May 8, 2025 • 32 mins
Sometime after 10 p.m. on April 21, 2006, 21-year-old college student Nina Ingram was brutally murdered inside her apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It became big news, at the time it was one of only two unsolved murder cases in Fayetteville since the 1970s.
Police interviewed Nina’s neighbors, her boyfriend, her friends and family but failed to identify a single suspect.
Her case went cold. Until six years later in 2012 when a 26-year-old man named Rico Tavarous Cohn was arrested and charged with Nina’s murder.
If you have a case you’d like the Hell and Gone team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
from family and community members, their statements should not be
considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
(01:10):
inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening. I need
somebody over here on somebody's been killed.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Somebody's been killed.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, where are you at the Law Quad apartments? She
hasn't showed up for work whatever, So we came over
to your apartment.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
She said, Okay, it looked like happened. I don't know
if she's got scratched rut her neck.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Just see somebody over here.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
What is her name, Nina?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So you don't know what happened her. She just looks
like to have scratches. Is that all you can see?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I mean her face is blue.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Shortly after ten pm on April twenty first, two thousand
and six, twenty one year old college student Nina Ingram
was brutally murdered inside her apartment, unit number one at
the Law Quad complex in Fayettville, Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
This became big news at the time.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It was one of only two unsolved murder cases in
Fayetteful since the nineteen seventies, and police interviewed a lot
of people. They talked to Nina's neighbors, her boyfriend, her friends,
and her family, but they failed to identify a single suspect.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This case was unusual.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Nina had been strangled, but not sexual assaulted, and her
front door was double locked. On the night of her murder,
Nina had finished her lost prevention job at Walmart at
nine pm. After that, she picked up some fast food
and then went to hang out with her boyfriend, Josh
Stewart at his apartment. The police pulled surveillance cameras from
(03:03):
her apartment complex that showed that Nina returned home at
ten fourteen pm. She got out of her vehicle and
walked toward her apartment on the ground floor in the
Law Quad apartment complex. But sometime shortly after that, probably
right after Nina unlocked her door and went inside her apartment,
(03:23):
she was attacked.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
The attack was.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Brutal and sudden. The autopsy results showed Nina had no
defensive wounds. She did not have a chance to fight back.
Nina's brother found her body shortly after two pm on
April twenty second, which would have been approximately sixteen hours
after she was lasting alive on camera. Nina often left
(03:48):
her window open for her cats, just a crack, and
the front window was open but only a few inches
On the day that her brother found her body, Nina's
brother had to take off the window screen and open
it all the way to crawl inside. It is a
possibility that this is how Nina's killer got into and
(04:08):
out of the apartment, but either way, whether Nina's killer
locked the door behind themselves or whether they opened the window,
crawled in, closed.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It behind them, and then replaced the.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Screen, either way would have required more thought in planning
than someone randomly rushing her at her door, as police
suggested at the time. After six years, Nina's case went
cold until twenty twelve, when a twenty six year old
man named Rico Tavarius Cone of Springdale was arrested and
(04:40):
charged with Nina's murder. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past
five years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone,
I've learned that there is no such thing as a
small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of
messages from people all around the country asking for help
with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and
(05:02):
their communities. If you have a case you'd like me
and my team to look into, you can reach out
to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six
seven eight seven four four six one four or five.
That's six seven eight seven four four six one four
or five, or you can send us a message on
Instagram at Helen gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
(06:08):
In twenty twelve, six years after Nina Ingram's murder, a
new detective was put in charge of her case. This
detective's name was Scott Carlton, and within a very short
period of time he had results. Rico Cohne was arrested
in charge with Nina's murder. Fayetteful Police Chief Greg Tabor
said that Rico was being charged with capital murder. Initial
(06:31):
reports in the media stated that Rico had briefly been
a maintenance man at the law Couad apartments where Nina lived,
and that could have explained how he had a key
to her apartment and potentially how he could have gained entry.
But at his arraignment in June of twenty twelve, Rico
pleaded not guilty. Rico's defense attorney had considered a mental
(06:54):
illness claim, but Rico completely denied that he killed Nina,
and admitting guilt was a requirement for him to mount
that mental illness defense. Rico was examined by a psychiatrist,
doctor Mark Peacock, who found Rico mentally fit to stand trial.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
According to media reports.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
An Arkansas State Hospital mental evaluation found that Rico quote
did not manifest any substantially impairing systems of a mental
disease or mental.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Defect end quote.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That report also found that he displayed a clear, rational
and factual understanding of the criminal proceedings against him. Not
only did Rico plead not guilty, Rico also refused a
plea deal.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
He said that he was.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Innocent and was willing to take his chances at trial,
even though if he was found guilty of Nina's murder.
He was facing a death penalty sentence. The case against
Rico Khne rested on the testimony of one key witness,
a woman named Randy Applewhite. Randy told police that she
(07:59):
had been romantically involved with Rico for a period of
time when she and her husband were having some problems
at home. The timeline of how she became the key
witness is a little bit confusing. At first, media reports
stated that, according to Randy Applewhite, Rico had been hanging
around with some friends at the apartment complex where Nina
Ingram lived. This was over Easter weekend, about five days
(08:22):
before Nina's murder. While he was there, Allegedly, Rico said
something to Nina kind of hitting on her, and she
rebuffed him, blowing him off in front of his friends,
and this enraged Rico. But it wasn't actually Randy Applewhite
who reported this tip to police. It was called in
by a woman named Brenda Case, who told police that
(08:43):
she was friends with Randy and that Randy had told
her the story about Rico, so then it was Brenda.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Brenda was the one.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Who called the police tip line. This led to police
questioning Randy. This became an issue later because when police
went to get a search warrant, they said they had
three independent witnesses, Randy, Brenda, and someone else. But right
here we can see immediately Randy and Brenda were not
independent witnesses. One heard about it from the other one,
(09:13):
so it was effectively hearsay. When Randy was first interviewed
in twenty twelve, court record stated that after she did
tell her story, it never changed, but later Rico's attorney
claimed in a lawsuit that Randy's story did change multiple times.
We'll get more into that later. In Randy's interview, Randy
(09:35):
told detectives about a conversation that she allegedly had with Rico.
