Unseen - The Girl Who Came Back From The Dead | The Chilling Case of Lacey Phillips Seal | UNSEEN

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

“Could you untie me please?” -- It’s the early hours of June 7th, 1995. Detective Bill Lindsey is carefully taking pictures of a crime scene with two dead bodies, 34-year-old Mary Phillips, and her 11-year-old daughter Lacey. After having photographed the young mother in her office, he turns to the little girl on the chair, head down and covered in blood, but something unexpected happens: when his camera flashes, she opens her eyes. External Footage from: "Evil Lives Here", "The Girl In The Photo", "Discovery +", "The Mass Execution Episode 3 (BBC)". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's June 1995 at 3.45 a.m. A. a 34-year-old mom and her 11-year-old daughter, Lacey, have been reported missing by their family. Unknown to them at the time, there's a serial killer on the loose in the area, evading captivity. As a police officer checks the mom's office and photographs the scene, he finds 11-year-old Lacey, tied to a chair, head down, motionless. But when he takes another photograph, something unexpected happens. When I started to take the photograph, she kind of... turned and looked up at me. It's kind of like seeing someone rise with Ed. I woke up. I heard, and I thought, is there someone taking pictures? And I turned my head. And when I did, I heard a man say, this one's alive. The mystery surrounding Lacey and her mother and what happened to

the other victims of this serial killer would go without answers until the little girl in this photo was found alive. The year is 1995. Lacey Phillips lives with her mom, Mary, her dad, James, and two older siblings, her 14-year-old brother, Jessie, and her 17-year-old sister, Darla, in a loving, supportive home and the small town of Bald Knob, Arkansas. June 6, 1995, Lacey is being looked after by her older sister, Darla, as it's summer break and their mom is at work. At 4 p.m., Lacey has a scheduled dentist appointment, so Darla drops Lacey at their mom's work, a local county tax office. I walked inside the office and we were talking, laughing, no big deal.

And my mom went to, you know, kiss me goodbye, tell me I love you. Darla leaves to spend the night at a friend's house, not yet knowing that would be the last time she would ever see her mom. The last thing I said to my mom is, I love you. I will see you later. A few hours go by and Lacey's father, James, is at home with her brother, Jesse. They both start to worry when they see that neither Lacey nor Mary are returning from the dentist appointment. It's unusual that Mary didn't warn them she would be late. As the hours pass and the sun goes down, they call the police, fearing the worst.

As the police dispatcher talks to the panicked father, he tries to get as much information as possible about the missing people, asking him where the last place Mary could have been. You've got a mother and daughter that haven't been seen or heard from since 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The red flags are waving, so to speak. Investigators learn about the dentist appointment and that Mary works at the local county tax office. detectives must act fast because in a missing person's investigation, time goes against them. A police officer is sent to Mary's workplace, the last place she and Lacey had been seen, knowing it might be too late if they don't find the young mother and daughter soon.

I was at home, shortly after midnight when I received the call, so it only took me about, you know, five minutes or so to get to that location. The deputy arrives at the tax office's parking lot. Strangely, it's empty except for one pickup truck parked near the side of the building, wondering if it belongs to the missing mother. He runs the license plate number and confirms it is registered to Mary Phillips. The police officer walks to the front of the building, knocking on the door, he notices it's unlocked.

He enters, looking around the dark office. Then, with his flashlight, he sees something lying on the floor. It's the body of a young woman. She seems badly beaten, with her hands bound tightly behind her back. He rushes to check for signs of life, but she's unresponsive. Even the officer with crime scene experience has trouble processing what he sees, calling for reinforcement. The police investigator begins to photograph the scene, focusing on every detail when he suddenly

notices a trail of blood leading to a closed door. Maybe the victim and her killer struggled in another room. Intrigued, the officer carefully opens the door and discovers a small bathroom with a toilet and sink, but his attention immediately locks in the middle of the room. A young girl is tied to a chair. She slumped over, motionless, covered in blood. It appears she's been hit in the head several times. Investigators desperately need answers, but so far, they have no suspects or leads

about what happened. And without any survivors or security camera footage, the chance of finding a lead suspect diminishes drastically. But as the officer starts photographing the second crime scene and his camera flashes, something unexpected happens. And when I started to take the photograph, she kind of turned. and look up at me. Here was a shock, a real shock. You can imagine it's kind of like seeing someone rise to the head. Well, I immediately, I told the other officers that we need to get an ambulance

