True Crime with Kendall Rae - Young Mom’s Murder Exposes Corrupt Investigator: What Happened To Heather Bogle?

Starting point is 00:00:09 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of True Crime with Kendall Ray. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so happy to have you here. And I was just thinking this morning of all the places people either listen to or watch my show. I'm so curious if you want to let me know in the comments. If you, you know, listen on your commute, do you listen or watch while you're cooking dinner, doing chores? Maybe you're out on the beach somewhere. I'm just so curious. I want to be able to. I want to. hear from you guys. But anyway, thank you for being here. If you're new to this show, then make sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode of mine. Now, if you guys have been a listener for a long time to my show, you know that very often I'm covering cases that need coverage because, I mean, so many different reasons, right? But one of the main reasons I tend to cover cases is instances where law enforcement has really dropped the ball. Now, of course, that is not always the case. There are some really great departments out there, some really great detectives that are, you know, doing incredible work. But we all know that that is not always the case. And oftentimes,

Starting point is 00:01:21 those cases are the ones that need the coverage. Now, in today's episode, I'm going to be telling you about one investigator who pises me off so much. He was not only exceptionally bad at his job, But many believe, including myself, that he was intentionally trying to frame the wrong people. And at the heart of this case, of course, is a victim, Heather Bogle, who deserved to get justice swiftly. But thanks to this absolute idiot's actions or lack of action in a lot of ways, her justice was delayed by almost two years. And it left her friends and family wondering if that day would ever come. We have a lot to go over. I have a whole lot to say. I cannot wait to hear what you all have to say, because this is just

Starting point is 00:02:12 absurd this case. Before getting into this episode, I just wanted to thank you all for listening to and supporting my show and also any of the Mile Higher Media shows. Your support makes it possible for us to continue funding grants through my foundation, Higher Hope, which supports victims of violent crimes, their families, and like-minded nonprofits. And with that, let's get into today's case. So Heather Christina Bogle was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina on December 27, 1986 to her parents Bruce Bogle and Renee McLaughlin. However, it was Tiffin, Ohio where she grew up. And I will say information about her early years is pretty limited online. But we do know that she was young when her parents split up, which I imagine is what prompted her to move. We also do know that she had a sister, Jennifer, and a brother Joshua, and that everyone who is from,

Starting point is 00:03:02 publicly about her, has truly only had good things to say about Heather, specifically about how Heather made people feel. She was known for her kindness, for her very warm and inviting smile, and everyone agrees that above all, her number one priority in life was her daughter. By 2015, she was a 28-year-old single mom to her beautiful baby girl, and she had been working particularly hard during this chapter in life to give both of them the best opportunity for their future. And that meant while she was working overnights at the Whirlpool Corporation in Clyde, Ohio, she was also studying to become a nurse. Now, she had been working at World Pool since August of 2013 as a material handler,

Starting point is 00:03:46 and based on what I learned, things in her life were going mostly okay. However, it sounds like she hit a small rough patch as of April 2015. Right around this time, Heather found out that she did not. pass her nursing exam, which I'm sure was super disappointing for her. And on top of that, her brother, who I actually think may have been a half-brother, not totally sure on that, but he sent her some absurdly mean text messages about the fact that she had failed. And I have a lot to say about her brother, and I think maybe I will just hold my tongue on in a bit. But this just really frustrated me. He told her, he texted her, too stupid to pass the LPN bar exam. And then he also said,

Starting point is 00:04:36 low expectations of yourself, typical trash like your mom and dad. And I saw him interviewed about this. And of course, it's an interview, so how much can you truly take away? But he did not seem very regretful of those messages. And he basically said something along. the lines of, oh, I was trying to, like, motivate her by saying that. But he did say, you know, he feels bad about them. And I am sure that considering what happened, it probably does haunt him that he said this to her. But yeah, that was very sad to see. Anyway, moving on. Now, Heather was also in the midst of a bad breakup with her first ever girlfriend, Carmela. And at one point, the two of them were super in love. But their breakup was.