She said that the conversation took place six years earlier,
about six months after Nina Ingram's murder. Randy told police
she was afraid to tell them what she knew because
she was afraid of Rico. And also, she said, quote plus,
I didn't know one hundred percent if it was true
(09:56):
or not.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
He could just be bragging end quote. But during that
first interview, she also said, quote when he looked at
me and told me in the way he looked me
in my face, it felt real. End quote. This is
what Randy told the detective. Apparently, Rico felt that Nina
had been disrespectful. A few days later, Rico happened to
(10:22):
be back at that complex to buy some pot. He
saw Nina arrive at home, and then he made an
impulse decision.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
He knocked on the door.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
She cracked it open, and he said he forced his
way in, strangled Nina, and then wiped down the door
and the doorknob and let the scene. Then he told
Randy that he went over to a friend's house and
turned on the news to see if Nina was dead
or not. Randy said that Rico told her he strangled
Nina to make a point, but ended up killing her.
(10:51):
Police also talked to some other women who Rico had dated,
and they told detectives that he had a violent temper
and could be controlling and jealous. Randy confirmed that she
told police that in the past, Rico had grabbed her
by the throat, choked her, put a gun in her face,
and sabotaged her car. So the state started building its
(11:15):
case against Rico Cone and it was going to be
tough because not only did they really so far only
have one person who allegedly had this information. They had
zero physical evidence, and it turned out that those rumors
about Rico Cone being a maintenance man at the complex
probably weren't true because police later said they believed Rico
(11:36):
had lied about being a maintenance man in order to
explain his DNA being there, but of course they never
found his DNA there. Since the case against Rico Cone
has been sealed, which is another longer story we're going
to get into later, there are no details about what
actually came out in court, but police did say that
(11:58):
there was.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
DNA evidence in the apartment.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Police apparently believed that it had been cleaned by the killer,
and police also never found the murder weapon what Nino
was actually strangled with. They tested a belt they found
in a trash can in the kitchen, and a cat
toy and her miniblinds, but they found nothing, so the
killer probably took the murder weapon with him. Behind the scenes,
(12:24):
both the defense and the prosecution followed various motions and
the legal battle dragged on. Meanwhile, Rico Cone stayed behind
bars that whole time for over three years. Finally, in
twenty fifteen, the trial was getting ready to start, and
then there was another shocking twist in this case, the
state's key witness, Randy Applewhite, went into the hospital for
(12:47):
what was supposed to be a routine surgery, but something
went wrong and on Tuesday, March third, twenty fifteen, Randy
Applewhite died. Shortly after that, on July first, prosecutors dropped
(13:12):
the charges against Rico Cone, They said due to lack
of evidence. After spending over eleven hundred days in the
Washington County Detention Center, Rico was released a free man.
He went back to Tennessee, where he was from, to
stay with family. Meanwhile, the prosecutor, Matt Durett, told local
news stations that they had a year to pursue additional
(13:34):
charges against Rico, but that didn't happen. After that years pasted,
it seemed like the Nina Ingram murder case was in limbo.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
The Fayetteville the Lice.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Department said the case was still officially open, but reading
between the lines, it seemed as though police felt that
they did get their guy, but that after the accidental
death of that key witness, they no longer had enough
to take to trial. Meanwhile, Rico's attorney Tony Pirani told
the news channel five News that his client had been
(14:06):
wrongfully accused since the beginning. He said, quote, we believe
an innocent man had been locked up for over three
years for something he did not do, and we do
not believe that this is justice for anybody.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Tony Pirani said that the case against his client was
non existent and that if they had gone to trial
that he firmly believed that Randy Applewhite would have changed
her story. He told five News, quote, we had every
reason to expect that her testimony was going to be
quite different from some of the things that have been
said in the past, and in fact, she has told
(14:42):
us in no uncertain term that she does not believe
that Rico committed this crime.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Rico's attorney did not agree with the police's position that
Rico was their best suspect. He had a message for
Nina's mother, Judy. The message said quote, we also would
like to see justice for her, and justice is not
involved the wrong person being locked up for this crime.
It involves finding the right person, and we do not
(15:10):
believe that is Rico Cone end quote. Rico also messaged
the news station on Facebook, writing quote please believe me.
I am innocent and had nothing to do with this,
and my heart, mind, and soul goes out to the
Ingram family end quote. Rico's attorneys did their own investigation.
They later filed a civil lawsuit against the detectives in
(15:32):
the case. In Rico's civil lawsuit, they referenced the fact
that the police department did identify several other people of interest.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
As we said last week.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
There were a lot of men in Nina's orbit, coworkers,
male friends, her brothers, and their acquaintances. She was an
attractive young woman, and even though she had a boyfriend
and tried to avoid leading people on, men still hit
on her often. Some men made comments to police about
being close friends of Nina's and wanting to keep an
eye on her, which could be a good thing, but
(16:06):
in a police investigation, detectives are always, of course, looking
for anything that could be out of the ordinary. One
of Nina's friends was a guy named Freddie Hollingsworth. Freddie
had worked with Nina at Walmart. He stopped by her
apartment complex a couple of days after her murder, and
a couple of the female tenants at that building told
(16:27):
police that they thought that police should be aware of Freddie,
they said. Freddie said that his name was Freddie, like
Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
They said.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Freddie told them he was a very good friend of
Nina's and was talking a lot about his theories on
who could have killed her and about his suppose inside
her knowledge of the case. Police talked to Freddy on
May first, two thousand and six. He told them that
he met Nina in two thousand and two when he
worked with her at the Walmart neighborhood market. He said
they became close friends. The detective said, when you say
(16:59):
good friends, so you mean like boyfriend. Freddie replied, quote, no,
I wish, but she wasn't the type. So the detective
asked what he meant by the type. Freddie said Nina
was always clear about her priorities being work in school,
and also said Nina had a boyfriend. He knew that
she had a relationship with Josh and that it was serious.