down there that she was still alive. The 11-year-old girl is Lacey Phillips, and against all odds, she is still breathing. Her eyes are wide open, staring back at the officer. He immediately helps her out of the chair, reassuring her even though he sees she's in terrible condition and needs medical attention as soon as possible, but the only thing on the girl's mind is her mother as she asks the officer where she is and if she's okay. I told her that they need to worry about her mom, just need to worry about her right now. The ambulance arrives and she is rushed to the nearby hospital, falling in and out of consciousness. She appears to have been severely hit in the head multiple times and has signs of strangulation on her neck. She's rushed to the emergency room where doctors

assess the girl's injuries. Her jaw is fractured and the medical personnel will need to reconstruct her skull. Lacey's father, James, now at the hospital, is in a state of shock. Just 15 hours ago, life was normal, and now his wife is gone, and doctors are not even sure if his youngest daughter will make it. The perpetrator, still on the loose, leaves investigators with no leads, evidence, or potential suspects. The only hope of uncovering the truth is if Lacey wakes up and shares her story. Finally, after hours of waiting, Lacey is in stable condition and police investigators can interview her. Detectives enter her hospital room with a recorder to get a statement, hoping she can remember any details. It's June 7th when the truth of what actually

happened is revealed. I woke up from Children's Hospital and I was in ICU. They asked me to tell my story as to what happened. I think the details of that day are just engraved in me and part of me. Lacey begins to speak and with incredible detail, she explains to office. what exactly happened to her and her mother the night before. June 6th at around 4 p.m., Lacey is at her mother's work in the local county tax office. Her mother finishes her last tasks of the day before taking her daughter to her scheduled dentist appointment. They are almost ready to leave.

When suddenly, a man walks into the office. He came in and he walked in front of the desk, so we kind of both, mom and I kind of both just step back. At first, they assume it's just another customer, but soon realized something is wrong with this person. He has latex gloves on, holds a coil of wire, and carries a pistol. He holds up the weapon and threatens them, saying it's a robbery. Mary, terrified, rushes to protect Lacey, worried what this man might do. But he interrupts her, telling the mother to come closer and then proceeds to bind her wrists and hands with the metal wire. Next, he yells at the 11-year-old to follow

him into the bathroom, forcing her to sit in a chair in the middle of the room. So I sat in it, And he tied both my arms to the chair behind my back. And I said, don't hurt my mama. And he said, I'm not going to hurt your mama. I'm going to hurt you. The man then takes the butt of his gun and hits Lacey in the head. And then everything goes dark. He then leaves, closing the door behind him.

She is left alone in the room, tied, unable to move. But after a few minutes, Lacey regains consciousness. I'm just looking all around. And there's just blood, absolutely everywhere. She screams desperately for her mother, when suddenly the bathroom door swings open, and in that moment of hope, she anticipates her mother's face, ready to untie her to untie her dismay. It's the man re-entering the room. He is furious, as the yelling could have alerted a neighbor, so he decides to finish the job,

grabbing onto Lacey's neck. He then leaves her in the dark room and disappears from the office, but doesn't know that the girl is still breathing. Hours pass as she struggles in vain against tightly bound restraints. With weakening with each passing moment, Lacey's only hope is that someone discovers her before it's too late. Over 12 hours later, the young girl is still immobile, half awake, when she begins to hear a faint clicking noise, the electronic clicking noise gets louder and more frequent. It took a few times after I heard the clicking noise to realize what it was. I wanted to move, but, you know, my body just wouldn't let me move.

And so then I just stopped and listened. And that's when I told myself that clicking noise, I said, is someone taking a picture? She turns her head behind her and sees a police officer with a camera taking a picture. Lacey is shocked and can't believe it. Someone has finally come to save her. And I just sat there for a second, you know, just... And I said, can you untie me, please? The officer quickly helps the young girl.

As the ambulance arrives, she is rushed to the intensive care unit of the... a nearby children's hospital. I remember people kept asking me questions and I was answering them but I kept saying, where's my mom? Is my mom okay? Where's, and they would never answer me. Lacey is in her hospital room, confused and scared. Her older sister, brother, and father are with her bringing balloons and stuffed animals, but she can't help but wonder where her mother is. I really thought that maybe mom was in the hospital too and that, you know, maybe she had got hurt. However, as Lacey remained seated in her bed for the entire day,

without anyone providing answers about her mother, an unsettling certainty creeps in. Eventually, her father steps into her hospital room and comes to her bedside. And he got down on his knees and kind of put his arms on me. He said, I just wanted to tell you that mom is in heaven with great-grandma. And I just looked at him and, of course, people are crying. and I said, okay. The harsh reality hits Lacey.