Starting point is 00:05:23 apparently very toxic. And then literally, as all of this is unfolding, tragedy struck. On the afternoon of April 9, 2015, Heather failed to pick up her five-year-old daughter from daycare. That was unusual for her. And so that prompted her mom to report her missing with the Sandusky County Sheriff's Office. Family members were quick to print out flyers, but it ended up not taking long before they got some answers. And that's because within one day of filing the report, investigators determined via surveillance footage that after finishing an overnight shift on the morning of April 9th, Heather clocked out of work and left the building alone at 6.17 a.m. But after she leaves the security camera frame, her trail went dark, which sadly, they learned why.

Starting point is 00:06:11 On the night of Friday, April 10, 2015, Heather's very badly beaten remains were found in the trunk of her dark green 2003. Oldsmobile Allero. It had been parked at the Somerton apartment complex, which notably was not where Heather lived. She was discovered wearing a red Mickey Mouse t-shirt in the fetal position with two gunshot wounds to her back and her hair almost entirely sawed off her head. And I really do mean sawed off. Whoever did this to her must have grabbed her by her ponytail and then just cut across her scalp until most of her hair was gone. Her nails had been cut down to the cuticle, which of course suggested to, investigators right away that whoever her killer was, was trying to get rid of evidence, trying to get rid of their DNA. And that tells us that Heather likely fought back. And if she did, she would have gotten her killer's DNA under her nails. And an autopsy proved both of those things to be true. Not only did Heather have defensive wounds on her hands, but foreign DNA was also found under one of her cuticles. But what they couldn't figure out quite yet was where she was killed, why she was killed, and most importantly, who killed her. And unfortunately, for literally

Starting point is 00:07:27 everyone, Detective Sean O'Connell with the Sandusky County Sheriff's Office was the one leading this investigation. Now, you will understand why I feel so much hatred towards Detective dipshit here shortly, but yeah, he was handling Heather's murder investigation, and at first, he took the usual steps, starting with looking into the people closest to her. And as I'm sure a lot of you may have guessed, her ex-girlfriend, Carmela, was one of the first people he considered, which does make sense. After speaking with her family and learning about how tumultuous things had been between them, this felt like the reasonable first person to question. Especially because when they found Heather, there was a handwritten note in the car from Carmela where she literally said, you're dead to me. And Heather's sister Jen was pretty convinced, too, at first, that she was involved, given what she knew about her. I guess there had been a comment made by Carmela about Heather's hair, which Jen thought maybe had spiraled into some kind of fight between them. So long story short, when she learned that Heather's hair had been cut so aggressively. You know, she thought maybe that could have been Carmela's way of, I don't know, sending some kind of message to her.

Starting point is 00:08:44 or to her loved ones, or it was some way of getting back at her. But this was kind of blown out of proportion, although I see where she was going with it. Because Carmel, I explained there was never really a fight about that. She said the only comment she made was about liking her more as a blonde. But yeah, that at first was sort of blown out of proportion. It makes more sense now. But then there was Heather's brother Joshua, who he talked about earlier, who Detective O'Connell looked into as well.

Starting point is 00:09:14 And apparently when they first talked, he wasn't being cooperative. And then obviously those vile text messages that he sent to her, you know, don't really paint him in a very positive light to say the least. Not to mention the fact that he wouldn't submit his DNA for testing, which is very unusual coming from a family member. However, Detective O'Connell wasn't convinced that either Josh or Carmela had anything to do with it. Instead, he shifted his entire focus to a woman named Keona Bohr. When you run a small business, you don't just do the job. You're also the hiring manager, the payroll department, the benefits team, and usually all that is just before lunch.