(17:21):
Freddie and Nina attended the same college, even though Freddie
was several years older. He was twenty nine, Nina was
twenty one. Both of them majored in business. Freddie said
that he thought of himself as kind of a big
brother figure to Nina. He told police that he loved
her but as a friend. But about eight months before
(17:41):
Nina's murder, he said that kind of lost touch. That's
when Nina transferred to the Walmart supercenter on Sixth Street
to work in loss prevention. Freddie said after that they
saw each other only intermittently. He saw her when he
did his shopping at that Sixth Street store, and he
also worked in the same store as Nina's brother, Nelson,
(18:02):
so he would chat to Nelson about how his sister
was doing and hear about her second hand.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Freddie said that.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
The last time he saw Nina was about a week
or two before she died. He went into the Walmart
supercenter to buy a digital camera. He said that the manager,
Danny Williams, was at the store at that time. He
said he didn't really get to talk to Nina as
much as he wanted to because Danny was talking to him.
Freddie said that they did chat for about ten minutes
(18:29):
about the camera he was buying, and about school and
work and life in general. He said they had a
really great conversation, but he said that was the last
time that he ever spoke to Nina. Freddie told police
something off. He said, quote, I really get mad at Nina.
I would get mad at her a lot because of
the type of job she's doing, and I've got witnesses.
(18:52):
I've tried to get her out of this job, this
loss prevention job.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So the officer interviewing Freddie asked, what do you mean
get mad.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
At her a lot?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Freddie said, quote, well, I would get not mad at her.
I would just get frustrated with her. I'm like, Nina,
you need to stop doing this job. You don't have
a law enforcement background. I said, somebody's gonna hurt you.
I know what kind of people shopping there. I said,
you're going to be busting somebody, and you're gonna get busted.
You're gonna get hit, you're gonna get stabbed. And I
(19:22):
have another witness that heard me saying those things to her,
and she just blew me off. She said, oh, Freddie,
don't talk like that, and nothing's going to happen. And
that's what upset me so much when I found out
someone had killed her, because I suspect that's probably what happened.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Freddie went on to say he believed that his shoplifting
theory could have happened that someone whom Nina had busted
for shoplifting, maybe someone who was on parole or already
had a criminal record, someone who couldn't afford to catch
another charge, might have targeted her.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Freddy said that it was possible.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
That one of those disgruntled shoplifters got out of jail
and then started stalking Nina. He said, quote he either
come to the parking lot and watched her and figured
out what she drove, or he just happened to get
behind her to drive through or something and recognized her
and he followed her, figured out where she lived, started
watching timing everything. I mean see, she always left her
(20:17):
apartment Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday late around nine o'clock
because she picked Nelson up. She'd dropped Nelson off at
his house, and then she'd be back at her apartment
by herself. And I figure, maybe this is just a theory.
Maybe he timed her down and got everything figured out.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
The detective asked Freddy to explain how he knew Nina's
schedule so well, including what time she was alone in
her apartment. Freddie Claire verified that although he knew Nina well,
he actually never knew where Nina lived. But he said
on the Sunday after Nina's murder, he saw news report
about the murder and it showed pictures of the apartment complex.
(20:55):
He said when he saw the complex on the news,
he recognized it and that's when he decided to go
over there.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
He said he did it because he.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Wanted, quote to see if there's something that maybe someone
could have done. I felt like I wanted to have
a connection. I wanted to do something, and I also
wanted to see if they were putting flowers on her doorstep,
because I was going to buy some the next day
and drop them off on my way to school end quote.
But Freddy said he couldn't find the crime scene tape.
(21:24):
He wasn't able to figure out which apartment was Nina's,
so after driving around the complex, he decided to park
and take a look around. Then, he said, after getting
out of the car, he saw some women standing there.
He started talking to them, asking them if they lived there.
He told them he was a friend of nina'snamed Freddie Hollingsworth.
He said he wanted to see where she live. He
(21:44):
said he told them. Quote, I just want to see
what happened, you know, if there's something that I can
see that people can't end quote. One of those women
pointed out Nina's unit, Unit number one. Freddy said he
didn't actually go over to Nina's apartment. He said that
he and the two women stared at it and then
(22:05):
walked a few steps toward it across the grass, but
then he turned around and left.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
The detective questioning.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Freddy asked him what he meant by saying that he
wanted to see if he noticed something that other people
wouldn't have seen. Freddie said, quote, well, I notice things
a lot. I'm really good about things. I was hurting,
i was upset, I was crying, and I just felt
like there was something. You know, It's like if someone
got killed in a car wreck, you go to where
they got killed, and you just want to feel like
(22:34):
you can do something for them, or you're with them
or something. And that's what I was seeking. I wanted
to just live a little bit of Nina. I just
wanted to feel some connection to Nina. I wanted to
see where she lived.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So it would be natural for police to wonder at
this point was Freddie just a good friend who was
slothing to try to pick up clues, which, to be fair,
I can completely relate to. And I am not, by
the way suggesting that he did anything wrong, because people
react to grief in all kinds of ways. But obviously
with any male friend of Nina's who showed up at
(23:09):
her apartment, it's natural to question him and find out
if he's trying to help or potentially to insert himself
into the case or misdirect an investigation. Freddie said that
he noticed something else about Nina's unit, that it was
what he called a bad apartment because it was on
the ground floor on the corner, and that there was
a stairwell right beside the apartment. Nina's light was above
(23:32):
her door, But Freddie said when he was there at
Nina's complex on that Sunday that he noticed that Nina's
porch light was not working, but that everyone else's was.
Note later in this interview, Freddie clarified that he meant
that Nina's light wasn't on.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
He said he didn't know.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
If that was broken or if police had turned it
off or failed to turn it on when they started
their investigation. Freddie said that he began to think that
maybe Nina's killer disabled the light and then was hiding
behind the stairwell to wait for when she came home.
That the killer quote had her timed because she worked
just like clockwork, and he just pushed himself in behind her.
(24:13):
That's why the door wasn't broken. End quote. Freddie said
that he had known about the locked door before it
was reported in the newspapers, because he'd heard about it
from the gosspep going around Walmart. He said that he
learned about Nina's death on Saturday afternoon, after management called
a special meeting and told employees that Nina had been murdered.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Freddie said that when he was in.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Nina's apartment complex that he got an eerie feeling like
maybe he and the two women he was talking to
were being watched. He said, quote the these people that
live there, I told them. I said, I don't know
a lot about it, but I think you guys should
lock your doors and be careful because there may be
someone out here on the loose end quote. At some points,
(24:55):
Freddy's story did seem to shift slightly, like at one
point he said he was going to leave flowers, but
then later he clarified his plan had actually been to
go to Nina's and then later go back to the supercenter,
buy the flowers, and drop them off the next day,
but he said he noticed no one else had left
flowers and he didn't want to be the.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Only one doing that.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Freddy suggested that detective checked fast food places where Nina
had been to see if they had surveillance cameras, specifically
if there was someone stalking her, and if there were
easy Marts or any stores that have security cameras on
those gas pumps. He also said if he were police,
he would check past tenants or anyone you had a key,
and of course, as he mentioned before, anyone who Nina
(25:39):
was involved in busting who may have been angry with her.
