they came to a conclusion about very quickly. They said that she tripped and fell to her death. I said, we're she at, and I went to go get my clothes and all this stuff, because I was thinking this is horseshit.

I was first I was thinking she got into a car accident, or something like that. Somebody hit her, or something like that. Somebody hit her or something like that and they're like, oh no, it was an accident and this and that night was, oh you can't go, you can't go, you can't go over there, everybody, everything's been taken care of already. No, we don't want you going over there. This and that. And so I was sitting on the front porch with them and they're like, well, it seems that there was an accident. It seems she tripped over something and fell in the porch with them and they're like, well, it seems that there was an accident. It seems she tripped over something and fell in the grass and this and I'm like, my wife tripping over something and falling in the grass.

I've seen this girl drink half a bottle of tequila and dance salsa in six and heels. That's don't make no sense. But ultimately, no one would know much more until the autopsy was performed. So they really shouldn't have been saying this to him with such certainty without even having that information. So the autopsy came back and the medical examiner found a lot of small cuts and lacerations, including a one-inch laceration to her right wrist, a quarter-inch abrasion to her left forearm, and a one-eighth-inch abrasion to the tip of her left index finger, as well as half-inch abrasion to her left forearm, and a one-eighth inch abrasion to the tip of her left index finger,

as well as half-inch lacerations to her lower legs. And in addition to the cuts found on her body, the medical examiner noted small, superficial abrasions to the right side of her forehead, left upper eyelid, bridge of her nose, and chin. And all the abrasions on her face were smaller than a half inch. Internally, they found a three-quarter inch laceration to the right ventricle of her heart. And there were no fractures of the bones in her face and no damage to her shoulders,

abdomen, or back. And although the lacerations were small, it was reported that she did sustain severe injuries to her head, her neck, and her torso. The toxicology report did find her blood alcohol concentration at .238, which is almost three times the legal limit. And she was found with trace amounts of THC, which does make sense according to everyone's story, and also Xanax in her system. And I do want to note that Tamla was not known for taking Xanax, she was not prescribed Xanax, and no one in her family was either. And the interesting part about this is it wasn't yet metabolized in her liver,

which means she had just recently consumed it. After the analysis, Tamla's official cause of death was due to multiple blunt force injuries, consistent with a fall, and her manner of death was due to multiple blunt force injuries, consistent with a fall, and her manner of death was ruled in accident. Medical Examiner's report was made public on February 6, 2019, and stated that there was no evidence of injuries that would indicate foul play. Also another huge piece of information to note here is there were no photos taken of Tamless Body during her autopsy, which is incredibly

strange because it's required. For some reason, it just was not done, and also the crime scene was incredibly poorly documented. It does make you think maybe there's a possibility that the police wanted to close this case very quickly and not have a lot of room for people to ask questions. So the police's first theory before the whole falling off the balcony theory really began was that she tripped and fell on ground level in the backyard. In John's backyard, there was a small metal barrier

separating some of the rocks from the grass. I'm sure a lot of you guys have that in your yards as well. And it was first thought that maybe Tomla had tripped over this and that caused the fatal fall, which seems pretty dramatic and unusual. And logistically speaking, that would not make any sense with her injuries. But it also would make sense that she fell off the balcony either because you'd think her injuries would be much more severe if she'd actually fall fallen face first from a balcony. I mean, the first thing you would think of, right, is that she would have some type of fracture in her face or in her skull

or that her nose would be broken, but none of that happened. Even her teeth were in completely fine condition. It doesn't really line up with someone who had fallen off a balcony, but the autopsy was suitable for police and they decided to close the case on February 20th, 2019. And as if this family had not been through enough trauma and hadn't been treated badly

enough from the beginning, Winley actually went to the funeral home to view Tamla. He found that she had been basically put in blackface. She had been painted a much darker color than her actual complexion. This is the thing is that a lot of people don't know the extent of the injuries, but I know them because, and this is going to shock some people, but when I went into the funeral home, I probably scared to shit out everybody because I yelled, what the fuck? As loud as I could? I walked in and I saw