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Starting point is 00:13:37 Sign up and start finding the best deals on the products you love with $20 off your first purchase. Let me backtrack for a minute, though. So when Heather first went missing, one of the first things that Detective O'Connell did was get a search warrant to access her cell phone data. Now, the problem with that data, though, was that it was very vague. He could see that her phone pinged at 9.20 p.m. on the 9th, but the radius was almost six miles wide. We obviously know that they did find her, but what we don't know is what they didn't know, or at least yet. That was where Heather actually died. And their hope was that finding the where would lead them to the who.

Starting point is 00:14:25 However, a six-mile radius is obviously pretty big and definitely makes things more complicated. So Detective O'Connell brings in a search dog to see if maybe that could help point them in a better direction. So according to him, the dog alerted to an apartment unit in the same building as the parking lot where Heather's car was found. and this unit belonged to a young black woman named Keona Bohr. Now at the time, Keona was a 25-year-old single mom, and honestly, she was reluctant to speak with them at first. She has since admitted, and this makes total sense to me, that she had just smoked some weed before they showed up at her door. And I think, you know, she did what anyone would do in that situation. She just wasn't super eager to talk to detectives when she had just smoked. And yeah, like I said, that makes a lot of sense to me. And she, especially wasn't keen on talking to Detective O'Connell because she, unfortunately, was already familiar with him and not for good reasons, because O'Connell played a big role in putting the father of her son, Julian Kaiser, in jail on drug-related charges after having spent years trying to incarcerate him. For example, in 1995, he falsely accused Julian of committing murder. So yeah, as you can

Starting point is 00:15:45 imagine when Detective O'Connell shows up at her door, she's, you know, not thrilled to speak with him, especially because she had just smoked as well. But from the way O'Connell tells the story, he had every reason to believe that she could have been involved. In his brilliant mind, he theorized that because Heather had marijuana in her system, when her autopsy was performed, then she must have gone to Keona's apartment that night to buy weed. Not only that, he was also suspicious of her because of her social media. Apparently, she had made some Facebook post talking about prison sentences and saying something like, I just can't believe this happened, which Detective Dipshit thought had to be in reference

Starting point is 00:16:33 to her having just killed Heather. And it gets even stupider because then I guess she also had photos on her social media where she was wearing something with Mickey Mouse on it. And because Heather was found in a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, he believed it must have been hers. Just completely ignoring the fact that Mickey Mouse is one of the most iconic characters in American and worldwide history. It's very common for people to have Mickey Mouse merch. I even have some Mickey Mouse merch and I'm not even much of a Disney person, but I have kids, you know? Mickey Mouse is probably in most household. I would imagine. So of course, Keona completely denies these connections. She denies having anything to do with Heather's murder, and she swears she had never even met her before. That's right. He literally had no evidence that they even knew each other. This is just completely going off a whim here based on not much. I mean, nothing solid. I think we can all agree on that. However, O'Connell continued pursuing her as a person of interest. And the same goes, for another guy named Omar Satchel.

Starting point is 00:17:43 Now, Omar had previously served time in prison for weapons-related charges, and when O'Connell found out that he was in Keona's apartment on the night that Heather's body was found, he was convinced that they were in on it together. He was then further convinced when he discovered a link between Omar and a car that he believed to be connected to the murder. Believed. Back when investigators were going around this apartment, complex asking people about that night, one woman said she thought she saw an individual park Heather's

Starting point is 00:18:17 car sometime between 1.30 and 3 a.m. She then said she saw them exit the car and run away with their hood up. And then when they went to look for surveillance footage in the area, they found something. Around 1.30 a.m. on April 10th, a car that matched the description of Heather's car was seen driving in the direction of the Somerton apartment complex. Then, shortly after this, a white SUV, was seen driving in the same direction. So O'Connell decided that this had to have been the people responsible for Heather's murder. And more specifically, he believed that Omar was the guy driving the white SUV because he said he could connect him to a similar looking vehicle. However, that connection was weak at best. Over one year before the murder, Omar had posted this photo,