Freddie also suggested police check the trash cans in the
complex and underneath the stairwell to see if someone had
dropped cigarette butts while watching for Nina. There's also some
big trees down there in the complex, he told them,
where someone could have hid behind. Freddie voluntarily gave police
cheek swabs so that they could be compared for DNA.
(26:02):
He offered to help out in any way that he
could As they were collecting the swabs, Freddy continued to
talk about his theory that someone had been following Nina
for quote payback or retribution. He said that's why he
recommended that police check the fast food places that she frequented.
The detective asked Freddy if he ate fast food, and
(26:24):
he said, Taco Bell is the only one that I
eat at. Nina was at Taco Bell on the night
she died. Taco Bell fast food was her last meal.
Detectives asked Freddy where he was on the night Nina
was killed. He said that on April twenty first, he
worked his shift at Walmart, got off at nine pm,
but stayed there till round nine thirty. Then he said
(26:46):
he was talking to a friend, and then he went
back to his mom's house. He said that on that night,
his mom was not at home. He did say that
he had a roommate who stayed there, but he said
the roommate did not get off work at Target until
two or three am, so at the time Freddy was
home alone.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
He said he got home.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
By eleven fifteen at the latest, and that after he
got home he went straight to bed. The detective noticed
something else at that point a cut on Freddy's hand.
He asked Freddy where he got the cut. Freddie said
that there were two separate cuts. He said that one
happened on Friday, April twenty first, the day that Nina
was murdered. He said that he had been helping a
(27:28):
coworker get down cases of water. In the process of that,
he scraped his hand on a ladder. He said it
was just a scratch, so he didn't say anything to anyone.
Then he said on Sunday he was getting some bananas
and scraped the hand again on a cart. This, he said,
the cut reopened and started bleeding, so he said he
went into the break room and got a band aid
(27:49):
from someone. The detective took some pictures of Freddie's hand,
and before concluding the interview, the detective said, quote, well, Freddie,
there's just some things that concern me. He asked again
how Freddy knew so much about Nina's schedule. The detective
also quizzed Freddie on why he went to the Taco
bell on Sixth Street to eat the.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Week Nina died.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
If he had a taco bell nearer to the neighborhood
market where he worked at the time. Freddie said that
he only ate fast food rarely and that he just
happened to go to Taco Bell that week. The detective
asked if it was possible that Freddie had been at
Nina's apartment before Sunday. He asked if it was possible
that someone would pick Freddy out of a lineup.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Freddie was adamant.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
He said he would take a lie detector test right
then to prove he had never been a Nina's apartment
complex before that Sunday. Freddie acknowledged to detectives that it
might seem suspicious that he knew so much about Nina's whereabouts,
but he said that's just how his mind works. He's
an observant person and he just wanted to help figure
out who killed Nina. Along with Freddie, detectives also talked
(29:08):
to several men whom Nina had dated casually in the past,
but none of them had any reason to be angry
with her, and all of them had alibis. A neighbor
of Nina's and a census taker told police they had
seen Nina with men in her apartment, but it's not
clear if these men were ever identified. One of them
was described as being medium billed with dark hair. Detectives
(29:31):
got a description from the census taker of the shirt
that this guy was wearing. They found a similar shirt
that she identified from a catalog. There is a photo
of that shirt in the case file. The man she
saw wearing a long sleeved white button up shirt with
a band collar. Those are the ones that button at
the top with a single button without having a fold
(29:51):
over collar. The shirt was white with a blue stripe,
but that person was never conclusively identified. Police interviewed another
woman named Chantal, who lived in Nina's apartment complex. She
said she pulled into the parking lot on the night
of April first, at around nine to fifteen pm. She
said on that night she noticed a person she'd never
(30:12):
seen before. She said at first she wasn't positive if
it was a man or a woman, but she believed
that it was a woman, someone who had her hair
yelled back. The woman was sitting in the driver's seat
of a darker, older model car. Chantal described it as vintage.
She said it was dark, so she wasn't sure if
it was blue or navy or black. She said she
(30:33):
saw a blond man walk out from the area, possibly
near apartment number one, and the couple drove away. They
also talked to another guy, Josh Donn, who said that
he had been set up on a date with Nina
a while back. They looked at Josh's hands too, and
found that there was a cut on his thumb, which
Josh said was from a rake. Josh said there were
(30:55):
other marks on his hands from rock climbing. He also
expressed a desire to help catch Nina's killer and voluntarily
gave his DNA to police. After Rico Cone's release, his
attorney filed a lawsuit against several detectives involved in the case,
(31:15):
suing them both personally and in their capacity as police officers.
Also listed in the court case where the city of
Fayible and employees Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
State Crime Lab.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Next week, we are going to look a lot deeper
at the case against Rico Cone. We are also going
to explore what his attorneys claim or viable leads, including
one person of interest who had a frame picture of
Nina in his apartment and who allegedly choked his girlfriend
with the court of his athletic shorts. Rico's lawsuit alleges
(31:48):
that the police falsified information to get a search warrant
against him and violated his civil rights. We are going
to examine peace by piece the case against Rico Cone
because if the police are wrong and he wasn't the
only suspect, there are several people of interests still out there,
and to our knowledge, the police are not investigating anyone
(32:11):
other than Rigo Cone. So who killed Nina Ingram? Did
this person stalk her beforehand? Was this person a stranger
or could it have been someone she knew and maybe
even let in? I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone
(32:33):
Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of
School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated
by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Special thanks to Amy.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Tubbs for her research assistance and to James Wheaton for
legal review. Noah Camera mixed and scored this episode. Our
theme song is by Ben Salek, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott,
Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad
free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Channel on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from
the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at
Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd like me
and my team to look into, you can reach out
to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six
seven eight seven four four six' one four.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Five that's six seven eight seven four four six' one.