my wife look like she had shoe polish on her face, black shoe polish all over her face and I flipped out and I was like no, no, no, and I walked out and I told them take that off of my wife, take all that. Well sir, well we, I'm sorry, but we had to cover up the bruise in and this and that. And I don't, it's cover up the bruise. You don't cover up the bruise in black shoe polish. My wife is my color, you know? And but yet her skin was this color, like black face. He was super pissed and he had left his son's outside

so he could view her first. But when he walked outside, his son's could tell was super pissed and he had so he could view her first. But when he walked outside, his sons could tell that something had really upset him. So I was really pissed and I was gonna close the casket and just leave it a closed

casket. This was for the viewing, not for the funeral, but for the viewing. And so my sons came out to me and said, that was wrong, man, that was wrong, that was wrong. And I said, you can't go in there, you can't see that. That's not your mom, that's not the way you mom looks. They're like, that, I don't care, I wanna see, I wanna see, I said, no, I said,

this is a grown man decision, I don't wanna see, I'm like, you're making a grown man decision, you're gonna have to deal with it. And he's like, I don't give a fuck, no, I said, this is a grown man decisions. I don't want to see. I'm like, you're making a grown man decision. You're going to have to deal with it. And he's like, I don't give a fuck that. I want to see. And that was my oldest at the time because he was pissed. And so I said, you know what? Okay, you want to make grown man decisions?

Come on, let's go. So I went in with my oldest boy. And he stood next to me and we both just stood there and looked at her and neither one of us shatter tears because he looked not like her. Wow didn't even look like her. They didn't look like her. So the story has a lot of like I said in the beginning just sketchy details. I've already gone through some of those but let's continue here. So like I said, John security system you know gives her an alert every time the doors are opened or closed. It was mentioned that the back door was opened at 1.49 a.m. and then

closed a minute later at 1.50, which made sense with the tameless saying she was gonna go back out and have one more cigarette before bed. Then at 1.57, the back door opens again, which is kind of consistent with the time that it would take someone to, you know, smoke a cigarette, but the door never shuts after that. It was also mentioned in the 911 call by Jose that Jean had security cameras in her backyard, and she did, but they were all dead at the time. Jean said that she got the cameras when she and her ex-husband first divorced because she was afraid of him and wanted them for her safety. But after things cooled off with him over time they died and she couldn't find the charger and never bothered to get a new one. Well let me ask you about what kind of switch gears a little bit your cameras.

What I know this has been a... I came at the rechargeable Arlo cameras. They're not ones with batteries. I had gotten them up when I was going through my divorce because my ex-husband had come in the house. When I wasn't there, we were on good terms. And since things were fine with my ex and I, I really wasn't concerned. Which is really unfortunate because that footage would really clear up a lot, obviously.

Another really sketchy bit of this is how Jose went about assessing the situation that morning. In some parts of his interview, he talks about going outside right away to see Tamla. Later, he says that he went out the door to the balcony, the one that she would have fallen off. And he says that before he actually got the chance to look over the balcony and see Tamla for himself, which keep in mind, he already knew that she was on the ground because Madeline had told him. He ends up seeing a cigarette and a lighter on the ground of the balcony.

And he takes the time to stop and pick it up and set it on the fire pit. He told the investigators that he has OCD and that they were in his way. And he's just the type of person to stop and do things like that, just pick things up and tidy everything. But he says that he wouldn't have done that if he had known what he was about to see,

which doesn't really make sense because Madeline told him what he was about to see. So when I initially went out there to see what was going on, there was a loose cigarette lighter laying on the back deck. And I think just as OCD as I am I walked down and it was just kind of in my path from the door to the railing where I looked down. I mean I walked up, set it on the fire pit and just kept walking. So you actually did that before you saw

correct and watering? Oh, yeah. Wouldn't have moved anything if I knew what I was trying to walk up on. Okay. And this is odd because if the cigarette and lighter are upstairs on the balcony, that doesn't line up with the downstairs door being opened that night.

How else would Tamla have gotten out of the house? I mean, the security system alerts you for every door that's opened. So why was the cigarette and lighter upstairs? Unless it was smoked earlier that night, but it almost seemed like it was kind of being set up that way to make sense of her falling off the balcony from the top.