Starting point is 00:19:07 a photo on Instagram, if you're listening, of him in. in a white SUV. That's it, you guys. That's the big connection. He had posted a photo in a white SUV over a year before the murder. And believe it or not, there was a third person who got wrapped into this theory as well. In addition to Omar and Keona, Detective O'Connell said that Omar's friend, Karee Jeffrey, was involved as well. He claims that a source told him that Omar gave the murder weapon to Kayree, who then dumped it in the Sandusky River. And he even had a dive team searched the river for it, but that came up empty. And despite there being literally zero legitimate proof of any of their guilt, at any point throughout all of this, O'Connell ended up telling the

Starting point is 00:19:57 media that they were all persons of interest. Now, thankfully, he couldn't do much more than that because, of course, he had nothing to arrest them for, but he did end up having Omar arrested for unrelated charges just to get him behind bars. Now, listen, I get wanting to follow up on every possibility when it comes to solving a murder. That is what you should do. But when the evidence does not support your theory, in fact, it disproves your theory. You as an investigator have a duty to move on and work on another angle, not get tunnel vision on certain people based on really nothing.

Starting point is 00:20:38 And not only was there no evidence linking any of them to Heather's murder, but all three of them were ruled out as a match to that DNA under her cuticle, yet O'Connell continued to push this theory to pursue this theory and this theory only. And Omar even had an alibi, and Keona says that she was never even

Starting point is 00:21:00 asked if she had one. She feels, and I could not agree more, that she was targeted because she was poor, black, and voiceless. And she also thinks that he was trying to send her a message. Like I said, O'Connell had helped put her son's father in jail on drug charges, which Julian had been actively appealing. So Keona thought he was trying to get back at them by attempting to link her to Heather's murder. And just listen to this. Detective O'Connell had sanctioned three search warrant. to look for evidence in those early weeks. Two at Keona's apartment and one at her friend's place where she had stayed. And during those searches, he and his team were throwing her and her kids personal belongings all over the place, including in the dumpster outside.

Starting point is 00:21:46 Which is just such a huge level of disrespect. Kiona also says that someone put a copy of Julian's appeal documentation on her bed. Not to mention the fact that O'Connell threatened to have her kids taken away from her. by CPS. And things just kept getting worse from here. More shocking, more infuriating, more just despicable. This is absolutely insane, but he ended up getting a warrant to obtain a sample of Keona's DNA. And when he did so, they barged into her work, which was at a nursing facility, mind you, with their guns raised. He literally harassed her for weeks, and it was so severe that she and up losing her job and her apartment, just despicable. And so her and her children were homeless

Starting point is 00:22:39 for a period of time. And this is all because Detective Dipshit decided that she should be guilty because he was so locked in on that and seemed to have like a personal vendetta against her. And not only that, I believe he is racist. I'm just going to say it. And the same goes for Omar and Keri. And let's just remember here for a second that none of them even knew Heather before all of this, let alone had anything to do with her murder. Yet for the rest of their lives, their names will be associated with this case. Lately, it has been hotter than heck outside. And where I live in Colorado, it is also dry. I am really looking forward to the fall. But while I am basking in the heat, I have been living in my skims' cotton rib tanks. And I live in these all.

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Starting point is 00:26:27 And I think they often forget that these are real people. I think viewers often forget that we're talking about real people here. And the reason I say this is because in a lot of the coverage, they were trying to make you believe that it was one of these three people or even Carmela or her brother. And they did this until pretty far into the coverage. Like trying to make this a true crime thriller, you know, to throw you off your trail, give it a big twist. And I just really think that is so unfair to them. And absolutely. ridiculous. I understand that the majority of people consume true crime for entertainment. And yes, that's probably a reason why a lot of you consume it as well. It is interesting to learn about. But for a lot of people, that is the only reason they consume true crime. And they like the suspense, right? They like the mystery of it all and kind of having that, oh shit moment where you get that big twist. But people forget that these are real humans who have had their lives deeply affected by what happened here,

Starting point is 00:27:41 and they will never be the same because of this. And to play it out like it's going to be this big bombshell that drops and to paint them as the guilty parties when that is actually not the case and has already been confirmed to not be the case just to make it an entertaining episode for people. It really, really pisses me off. So I guess, I don't know. I just wanted to remind people that real life-changing damage was done here by Detective O'Connell. In a couple months after there was nothing progressing in the case, Heather's family started to realize that he might not have been as on top of this investigation as he had led them to believe. In fact, her sister was so frustrated by his inability to consider suspects outside of those three that she went to his boss to file a complaint. Little did she know, though, O'Connell's boss was just as corrupt.