Her mom is not coming back. Meanwhile, the man responsible escapes capture. The little girl realizes she's the only hope to stop this dangerous predator. One investigator surround her bedside, she summons every ounce of courage and recounts all the details of her ordeal, determined to bring her mother's tormentor to justice. And I told him specifically from the head to the toes, everything he was wearing, you know, what he looked like.

Did he have the wrong hair? She describes the man in great detail and then suddenly remembers a specific feature he has that will prove to be a crucial clue for the investigators to narrow down their suspects. He had a tear-drop tattoo on his face that I will always remember. Lacey was able to tell the deputy

that the guy to feed her had a tattoo on his arm and a tattoo of a tear drop under one of his eyes. When the information of the man's tattoos circles around the local law enforcement, they immediately connect the dots, 31-year-old Jack Jones. He has the exact teardrop tattoo described by Lacey

and was known by local police for many robbery charges, but what they don't know is that he is also responsible for the murder of at least two other women and has been evading captivity for years. Now, thanks to Lacey's testimony, police have a chance to uncover the truth and finally bring him to justice. The officer goes to his last known residence and brings Jack Jones into the police station for questioning. Anytime you're approaching a suspect, you're thinking,

what approach did I use to get this guy to talk to me about this crime? You think how are we going to do this? To the cop's surprise, he starts talking openly and without appearing to conceal any information about what he did to Mary and Lacey. He was just a matter of fact, as I recall, just telling this story. Joan says he randomly saw Mary behind the counter of her office and stalked her, deciding to come back later that day to murder her. Jack Jones' first contact with Mary was the day he killed her.

He tells the investigators how he cut the cord off the coffee pot and tied it around her neck and how he choked her with his hands. He claims he was seeking revenge for his own wife's rape, since nothing had been done about it. I guess he thought that if he'd been done wrong, well, that justified him doing wrong to somebody else. This man right here, nothing didn't do his job. He told him to do his job if that boy in jail or I was going to have something happen. They didn't listen. According to Jones, his wife was sexually assaulted, but he neglected to mention how she didn't press charges.

Police were never able to confirm any of his claims. Following his confession and Lacey's statement, on June 7, 1995, police arrested Jack Jones for the rape and murder of Mary Phillips and the attempted murder of young Lacey. She, her father, and her siblings can breathe a sigh of relief as they now know the man responsible is in custody. The pain of the loss of Mary leaves the family heartbroken, but their fight is not over yet. To ensure there is justice for Mary and make sure the attacker never hurts anyone else again, he must be found guilty in court. Jack Jones' trial began in April of 1996, after having the evidence meticulously laid out for them and playing Lacey's audio statement from the hospital,

the jury rejected Jones' defense and found him guilty on all charges. The punishment the judge imposed for Mary's murder was death by lethal injection. He also received a sentence of life in prison for rape, plus 30 years and a $15,000 fine for the attempted murder of Lacey. While on death row, Jones confessed to killing other young women, 32-year-old Lorraine Barrett, whom he assaulted and strangled to death in 1991, and years later, in a letter to his sister,

He confessed to the murder of 20-year-old Regina Harrison in 1983. When he was only a teenager, both murders were later linked to Jones through DNA evidence preserved at the crime scenes. Decades go by, and Jack Jones remains in prison, awaiting his death sentence. Lacey is on a long journey of healing as she rebuilds a new life for herself and her family, never forgetting the memory of her mother. It's still such an overwhelming process that I've been through. I miss having a mom. She was taken away. So soon, her smile would light up the room.

Over the years, Jack Jones is continually up for parole. And every time, without fail, Lacey stands strong, giving a voice to her mom and the other victims of Jack Jones. I've been here before. This is not the first time I've been here. And me and my family have been here. I came one time and said I had a four-year-old daughter. Okay, well, now I have an 11-year-old daughter,

the same age as I was. when mom was taken away from me and my family. My love for my mother, my respect, my memories will always be there. And he can never take that away from me. Today, Lacey is now married and a loving mother of her own. Throughout all the pain, she was able to process what happened to her and live her life to the fullest. You live the life you're given, and you do it to the best of your ability. I'm proud that I did have her as a mom.

She was proud of me. She was very proud of me. I have to just keep my head up and think of the things that make me happy, like my husband and my kids. That will always be here for me.