July 27, 2021 • 29 mins
After Vann returns to Gary, Marvin Clinton's fiance Teaira Batey disappears. Frustrated with the police, Marvin starts investigating on his own.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the authors and participants and do not necessarily
represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
This series contains discussions of violence and sexual violence. Listener
discretion is advised. Previously an algorithm, we dug into Darren
(00:21):
Bond's past crimes, like how he terrorized his ex girlfriend
in two thousand four the Girl Fire, Beat on Fire
and go to Building of All It. After serving time
and Gary, Von moved back to Austin where he's sexually
assaulted and almost killed a young woman Papa. But prosecutors
(00:46):
in Austin say they were unaware of Von's violent past
and labeled him as a low risk offender. Von pled
guilty and served five years in prison, and after his
release he went straight back to Indiana. This episode what
happened when women started disappearing in Gary? But I really
thought we caught longs half ago the first personal right
(01:09):
in here. I don't want to say how I am
no now states where this is everything from my Heart
Media and Tenderfoot TV. This is algorithm and I'm ben
Keye Brick. After Vaughan was released from prison in Austin
(01:31):
he needed somewhere to stay. Von ended up going straight
back to Gary and moving in with his brother, Reginald Beard.
It's unclear exactly when Von started killing after he returned
to Indiana, but Von's confirmed murders, the ones where he
took police to the bodies, those appeared to have started
six months after Vaughan was released from prison, when on Januen,
(01:55):
Tierra Batty disappeared. She was kind person. Either if she
can't help a person right then and this she would
find a way to make something that happens for you know.
She was like putting a smile on a person's face.
My name is Marvin Clinton and gl was fiance. And
(02:19):
how did you guys first meet? I'm in her on
a cold winter night in the winter of two thousand
and eight. I was dripping down the street and it
was snow on the ground, and I just seen the
person walking that the election was stressed to be outside
in the wintertime instead of having on the winter coach
(02:39):
on like a thin jacket. So I pulled up and
acts she needed ris somewhere and she said yeah, but
I in mind. We shaid and talked for a minute,
then we exchanged from my birth and then it took
off from there. Marvin liked how kind Tier was and
they had more in common, and then he would have
(03:00):
guessed her thing was football. My thing was basketball. But
it was fun, you know, because she talked the way
to get me interested in it and last a verse
with me. Susan kind of like you could teach her
about basketball, and she would teach him about football exactly.
Tira and Marvin continued to date over the next four years,
(03:23):
and in January they had a son together, tray Von.
You'll actually hear him some in the background of this
phone call. Tira and Marvin lived separately, and their sons
stayed with Marvin, but if Tira wasn't around, she would
always call. She made it a habit to talk to
him three times a day. She had talked to him
(03:45):
before he go to school, she had talked to him
when he come home from school, and then she had
talked to him before I put him in a bid
and that was assisted with her. She never was a
minute earlier. She never was a minute make On January thirteentheen,
Tira disappeared. She was only twenty eight years old. We
(04:07):
got up that morning we went around. We did a
lit shopping, and I think around noon we went in
Peppy Tacos's, just like a little local Mexican place. Yeahs
complaining heavy tacos with Margarita's. I had a burrito squeeze
and she hid full tacos two crush intoksal and then
(04:29):
we just hung out for the rest of the day,
watch TV, and I left and went to my house.
She told him she's gonna call me later and wait
on a call. It never happened. This wasn't normal for Tierra.
She never missed her checking calls with her son, no
(04:51):
matter what was going on. She went calls. I went
on and I wait the world. Maybe she looked up out.
I thought she probably fell asleep or so and round
good night. The one in the morning, I tried to
give him her a call, but I couldn't get an answer.
(05:13):
And then I know, I texted her a couple of times,
still no answer. I didn't think too much of it,
you know, but then the next morning she didn't call.
Then she didn't call that afternoon after you bout in school,
and then she didn't call that night. You know, were
by a house. Let myself in she want nowhere in
(05:34):
the house. The second day not here from a contacted
police and they said, well, you have to wait StEB
me two hours to report the person missing to Marvin
waited another day and then went back to the police,
but he still couldn't convince them that something was wrong.
(05:55):
They what they were telling enough that she probably want
to be bothered with nobody. But we knew it that
wasn't the case. But you n the work off with
it because she called every day at the same time
on the die. So a week and a half went
by still having heard from him, Seeing that nobody talked
(06:15):
to us, she had called anybody phone. We kept pounding
them about the miss a person thing, and about two
weeks and two that's when they finally came out and
did a report. Marvin had been calling to his cell
phone over and over. He says, her phone would ring
and then get a voicemail, and he left her message
after message until the mailbox was full, and then he
(06:39):
started noticing something unusual. Sometimes voicemail before and then sometimes
it was like somebody was going in that empty in
the voicemail to the point where you can leave messages.
(07:05):
In January, Marvin Clinton's fiancee, Tierra Batty, disappeared. Marvin called
her repeatedly and never got through, but he noticed something strange.