Starting point is 00:28:38 The sheriff at that time was a guy named Kyle Overmire. He was being investigated for stealing opiates from lockboxes at local police stations. Before he faced any consequences for that, though, he got involved in these corruption allegations. And listen to how absolutely messed up this is, okay? It turns out that while pursuing his theory about Keona, Omar, and Karee, Detective O'Connell wrote a report to a prosecutor hoping to get charges filed against them. And in this report, he conveniently left out the fact that none of their DNA was a match for the DNA found on Heather. None, which is very, very illegal. And so in June of 2016, he was finally suspended pending an investigation into the claims of

Starting point is 00:29:26 tampering with evidence, coercing witnesses, obstruction of justice, and more. And the state attorney General's office even got involved, and although he adamantly denies and still denies to this day, which is just mind-blowing, that he did anything wrong, he ended up resigning from the sheriff's office before they could fire him. And he got a job managing a McDonald's instead, which I think is a much better fit for him. Now that same month, the Attorney General's office also took over the investigation into Heather's murder. Clearly, her case desperately needed a competence set of eyes, and that was just never going to happen with Detective Dipshit. And it was also not going to happen with Sheriff Overmire, who ended up being arrested and indicted on 43 criminal charges. That's right,

Starting point is 00:30:16 people, 43 criminal charges for the sheriff. Excellent work. And then in December of 2016, he was found guilty, and he was sentenced to four years in prison. And what's absolutely crazy about this, which Could it get any crazier? Yes, it can. Is the fact that even though he was indicted on all of those charges, his name, his name was still on the ballot for re-election. That's right. Yeah, the audacity of this man should be studied, dude. But yeah, thankfully, no surprise here, he wasn't elected. And a guy named Chris Hilton was, and big shout out to Chris Hilton. I was so excited to have a hero in this case And when he was elected sheriff, he said it was his mission to solve Heather's murder after taking the case back over from the state. And that's exactly what he did. And really, he decided to start from square one. Look at everything with fresh eyes. And he looked into everyone that we've already been going over here today. And ultimately, he found no reason to believe that any of them were responsible. And, you know, that's not hard to determine, right? It's just because he has a functioning brain. And because he has a functioning brain. And because he has a functioning.

Starting point is 00:31:31 functioning brain, he thought, you know, whoever did this probably had to have known her, right? At least in some capacity. So he and the new detective assigned to her case dug through her social media and her Gmail accounts to see if anything was missed. And shocker, something was missed. Even though Detective O'Connell had gotten a search warrant for the location data on her phone, he didn't take it a step further to subpoena the GPS records stored by Google. And those records actually provided very specific location data. And according to that data, they were able to track where Heather was on the night she was murdered down to the very trailer home she was in. And that's what's so frustrating here is the data was literally there all along. After leaving work around 6.17 a.m.,

Starting point is 00:32:20 Heather's phone placed her at the Emerald Estates Trailer Park in Clyde, Ohio, in the trailer of a man named Daniel Myers. And surprise, surprise. Daniel Myers was, no stranger to her. It turns out that Daniel Myers was a co-worker of Heather's who had a known reputation for being an absolute creep. So much so that only days after the murder, a mutual co-worker of theirs emailed Detective O'Connell saying that she knew of someone that they worked with that she thinks would have been capable of killing her. Now, she didn't name Daniel directly at the time, but that was who she was referring to. And it reads in part. And by the way, way, I don't know if you have any suspects, but I know someone who works at Whirlpool