It just what it makes sense for those things to be up there, especially since we know that Tamla went outside from the downstairs back door. So the next confusing sketchy thing that happened was Jean actually bought the investigators, Tyler Sexton and Mike Christian, Duncan Donuts' gift cards, which just seems weird to me. Get out of my head. Look, I just went back on gift cards. Oh, what are you gonna be? Bring them on and I'll take them on to make them cookies. And then I was told I shouldn't because then I can look bad if I give you something for the cases closed.

Oh, good way. So, and it's very, it's very typical because I think you're all hot so I'm going to go back. You might have something. Someone just died at your party at your house and you think it's cool to make jokes like this and you have time to go get Dunkin Donuts gift cards. It's just weird. Then we also hear Madeline tell the investigators that she made them cookies. So many people feel like the investigators were ribed into not investigating further, not

pushing further for the truth. So just seconds after Jean gives them these Dunkin Donuts gift cards, she asks them if they need her or if she can just go upstairs and start getting ready for this funeral. Do you need me? Can I go upstairs and get ready for this funeral? Good to hear you, thanks. This is a friend of yours who just died in your home. It's just her tone of voice and her choice of words that have really bothered people.

She doesn't say my friends funeral or even her funeral. It's this funeral. I don't know. Just bothers me. What do you guys think? So these interviews also were not conducted right away. They did some the day of, they did the rest of the interviewing five days later. And you'd think at that point they would do it at the police station. But nope, they chose to do

it at Johns House for whatever reason. The first round of interviews happened on November 9th, and they continued until November 20th. So that's a lot of time for everyone at the party to communicate with each other and kind of line up their stories. And many people have been very disturbed by that. Many people believe that if this was a party with all black women and there was a white woman who died, that things would have been handled very differently from the start. I mean, guilty or not, everyone at that party should have been brought into the police station be questioned properly. So let's talk a little bit more about the Xanax and the autopsy report.

Obviously, the Xanax found in her system is a pretty bizarre finding, considering she doesn't take this. It's not something she's ever known for taking, and it was consumed very shortly before whatever happened to her happened. So that brings Bridget Fuller, the one who was hanging out with Tamla the most that night into question. So she left early because she has a lot of anxiety, and she is prescribed Xanics for that anxiety. And she actually wears it around her neck. I don't know exactly what this necklace looks like. I haven't been able to find a picture of it, but I'm assuming it's some type of like vial. I don't know if she has that many pills in there,

like a full bottle's worth, or if it's just like a few just in case, I don't know. When everyone at the party was asked about the Xanax and how Tamla would have gotten into her system, no one knows how this would have happened. The only person who had it at the party was Bridget. Bridget and the other people at the party say that they never gave any,

or Bridget never gave any to Tamla as far as we know. Nobody saw her take anything throughout the night and everyone said her behavior was completely normal. Even Lee said when he spoke to her that she seemed fine. However, we do know that she must have taken it later in the night and likely had taken it or was given it after Lee had spoken to her. But reality is, some of the women had gotten Xanax from Bridget before and after Tamla's death, including Jean, who got clonipin from Bridget on occasion.

When Stacey is asked by police if Bridget gave her anything that morning, she says no, but is actually caught by the officer not telling the full truth. And rather than admit to the truth, she says, I'm not gonna say I didn't. Did Bridget give you anything the morning, Tam died while you were back at the house and then meet you later that night to give you anything? No, I don't recall. I do not recall at all. I guess you'd be surprised.

No, there was a text on your phone to her asking her to meet you to give her you some more of her medicine because it helped you that morning. Okay, well maybe I'm not gonna say I didn't. Okay. That's fine. You just don't, but you don't remember it. No, I don't. Bridget's interview as a whole has definitely caught the attention of those who

question what happened to Tam. She constantly goes off topic and addresses things completely unrelated to the case. I'm kind of your mother and one of her apartment parties and my very first priority is children. Cranet. There were no children this time, but the weekend before there was, I've been in Annie for nine years and not just with my own children. Other people's children completely trust me.