Four five
Speaker 1 (33:29):
School of humans
School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
from family and community members, their statements should not be
considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
(01:10):
inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening. I need
somebody over here on somebody's been killed.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Somebody's been killed.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, where are you at the Law Quad apartments? She
hasn't showed up for work whatever, So we came over
to your apartment.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
She said, Okay, it looked like happened. I don't know
if she's got scratched rut her neck.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Just see somebody over here.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
What is her name, Nina?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So you don't know what happened her. She just looks
like to have scratches. Is that all you can see?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I mean her face is blue.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Shortly after ten pm on April twenty first, two thousand
and six, twenty one year old college student Nina Ingram
was brutally murdered inside her apartment, unit number one at
the Law Quad complex in Fayettville, Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
This became big news at the time.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It was one of only two unsolved murder cases in
Fayetteful since the nineteen seventies, and police interviewed a lot
of people. They talked to Nina's neighbors, her boyfriend, her friends,
and her family, but they failed to identify a single suspect.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This case was unusual.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Nina had been strangled, but not sexual assaulted, and her
front door was double locked. On the night of her murder,
Nina had finished her lost prevention job at Walmart at
nine pm. After that, she picked up some fast food
and then went to hang out with her boyfriend, Josh
Stewart at his apartment. The police pulled surveillance cameras from
(03:03):
her apartment complex that showed that Nina returned home at
ten fourteen pm. She got out of her vehicle and
walked toward her apartment on the ground floor in the
Law Quad apartment complex. But sometime shortly after that, probably
right after Nina unlocked her door and went inside her apartment,
(03:23):
she was attacked.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
The attack was.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Brutal and sudden. The autopsy results showed Nina had no
defensive wounds. She did not have a chance to fight back.
Nina's brother found her body shortly after two pm on
April twenty second, which would have been approximately sixteen hours
after she was lasting alive on camera. Nina often left
(03:48):
her window open for her cats, just a crack, and
the front window was open but only a few inches
On the day that her brother found her body, Nina's
brother had to take off the window screen and open
it all the way to crawl inside. It is a
possibility that this is how Nina's killer got into and
(04:08):
out of the apartment, but either way, whether Nina's killer
locked the door behind themselves or whether they opened the window,
crawled in, closed.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It behind them, and then replaced the.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Screen, either way would have required more thought in planning
than someone randomly rushing her at her door, as police
suggested at the time. After six years, Nina's case went
cold until twenty twelve, when a twenty six year old
man named Rico Tavarius Cone of Springdale was arrested and
(04:40):
charged with Nina's murder. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past
five years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone,
I've learned that there is no such thing as a
small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of
messages from people all around the country asking for help
with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and
(05:02):
their communities. If you have a case you'd like me
and my team to look into, you can reach out
to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six
seven eight seven four four six one four or five.
That's six seven eight seven four four six one four
or five, or you can send us a message on
Instagram at Helen gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
(06:08):
In twenty twelve, six years after Nina Ingram's murder, a
new detective was put in charge of her case. This
detective's name was Scott Carlton, and within a very short
period of time he had results. Rico Cohne was arrested
in charge with Nina's murder. Fayetteful Police Chief Greg Tabor
said that Rico was being charged with capital murder. Initial
(06:31):
reports in the media stated that Rico had briefly been
a maintenance man at the law Couad apartments where Nina lived,
and that could have explained how he had a key
to her apartment and potentially how he could have gained entry.
But at his arraignment in June of twenty twelve, Rico
pleaded not guilty. Rico's defense attorney had considered a mental
(06:54):
illness claim, but Rico completely denied that he killed Nina,
and admitting guilt was a requirement for him to mount
that mental illness defense. Rico was examined by a psychiatrist,
doctor Mark Peacock, who found Rico mentally fit to stand trial.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
According to media reports.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
An Arkansas State Hospital mental evaluation found that Rico quote
did not manifest any substantially impairing systems of a mental
disease or mental.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Defect end quote.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That report also found that he displayed a clear, rational
and factual understanding of the criminal proceedings against him. Not
only did Rico plead not guilty, Rico also refused a
plea deal.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
He said that he was.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Innocent and was willing to take his chances at trial,
even though if he was found guilty of Nina's murder.
He was facing a death penalty sentence. The case against
Rico Khne rested on the testimony of one key witness,
a woman named Randy Applewhite. Randy told police that she
(07:59):
had been romantically involved with Rico for a period of
time when she and her husband were having some problems
at home. The timeline of how she became the key
witness is a little bit confusing. At first, media reports
stated that, according to Randy Applewhite, Rico had been hanging
around with some friends at the apartment complex where Nina
Ingram lived. This was over Easter weekend, about five days
(08:22):
before Nina's murder. While he was there, Allegedly, Rico said
something to Nina kind of hitting on her, and she
rebuffed him, blowing him off in front of his friends,
and this enraged Rico. But it wasn't actually Randy Applewhite
who reported this tip to police. It was called in
by a woman named Brenda Case, who told police that
(08:43):
she was friends with Randy and that Randy had told
her the story about Rico, so then it was Brenda.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Brenda was the one.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Who called the police tip line. This led to police
questioning Randy. This became an issue later because when police
went to get a search warrant, they said they had
three independent witnesses, Randy, Brenda, and someone else. But right
here we can see immediately Randy and Brenda were not
independent witnesses. One heard about it from the other one,
(09:13):
so it was effectively hearsay. When Randy was first interviewed
in twenty twelve, court record stated that after she did
tell her story, it never changed, but later Rico's attorney
claimed in a lawsuit that Randy's story did change multiple times.
We'll get more into that later. In Randy's interview, Randy
(09:35):
told detectives about a conversation that she allegedly had with Rico.