Starting point is 00:33:06 that is very capable of doing that to a woman. Literally, all Detective Dipshit would have had to do is follow up on this email. And she would have said who she was talking about. This could have been solved so much sooner than it was. But you guys, he never responded. He either ignored it, which is my guess, or he missed it. And either way, just an absolutely. failure. And of course, this is total speculation. This is purely my opinion, but I really think he just ignored it because he got such tunnel vision. He wanted to be right so bad about his original theory, and he didn't even want to explore any other options. And we know for a fact that he had never made any attempt to interview anyone, anyone from her work at any point during his investigation,

Starting point is 00:33:57 which just doesn't make any sense. It's shocking to hear something like that. Apparently, he assumed that someone else would handle that. Irresponsible just doesn't even begin to describe this. It is just outright negligent. It is disgraceful. And thankfully, though, justice was finally coming. After learning that Heather's phone pinged at Daniel's trailer park,

Starting point is 00:34:23 the new team on the case paid his ass a visit. And when they were speaking with him, of course, he tried to distance himself from her as much as possible. He said he knew Heather, quote, very, very little. And he also said that he thought it was odd that they were still investigating her murder after two years. Here's a quote from this freak, okay? He says, I guess it's a little odd that, you know, you guys are, I know it's a cold case. You guys are just, you know, grasping at straws trying to figure it out. Grasping at straws.

Starting point is 00:34:55 He literally said that. So yeah, they immediately thought this has to be our guy. And then they thought that even more when he said he wouldn't submit a sample of his DNA. Mind you, that was the only person so far who would not agree to do that. So they got a warrant. And shocker, Daniel Myers was in fact a matched the DNA found under Heather's cuticle. They also got a warrant to search his trailer. And in doing so, they were able to determine that he had replaced. several parts of the subflooring likely to cover up bullet holes and blood. Plus, and this is disturbing guys, they found a safe full of women's underwear, along with other disturbing sexual materials, including but not limited to tapes of himself having very violent sex with women. Just so, so disturbing to think that this guy could have gotten away with this, thanks to Detective of O'Connell. But with that, this monster was arrested at a campground and charged with aggravated murder. And I also wanted to mention that when they were looking into any connection that he may have had had with Heather, they discovered that he had contributed $125 that GoFund Me that was created

Starting point is 00:36:10 after her murder. He also wrote a note on his donation saying, Heather, you were such an amazing person. Although we have only known each other for such a short time, I have come to appreciate our talks about our kids. I am distraught that there will be no more of your smiles at work. You will always be in my thoughts. Your daughter will always be in my prayers. God bless you, Little Missy. Can you fucking believe the nerve of this man? I mean, the audacity of this monster to murder this woman, this mother, and then make a post so publicly about how you'll be thinking of her and praying for her daughter. Just to say, disgusting, bottom of the barrel, low vibrational, trash ass human. Yeah, no shit, you'll be thinking of her.

Starting point is 00:36:59 And I hope you continue to think of her for the rest of your miserable life and what you did to her and what you took away from her daughter. You good for nothing, waste of life, freak. He even had the nerve to go to her funeral and sign the registry book. So I have dogs, cats, and rabbits, but I've got to say, even though I love all. of my pets, I will always be a cat person. I had cats from the day I was born and I have never gone a single day in my life without owning at least one cat. I have two senior lady cats right now and they are just the light of my life, especially my cat Lily. I swear this cat is my soulmate. And so giving her the best and the other one too is an absolute priority for me. And for so many years, we were dealing with the, and you know what I'm talking about if you're a cat owner, the scarf and barf.