Sometimes it would tell him the voicemail was full, but
other times there would be room to leave a message.
What did you think was going on with the voicemails?
(07:25):
I'm thinking somebody had not a pass code, or maybe
she had gave him her pass called because she would
let people use her phone, or maybe she lost the phone,
or somebody just stole the phone. Whatever was going on,
Marvin realized that the phone was a clue. If Tira
still had it, maybe they could use the phone to
(07:47):
locate her, and if she didn't, whoever was using it
would be able to tell him something about how they'd
gotten the phone. Marvin went to the police and asked
them to investigate it. They were like, well, you know,
we gotta get the warn we got this that it's
gonna take time. So I said, okay, I'm gonna cut
out the little man. So Marvin went to the Boost
(08:08):
Mobile store, where he and Tira both had phone subscriptions.
I knew the guy at the full store, he knew
both of us, and he knew I would come in
and pay both phone bills. So I talked to him
I tone was going on. He gave me the print
out of phone records. The phone records showed that Tira's
phone was being used to make outgoing calls, but they
(08:30):
weren't to any numbers that Marvin was familiar with. It
was numbers with different area codes like Chicago, the suburbs
of Chicago that was at least an hour hour and
half away from where we were staying. So I said,
well let me start. It's best gating myself. I started
(08:51):
callings from the numbers, and a lot of numbers had
became connected, but there was maybe five numbers that someone
asked the phone and will always be a female that
would ask them the phone. So I would say, hey,
I'm calling and see if you know this person. Then
they'd be like, well, how did you give my number?
(09:13):
I said, well, this person is missing and it showed
that her phone called your number, so I want to
know if you know her or have you seen her?
And then when I tell them it's a female, they
respond to me, is that out on associate with females?
M hm? So I said, well, do you remember who
(09:35):
would call you from this number? And I would give
them the number. They all would say that it will
be a guy call it m hmm. It became clear
that some man was using tirast phone, but Marvin had
no idea who it was. One of the women Marvin
spoke to seemed sympathetic to a story and offered to
(09:56):
help man her got more into talking about what was
going on, and she told me. She said, well, I
don't associate with women. And I say, so, what do
you mean? So she asked me, what do you need
me to spell it out for you. I said, no,
I understand what you're talking about. Nowt for me that
(10:18):
she was more of a working woman to prostitute. And
we talked a couple of times, and then it got
to the point where she actually tried to help me
find out who had the phone. She said, well, I
know I talked to the guy a couple of times
from that number and he was trying to pick me up,
you know, he was trying to go out on a
(10:39):
date with me. And I said, well when I called,
no one answer. So she said, okay, well let me
see what I could do. So she told me she
was going to call it not before me, and see
if she could get anybody answer, So we were the
sworman since he had been calling her that if she
(11:00):
called the number back, you know, he would ask them
because she has spoke to him on that nomber before.
But then she finally called me back and said, well,
I'm not getting the answer. So that was the end
of that. And so at that time, what were you thinking,
like might have happened to her? I just knew something
(11:22):
one right. I didn't have an idea what may have happened.
I just knew something wasn't right. Marvin didn't know exactly
what was going on, but he felt like he was
onto something. So he went back to the police and
told them that a man had been using Tira's phone
to call prostitutes. I gave the detective a copy of
(11:46):
the phone records. You seemed like he was interested in it,
and he didn't tell me thanks. But from that point
on what he did with the record, I have no idea.
And do you remember around when that would have been.
That would have been in mid February. Marvin says that
after he'd given the Gary police hear his Foon records,
(12:08):
he would regularly call to check in on their investigation.
I was calling in maybe twice a week every week.
If I would talk to him on Monday, I'll make
my attentions to call him by Friday. Let's see what
happened between Monday and Friday. Because it felt like nothing
was being done. That's always we actively looking for. We're
(12:31):
trying to gather what information we could gather, same old
thing every week. And were you trying to like hold
him accountable, like let him know, like, hey, I'm I'm
gonna keep on you until you do something. Well he
kind of figured that out. He mentioned to me, you
do call a lot, and I'm like, yeah, I do.
(12:52):
But my thing is I'm trying to get answers. Yeah,
so you're going to hear from me until we do
get asses. Unsatisfied with the lack of progress that police
seemed to be making, Marvin continued investigating Tira's disappearance on
his own. I would go to different nightclubs, different bars
(13:14):
and stuff. Actually, hey, have you seen this person in here?
I will leave a picture with information on the back
of it. If you see her, here's my phone novel
or calmed now one one because she's been reported missing.