She said that the conversation took place six years earlier,
about six months after Nina Ingram's murder. Randy told police
she was afraid to tell them what she knew because
she was afraid of Rico. And also, she said, quote plus,
I didn't know one hundred percent if it was true
(09:56):
or not.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
He could just be bragging end quote. But during that
first interview, she also said, quote when he looked at
me and told me in the way he looked me
in my face, it felt real. End quote. This is
what Randy told the detective. Apparently, Rico felt that Nina
had been disrespectful. A few days later, Rico happened to
(10:22):
be back at that complex to buy some pot. He
saw Nina arrive at home, and then he made an
impulse decision.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
He knocked on the door.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
She cracked it open, and he said he forced his
way in, strangled Nina, and then wiped down the door
and the doorknob and let the scene. Then he told
Randy that he went over to a friend's house and
turned on the news to see if Nina was dead
or not. Randy said that Rico told her he strangled
Nina to make a point, but ended up killing her.
(10:51):
Police also talked to some other women who Rico had dated,
and they told detectives that he had a violent temper
and could be controlling and jealous. Randy confirmed that she
told police that in the past, Rico had grabbed her
by the throat, choked her, put a gun in her face,
and sabotaged her car. So the state started building its
(11:15):
case against Rico Cone and it was going to be
tough because not only did they really so far only
have one person who allegedly had this information. They had
zero physical evidence, and it turned out that those rumors
about Rico Cone being a maintenance man at the complex
probably weren't true because police later said they believed Rico
(11:36):
had lied about being a maintenance man in order to
explain his DNA being there, but of course they never
found his DNA there. Since the case against Rico Cone
has been sealed, which is another longer story we're going
to get into later, there are no details about what
actually came out in court, but police did say that
(11:58):
there was.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
DNA evidence in the apartment.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Police apparently believed that it had been cleaned by the killer,
and police also never found the murder weapon what Nino
was actually strangled with. They tested a belt they found
in a trash can in the kitchen, and a cat
toy and her miniblinds, but they found nothing, so the
killer probably took the murder weapon with him. Behind the scenes,
(12:24):
both the defense and the prosecution followed various motions and
the legal battle dragged on. Meanwhile, Rico Cone stayed behind
bars that whole time for over three years. Finally, in
twenty fifteen, the trial was getting ready to start, and
then there was another shocking twist in this case, the
state's key witness, Randy Applewhite, went into the hospital for
(12:47):
what was supposed to be a routine surgery, but something
went wrong and on Tuesday, March third, twenty fifteen, Randy
Applewhite died. Shortly after that, on July first, prosecutors dropped
(13:12):
the charges against Rico Cone, They said due to lack
of evidence. After spending over eleven hundred days in the
Washington County Detention Center, Rico was released a free man.
He went back to Tennessee, where he was from, to
stay with family. Meanwhile, the prosecutor, Matt Durett, told local
news stations that they had a year to pursue additional
(13:34):
charges against Rico, but that didn't happen. After that years pasted,
it seemed like the Nina Ingram murder case was in limbo.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
The Fayetteville the Lice.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Department said the case was still officially open, but reading
between the lines, it seemed as though police felt that
they did get their guy, but that after the accidental
death of that key witness, they no longer had enough
to take to trial. Meanwhile, Rico's attorney Tony Pirani told
the news channel five News that his client had been
(14:06):
wrongfully accused since the beginning. He said, quote, we believe
an innocent man had been locked up for over three
years for something he did not do, and we do
not believe that this is justice for anybody.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Tony Pirani said that the case against his client was
non existent and that if they had gone to trial
that he firmly believed that Randy Applewhite would have changed
her story. He told five News, quote, we had every
reason to expect that her testimony was going to be
quite different from some of the things that have been
said in the past, and in fact, she has told
(14:42):
us in no uncertain term that she does not believe
that Rico committed this crime.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Rico's attorney did not agree with the police's position that
Rico was their best suspect. He had a message for
Nina's mother, Judy. The message said quote, we also would
like to see justice for her, and justice is not
involved the wrong person being locked up for this crime.
It involves finding the right person, and we do not
(15:10):
believe that is Rico Cone end quote. Rico also messaged
the news station on Facebook, writing quote please believe me.
I am innocent and had nothing to do with this,
and my heart, mind, and soul goes out to the
Ingram family end quote. Rico's attorneys did their own investigation.
They later filed a civil lawsuit against the detectives in
(15:32):
the case. In Rico's civil lawsuit, they referenced the fact
that the police department did identify several other people of interest.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
As we said last week.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
There were a lot of men in Nina's orbit, coworkers,
male friends, her brothers, and their acquaintances. She was an
attractive young woman, and even though she had a boyfriend
and tried to avoid leading people on, men still hit
on her often. Some men made comments to police about
being close friends of Nina's and wanting to keep an
eye on her, which could be a good thing, but
(16:06):
in a police investigation, detectives are always, of course, looking
for anything that could be out of the ordinary. One
of Nina's friends was a guy named Freddie Hollingsworth. Freddie
had worked with Nina at Walmart. He stopped by her
apartment complex a couple of days after her murder, and
a couple of the female tenants at that building told
(16:27):
police that they thought that police should be aware of Freddie,
they said. Freddie said that his name was Freddie, like
Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
They said.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Freddie told them he was a very good friend of
Nina's and was talking a lot about his theories on
who could have killed her and about his suppose inside
her knowledge of the case. Police talked to Freddy on
May first, two thousand and six. He told them that
he met Nina in two thousand and two when he
worked with her at the Walmart neighborhood market. He said
they became close friends. The detective said, when you say
(16:59):
good friends, so you mean like boyfriend. Freddie replied, quote, no,
I wish, but she wasn't the type. So the detective
asked what he meant by the type. Freddie said Nina
was always clear about her priorities being work in school,
and also said Nina had a boyfriend. He knew that
she had a relationship with Josh and that it was serious.
(17:21):
Freddie and Nina attended the same college, even though Freddie
was several years older. He was twenty nine, Nina was
twenty one. Both of them majored in business. Freddie said
that he thought of himself as kind of a big
brother figure to Nina. He told police that he loved
her but as a friend. But about eight months before
(17:41):
Nina's murder, he said that kind of lost touch. That's
when Nina transferred to the Walmart supercenter on Sixth Street
to work in loss prevention. Freddie said after that they
saw each other only intermittently. He saw her when he
did his shopping at that Sixth Street store, and he
also worked in the same store as Nina's brother, Nelson,
(18:02):
so he would chat to Nelson about how his sister
was doing and hear about her second hand.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Freddie said that.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
The last time he saw Nina was about a week
or two before she died. He went into the Walmart
supercenter to buy a digital camera. He said that the manager,
Danny Williams, was at the store at that time. He
said he didn't really get to talk to Nina as
much as he wanted to because Danny was talking to him.