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Starting point is 00:38:37 slash Kendall Ray. That's 60% off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com slash Kendall Ray. Daniel is the lowest kind of scum. The type of man that every woman feels. years because it turns out that he had a history of violence against women. I mean, this is part of who he is. After his arrest, 10 women came forward saying that he raped them and all of them had said that they were too scared to come forward. So it's possible there are more. And I will spare you some of the graphic details of what he would do to these women because I just don't think it's helpful at this point to share any of that. It's just very disturbing, but you can probably imagine

Starting point is 00:39:30 it was very, very bad. And essentially, all of these women agreed that they felt too afraid to tell him no. And investigators believe that he strategically chose women that he believed were vulnerable for that reason. I mean, look at Heather's case. She was going through a hard time with her ex-girlfriend and her brother, and they believe that Daniel invited her over to his trailer to comfort her. But when she rejected his sexual advances, he murdered her. And we know that she fought back hard, though, because right after this, he had one broken tooth and another one was cracked, which he apparently fixed himself with super glue. Yeah, this freak fixed his own tooth with a fucking super glue. And this was also super disturbing to learn, but Daniel,

Starting point is 00:40:21 Daniel is a father of two. He has a son and a daughter. And his daughter stopped speaking to him years before all this, and she had shared some really disturbing things about what he used to do. For example, she said that one time he had ripped a woman's fingernails off because she wasn't wearing nail polish. And then there was another time where she heard her dad yelling at a woman, followed by thudding sounds, because she had removed her nail polish. So clearly he had a weird thing about nail polish and fingernails and I don't even know how to explain that. And this is starting to make sense when we think about the way that Heather was found, you know, with her nails cut all the way down to the cuticle and her hair being cut. Because he even refused to talk to his daughter for a little while when she was younger because she had cut her hair short. and he didn't like that she, quote, looked like a boy.

Starting point is 00:41:20 And this just shattered my heart, but she also shared that she used to pee her bed as a kid because she was too afraid to get up at night to use the bathroom because it meant walking past her dad's room. And it sounds like everyone could sense that something was off with him. One woman he worked with told police that when new women were hired at Whirlpool, she would tell them to stay away from him. And as far as I know, he didn't do anything to her, but she had the wherewithal to alert others to stay clear. And also, many people question, including myself, if Heather was actually his first murder victim. Back in 2009, Daniel was dating a woman named Lee Ann Sludder, and she died as the result of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Starting point is 00:42:06 Police at the time said this was a self-inflicted injury, and no investigation was ever done. However, Leanne's sister, Lorian, doesn't believe that she would have done this to herself. She explained that they had talked on the phone the day before, and she had absolutely no indication that her sister was in that type of headspace. And of course, you never truly know, but considering these circumstances, not to mention that the gun that was used was a rifle. And logistically speaking, rifles have long barrels. So to be able to hold one and shoot yourself square in the chest and then for the gun to be placed neatly beside you, that just didn't add up to her. I mean, it certainly doesn't add up to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And at the time, Daniel told police that he had given her that gun for protection, but Lorraine says that her sister hated guns.

Starting point is 00:43:00 And what's really frustrating, and we see this far too often, is that investigators ruled that it was self-inflicting without even considering the possibility. that it wasn't. So Daniel's hands were never even swab for gunshot residue. I will say investigators did reopen the case once everything with Heather happened to see if they could add another murder charge to what he was already facing, but they did end up coming to the same conclusion

Starting point is 00:43:27 that she unfortunately took her life. Although, I don't know if I believe that. I don't know if there was enough evidence to determine that at that point in time. On the other side of things, though, there was an old note that resurfaced written by Leanne that outlined her hardships. They also determined that she could have reached the trigger on a rifle and used it on her own chest. It still just seems unlikely to me. You know, I'm not an expert on guns by any means, but her sister doesn't believe that this

Starting point is 00:43:58 could be true. And she also questions the timing of this note resurfacing, but I did just want to give you guys the full picture. And speaking of the full picture, don't think that I've forgotten about Detective O'Connell. I'm not done talking about him. In fact, before they even took Daniel to trial, prosecutors knew that they had to deal with all the bullshit that he had caused. Basically, what the concern was, was that Daniel's defense could have used O'Connell's theory about Keona, Omar, and Karee as a way to create doubt. So they had to discredit him entirely to make sure that that didn't happen, and ultimately, he ended up being charged for the crimes he committed. In December of 2017, he was indicted on multiple felony charges of tampering with evidence, as well as misdemeanor