And so I'm very adamant about watching what's going on. It's like stop flipping your head around. You're gonna knock your head into the damn wall. I'm not doing any e-borrow things for you. Stopping the stupid. Right. And I think that was one of the things, to have lights so much about me is,

even though I had a couple drinks, I still kept my faculties about me. Bridget also brings up that she doesn't care about a lot of people, but she says the people that she does care about, she takes good care of. And I don't have a big circle of friends. I'm very close, I'm very protective. I have shown, you know, I have a little closer relationship with my boss to the point where he understands my anxiety and issues and stuff. You know, I've had time with these kids. Come here, they play where Daddy's working. I mean, overall, I don't see my downfall.

I don't trust people, though. Yeah. And it's more of a grown up people that I don't trust. It's not so much children. So before the investigation was closed, Jose, who at the time worked at the police station, actually got caught accessing confidential information about the case.

It turns out Jose was looking into what the police knew so far. Specifically, he was caught looking into more information about a woman named Michelle Graves. And Michelle is Tamla's close friend. And she from the beginning was very unsatisfied with the investigation and made 13 Facebook posts detailing the whole event and included the names of the witnesses from the party questioning their stories and the

overall investigation and her posts were viewed more than a hundred thousand times and that upset those that Michelle questioned in her writing. Jean and the others ended up suing Michelle for suffering irreparable damage to their character and reputation. But Michelle states that beyond this lawsuit, the group has threatened her and had her unjustly arrested, which the reason for that is unknown. That's a very foggy part of this. So Jose was fired for accessing this information illegally.

However, no legal action was ever taken against him. And Jose is not the only corrupt one on the force in this case. There's also Mike Christian. He had to be pulled off the case because he leaked confidential files, including photos and sensitive information to his girlfriends. And this was only discovered because these women decided that was wrong and reported him. And if that's not enough to make him look bad, one of these women, who he met through a case that he was working, said that he groomed her for over a year before she agreed to go out with him.

So an internal investigation was opened against him, but at that point he resigned from the force, probably because he knew he was screwed at that point. It is also rumored that both investigators Mike and Tyler are racist and have treated several people of color unjustly. And there's this photo as well, which really speaks for itself. So in 2020, there was that incredible fight for justice for the men and women of color who have been murdered in this country by police or have been treated unjustly by our justice system. And millions of people fought for Tamla's case to be reopened. And celebrities like Kim Kardashian and 50 Cent also rallied for Tamla in hopes that

she would have a proper investigation. So in June of 2020, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reopened her case after receiving a letter from the Forcith County saying they are ready to assist in any manner. But the GBI has said that they didn't find any further information to indicate that there was any foul play involved in Tim's case. Ralph Fernandez, who is the horse-fired family attorney, sent a letter to Lee saying that he and his office reviewed the case and said that there is a strong possibility that this was a homicide.

Also, their attorney has stated that they found conflicting witness statements, a tampered crime scene, mishandled evidence, and an unheard absence of autopsy photos. But unfortunately, these findings have not led to any change in the final outcome. And to this day, Tamla's death is still being ruled in accident. I wish I had more information at this point you'd think with how much time has passed.

There would be more, but there's not. I really wanna know what you guys think about this case. I know there are gonna be mixed opinions and some crazy comments on this one, but I felt like it was really important to talk about this case and just how, even if it really was an accident, how messy, how unfair the entire case was handled from the beginning. And just the overall strange way that this case was handled from the beginning.

Please let me know your thoughts on this one, guys. I definitely want to know what you're thinking after hearing all of this. I feel so sorry for Lee and for all of their children that they have to miss out on life with Tamla. When she was such an incredible mother, you know, it's so sad thinking of Lee having to live his life without her thinking of all the friends that Tamla had that no longer have her in their life to cheer them up,

to celebrate milestones with them, it's just incredibly heartbreaking to think about. And to this day, to me, her death just doesn't make sense. I just don't understand how she would have fallen 14 feet from that balcony and not had way more severe injuries. And if she fell at ground level, the injuries that she did have don't make any sense. And I just can't wrap my mind around it fully. I feel like a further investigation

should have absolutely been done. And I hope that one day, the case is reopened and given a second look because Tamla deserves that. Her family deserves that. That is gonna be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out.

If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. music