Freddie said that they did chat for about ten minutes
(18:29):
about the camera he was buying, and about school and
work and life in general. He said they had a
really great conversation, but he said that was the last
time that he ever spoke to Nina. Freddie told police
something off. He said, quote, I really get mad at Nina.
I would get mad at her a lot because of
the type of job she's doing, and I've got witnesses.
(18:52):
I've tried to get her out of this job, this
loss prevention job.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So the officer interviewing Freddie asked, what do you mean
get mad.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
At her a lot?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Freddie said, quote, well, I would get not mad at her.
I would just get frustrated with her. I'm like, Nina,
you need to stop doing this job. You don't have
a law enforcement background. I said, somebody's gonna hurt you.
I know what kind of people shopping there. I said,
you're going to be busting somebody, and you're gonna get busted.
You're gonna get hit, you're gonna get stabbed. And I
(19:22):
have another witness that heard me saying those things to her,
and she just blew me off. She said, oh, Freddie,
don't talk like that, and nothing's going to happen. And
that's what upset me so much when I found out
someone had killed her, because I suspect that's probably what happened.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Freddie went on to say he believed that his shoplifting
theory could have happened that someone whom Nina had busted
for shoplifting, maybe someone who was on parole or already
had a criminal record, someone who couldn't afford to catch
another charge, might have targeted her.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Freddy said that it was possible.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
That one of those disgruntled shoplifters got out of jail
and then started stalking Nina. He said, quote he either
come to the parking lot and watched her and figured
out what she drove, or he just happened to get
behind her to drive through or something and recognized her
and he followed her, figured out where she lived, started
watching timing everything. I mean see, she always left her
(20:17):
apartment Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday late around nine o'clock
because she picked Nelson up. She'd dropped Nelson off at
his house, and then she'd be back at her apartment
by herself. And I figure, maybe this is just a theory.
Maybe he timed her down and got everything figured out.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
The detective asked Freddy to explain how he knew Nina's
schedule so well, including what time she was alone in
her apartment. Freddie Claire verified that although he knew Nina well,
he actually never knew where Nina lived. But he said
on the Sunday after Nina's murder, he saw news report
about the murder and it showed pictures of the apartment complex.
(20:55):
He said when he saw the complex on the news,
he recognized it and that's when he decided to go
over there.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
He said he did it because he.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Wanted, quote to see if there's something that maybe someone
could have done. I felt like I wanted to have
a connection. I wanted to do something, and I also
wanted to see if they were putting flowers on her doorstep,
because I was going to buy some the next day
and drop them off on my way to school end quote.
But Freddy said he couldn't find the crime scene tape.
(21:24):
He wasn't able to figure out which apartment was Nina's,
so after driving around the complex, he decided to park
and take a look around. Then, he said, after getting
out of the car, he saw some women standing there.
He started talking to them, asking them if they lived there.
He told them he was a friend of nina'snamed Freddie Hollingsworth.
He said he wanted to see where she live. He
(21:44):
said he told them. Quote, I just want to see
what happened, you know, if there's something that I can
see that people can't end quote. One of those women
pointed out Nina's unit, Unit number one. Freddy said he
didn't actually go over to Nina's apartment. He said that
he and the two women stared at it and then
(22:05):
walked a few steps toward it across the grass, but
then he turned around and left.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
The detective questioning.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Freddy asked him what he meant by saying that he
wanted to see if he noticed something that other people
wouldn't have seen. Freddie said, quote, well, I notice things
a lot. I'm really good about things. I was hurting,
i was upset, I was crying, and I just felt
like there was something. You know, It's like if someone
got killed in a car wreck, you go to where
they got killed, and you just want to feel like
(22:34):
you can do something for them, or you're with them
or something. And that's what I was seeking. I wanted
to just live a little bit of Nina. I just
wanted to feel some connection to Nina. I wanted to
see where she lived.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
End quote.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So it would be natural for police to wonder at
this point was Freddie just a good friend who was
slothing to try to pick up clues, which, to be fair,
I can completely relate to. And I am not, by
the way suggesting that he did anything wrong, because people
react to grief in all kinds of ways. But obviously
with any male friend of Nina's who showed up at
(23:09):
her apartment, it's natural to question him and find out
if he's trying to help or potentially to insert himself
into the case or misdirect an investigation. Freddie said that
he noticed something else about Nina's unit, that it was
what he called a bad apartment because it was on
the ground floor on the corner, and that there was
a stairwell right beside the apartment. Nina's light was above
(23:32):
her door, But Freddie said when he was there at
Nina's complex on that Sunday that he noticed that Nina's
porch light was not working, but that everyone else's was.
Note later in this interview, Freddie clarified that he meant
that Nina's light wasn't on.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
He said he didn't know.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
If that was broken or if police had turned it
off or failed to turn it on when they started
their investigation. Freddie said that he began to think that
maybe Nina's killer disabled the light and then was hiding
behind the stairwell to wait for when she came home.
That the killer quote had her timed because she worked
just like clockwork, and he just pushed himself in behind her.
(24:13):
That's why the door wasn't broken. End quote. Freddie said
that he had known about the locked door before it
was reported in the newspapers, because he'd heard about it
from the gosspep going around Walmart. He said that he
learned about Nina's death on Saturday afternoon, after management called
a special meeting and told employees that Nina had been murdered.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Freddie said that when he was in.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Nina's apartment complex that he got an eerie feeling like
maybe he and the two women he was talking to
were being watched. He said, quote the these people that
live there, I told them. I said, I don't know
a lot about it, but I think you guys should
lock your doors and be careful because there may be
someone out here on the loose end quote. At some points,
(24:55):
Freddy's story did seem to shift slightly, like at one
point he said he was going to leave flowers, but
then later he clarified his plan had actually been to
go to Nina's and then later go back to the supercenter,
buy the flowers, and drop them off the next day,
but he said he noticed no one else had left
flowers and he didn't want to be the.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Only one doing that.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Freddy suggested that detective checked fast food places where Nina
had been to see if they had surveillance cameras, specifically
if there was someone stalking her, and if there were
easy Marts or any stores that have security cameras on
those gas pumps. He also said if he were police,
he would check past tenants or anyone you had a key,
and of course, as he mentioned before, anyone who Nina
(25:39):
was involved in busting who may have been angry with her.