Starting point is 00:44:46 falsification, coercion, dereliction of duty, and obstruction. He then pleaded guilty to one felony count of tampering with evidence related to the incident where he didn't include the DNA results, which excluded Keona, Omar, and Kareas suspects. And at his sentencing hearing, he didn't feel he owed those three an apology. And believe it or not, this clown actually stands by his investigation of Heather's case. The only apology he gave was to Heather's family, although I'm not sure how sincere that could have been if he doesn't think he did anything wrong. In fact, in my opinion, it's a total load of bullshit, and the judge agreed. Even though he was definitely hoping to just get probation for his guilty plea, a judge sentenced him to two years.

Starting point is 00:45:34 years in prison, which was great to see. Honestly, pretty short if you ask me, I think it should have been longer, but I'm glad he was held accountable in some way, which we don't often see, but apparently he had a long history of mishandling cases before all of this. There's this reporter, a guy named Matt Westerhold, who spent years reporting on both O'Connell and Sheriff Overmeyer's corruption. He didn't think either of them were capable of conducting a competent investigation, and given what we all know now, I certainly agree. and I'm sure you all do too. Oh, and I thought this was super cool. Matt actually gave Keona a platform to speak on how O'Connell's actions have impacted her life. She went on his webcast several times, and I think we can all agree that the way he targeted her was based in racism and retaliation. Kiona also went to his sentencing hearing and spoke about how much damage he's done to her, and I'm very, very glad that she was able to speak her peace. Now, as for Daniel's trial, that actually didn't end up half. because just days before it was supposed to begin, he was found incoherent in his jail cell

Starting point is 00:46:40 after an attempt he had taken on his life. He was rushed to the hospital and saved, but he eventually came to the decision to accept a plea in order to avoid the death penalty. So in the end, he received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Carmela, Heather's ex, was even able to speak, and she let him absolutely have it. It was pretty awesome. She told him that nobody would forgive him because he was the devil. And yeah, I couldn't agree more with that. Heather's mom also had a statement that was read by a victim's advocate. She said, I hope she haunts you for the rest of your days. At least we can go on with our broken lives knowing that you'll never be free. It makes me sick to know you even had the nerve to come to Heather's funeral and show absolutely no remorse for what you did. This case is just really so horrific. There are no words. And Heather's family, of course, will never be. be the same. I am happy to tell you that her daughter continues to be loved and supported by other family members, which of course brings a lot of comfort. Knowing that she'll never get to grow up with her mom by her side is just devastating. Heather is spoken about so highly by everyone, though,

Starting point is 00:47:51 so I'm hopeful that she will get to learn about what an amazing person her mom was through others. Her community was also very active while everything was going on. They were holding prayer vigils and pushing for justice, which is something I can always find some comfort and it's always beautiful to see the way communities go together. And it just shows you how big of an impact she had on others and just how much she is missed. Well, I hope this case made you as mad as it made me, but that you were brought a little bit of, I don't know, relief in the fact that in the end there was justice because it certainly could have gone the other way. I think Daniel could have truly gotten away with this thanks to Detective O'Connell. But, God, what a massive loss. And I just can't

Starting point is 00:48:36 help but think of her daughter, having to live so many milestones without her mom. And for what? For nothing? Because this guy is such a freak, such a monster. And took her away from her for absolutely no reason just because he is sick beyond words. But yeah, I definitely want to hear your thoughts on this case. Oh my gosh. Lots of discussion to be had on this one. For you. for sure. But that is going to be it for me this week, you guys. I will of course be back next week with another case, but until then, stay safe out there.

True Crime with Kendall Rae - Young Mom’s Murder Exposes Corrupt Investigator: What Happened To Heather Bogle?

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