Freddie also suggested police check the trash cans in the
complex and underneath the stairwell to see if someone had
dropped cigarette butts while watching for Nina. There's also some
big trees down there in the complex, he told them,
where someone could have hid behind. Freddie voluntarily gave police
cheek swabs so that they could be compared for DNA.
(26:02):
He offered to help out in any way that he
could As they were collecting the swabs, Freddy continued to
talk about his theory that someone had been following Nina
for quote payback or retribution. He said that's why he
recommended that police check the fast food places that she frequented.
The detective asked Freddy if he ate fast food, and
(26:24):
he said, Taco Bell is the only one that I
eat at. Nina was at Taco Bell on the night
she died. Taco Bell fast food was her last meal.
Detectives asked Freddy where he was on the night Nina
was killed. He said that on April twenty first, he
worked his shift at Walmart, got off at nine pm,
but stayed there till round nine thirty. Then he said
(26:46):
he was talking to a friend, and then he went
back to his mom's house. He said that on that night,
his mom was not at home. He did say that
he had a roommate who stayed there, but he said
the roommate did not get off work at Target until
two or three am, so at the time Freddy was
home alone.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
He said he got home.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
By eleven fifteen at the latest, and that after he
got home he went straight to bed. The detective noticed
something else at that point a cut on Freddy's hand.
He asked Freddy where he got the cut. Freddie said
that there were two separate cuts. He said that one
happened on Friday, April twenty first, the day that Nina
was murdered. He said that he had been helping a
(27:28):
coworker get down cases of water. In the process of that,
he scraped his hand on a ladder. He said it
was just a scratch, so he didn't say anything to anyone.
Then he said on Sunday he was getting some bananas
and scraped the hand again on a cart. This, he said,
the cut reopened and started bleeding, so he said he
went into the break room and got a band aid
(27:49):
from someone. The detective took some pictures of Freddie's hand,
and before concluding the interview, the detective said, quote, well, Freddie,
there's just some things that concern me. He asked again
how Freddy knew so much about Nina's schedule. The detective
also quizzed Freddie on why he went to the Taco
bell on Sixth Street to eat the.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Week Nina died.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
If he had a taco bell nearer to the neighborhood
market where he worked at the time. Freddie said that
he only ate fast food rarely and that he just
happened to go to Taco Bell that week. The detective
asked if it was possible that Freddie had been at
Nina's apartment before Sunday. He asked if it was possible
that someone would pick Freddy out of a lineup.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Freddie was adamant.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
He said he would take a lie detector test right
then to prove he had never been a Nina's apartment
complex before that Sunday. Freddie acknowledged to detectives that it
might seem suspicious that he knew so much about Nina's whereabouts,
but he said that's just how his mind works. He's
an observant person and he just wanted to help figure
out who killed Nina. Along with Freddie, detectives also talked
(29:08):
to several men whom Nina had dated casually in the past,
but none of them had any reason to be angry
with her, and all of them had alibis. A neighbor
of Nina's and a census taker told police they had
seen Nina with men in her apartment, but it's not
clear if these men were ever identified. One of them
was described as being medium billed with dark hair. Detectives
(29:31):
got a description from the census taker of the shirt
that this guy was wearing. They found a similar shirt
that she identified from a catalog. There is a photo
of that shirt in the case file. The man she
saw wearing a long sleeved white button up shirt with
a band collar. Those are the ones that button at
the top with a single button without having a fold
(29:51):
over collar. The shirt was white with a blue stripe,
but that person was never conclusively identified. Police interviewed another
woman named Chantal, who lived in Nina's apartment complex. She
said she pulled into the parking lot on the night
of April first, at around nine to fifteen pm. She
said on that night she noticed a person she'd never
(30:12):
seen before. She said at first she wasn't positive if
it was a man or a woman, but she believed
that it was a woman, someone who had her hair
yelled back. The woman was sitting in the driver's seat
of a darker, older model car. Chantal described it as vintage.
She said it was dark, so she wasn't sure if
it was blue or navy or black. She said she
(30:33):
saw a blond man walk out from the area, possibly
near apartment number one, and the couple drove away. They
also talked to another guy, Josh Donn, who said that
he had been set up on a date with Nina
a while back. They looked at Josh's hands too, and
found that there was a cut on his thumb, which
Josh said was from a rake. Josh said there were
(30:55):
other marks on his hands from rock climbing. He also
expressed a desire to help catch Nina's killer and voluntarily
gave his DNA to police. After Rico Cone's release, his
attorney filed a lawsuit against several detectives involved in the case,
(31:15):
suing them both personally and in their capacity as police officers.
Also listed in the court case where the city of
Fayible and employees Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
State Crime Lab.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Next week, we are going to look a lot deeper
at the case against Rico Cone. We are also going
to explore what his attorneys claim or viable leads, including
one person of interest who had a frame picture of
Nina in his apartment and who allegedly choked his girlfriend
with the court of his athletic shorts. Rico's lawsuit alleges
(31:48):
that the police falsified information to get a search warrant
against him and violated his civil rights. We are going
to examine peace by piece the case against Rico Cone
because if the police are wrong and he wasn't the
only suspect, there are several people of interests still out there,
and to our knowledge, the police are not investigating anyone
(32:11):
other than Rigo Cone. So who killed Nina Ingram? Did
this person stalk her beforehand? Was this person a stranger
or could it have been someone she knew and maybe
even let in? I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone
(32:33):
Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of
School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated
by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Special thanks to Amy.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Tubbs for her research assistance and to James Wheaton for
legal review. Noah Camera mixed and scored this episode. Our
theme song is by Ben Salek, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott,
Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad
free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Channel on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from
the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at
Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd like me
and my team to look into, you can reach out
to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six
seven eight seven four four six' one four.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Five that's six seven eight seven four four six' one.
Four five
Speaker 1 (33:29):
School of humans
Hell and Gone News
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.