And then around March, somewhere between March April. I started
in romas a woman who went by the name China
(13:35):
was saying that she knew where Tira was. China was
going around telling people that she's in a band of
building on the west side of the town, and then
she was the scene. So did you hear it straight
from China or someone told you that she had been
going around saying that I heard it from different people
(13:59):
that this was China was saying. So, I mean, if
it would have just been one person, I could have
just kind of brushed it on. But when you're here
from multiple people, different people, you know, then it starts
to sink again. In the spring of Marvin Clinton went
(14:32):
to the detective working on terrabetes missing person case. So
I told him, I said, this is what I'm hearing
on the streets. So he actually went and picked China up.
He picked up on another charge, and he helped her
in jail for three or four days. And he said
(14:54):
he's been with a couple of times trying to get
information out on for but she would used talk to him.
So that made me start thinking, what she a part
of this? That she helped with this, you know, because
a person only knows so much unless they there, and
(15:16):
for her to say that she's dead on the west
side of town, that's knowing an awful lot. Yeah, do
your China's real name? No? And have you ever ever
met her? I've seen her a couple time of physically
met her. See you've never like asked her for more information.
(15:41):
Are you curious about that? Like how she found that out?
I've been I've been curious about that from day one
when I first started hitting it, you know. But then
the detective was telling me, you know, he said, well, hey,
let me do my job. This is my job. You know,
you gave me the information, Now let me do my job.
(16:02):
And I was like, okay, fine, you know, do you
know did the police look into that? Did anyone search
for the body? Yeah? He said they did those some
active searches and some buildings on the west side and
the east side of the town. But the buildings that
they searched, they all came up empty. But remember Gary's
(16:23):
population had been shrinking for decades, so the city was
riddled with abandoned buildings. They're about seven thousand. Marvin knew
from talking to the police that there was no way
that they've done Thorist search, so he and some of
Tira's friends decided to start searching through abandoned buildings themselves.
(16:44):
The first building I went in to it was black
of singing from a horror movie gang side stuff on
the wall and old ragged couch that was sitting in
a little wrong that had with the bottles, beer camp
not cart it baggies, um use needles and stuff like that.
(17:08):
And as I moved through the house, it was kind
of scary because I didn't know what I would finding there.
Were you worried about like running into someone, like someone
who is like squatting or or something like that. No,
not really, I was more worried about running into or
(17:31):
being in there. That was the scariest part about it.
You know. Then I stumbled in the house that I
be had her in the house. Yeah, you're trying to
find her, but at the same time, you almost don't
want to find her exactly exactly, you know, because then
(17:54):
you have that immature how you found her. Yeah, and
and you don't know what you would look like. When's
the founder if if somebody you're recognize, somebody won't recognize.
So in a way, I always said to myself, Okay,
I'm glad I didn't find because I want to be
(18:16):
the one to find a person that way anyway, But
I felt, you know, it was something I had to
do because I felt that game police department one't doing enough.
Marvin says that when he told police he was investigating
abandoned buildings himself, they told him to stop. And I
(18:38):
was like, okay, why you should want all the help
you can't search you. And this explanation for me not
doing it was because he said, I hate for you
to be and when the houses, I know what you're
not looking for. You know what you're not looking for.
(18:59):
But just say another police drive up and see you
coming out of his house, he gonna want to know
what you're doing in there. So he said, I would
hate to have to come and get you out of
jail for being an these abandoned builders. And then he said, also,
it's not really safe to do it because you don't
(19:21):
know what the condition of the buildings before you go
in now hm. So I kind of backed off of
doing that, but I continue to go around with the
pictures and things like that. You know, you wanted the more,
but your hands really tied as far as what you
can do. So the angle part come in because you
(19:44):
felt like when none being done, you know, when none
being done. And as the case went on, the more
angry you got, because now it's turned from one month
to months, six months and nothing that's being done. Do
(20:08):
you remember where you were when you learned that Tira
had died? Yeah? I would. Actually I was at home
watching CNN and the story about Afric hardy Head came on,
and they put up four of the seven names that
(20:32):
they had identified. One person they had on there. They
didn't have her name, but they heard what she was wearing,
blue jeans, a blue hoodie under brownish colored coat, and
right then I knew it well, because that's exactly what
(20:56):
she had on left day. I seen her, and I
picked up the phone and I called the Corners office
and I said, I know who that person is. So
I gave them the name of the dinners that I
took it too, and they typed up a warning. They
(21:18):
went to the dinnerst office and poor to Dentner records.
The first couple of hours was really anxious because they
they had called me right back. But you know, after
three hours went by, I kind of relaxed because I like, well,
maybe it wasn't her. Somebody just said on the same
clothes she had on. And then my phone from the
(21:42):
corner office and he told me he just wanted to
confront that the dental records matched up and it was her.
Now the hard part about it where her body was found.
It's only like about nine blocks from where I stayed,
(22:07):
So she was basically around the corner from where I lived.
And what strikes me about it. Once everything came to
a head, I got curious about the information China was
putting out there, because everything she was saying was correct
except for one detail. She was to see she was
(22:31):
something in banded building, But China was saying she was
in a banded building on the west side of town,
But she was actually in a banded building on the
east side of town. And see that brings back the
point I was making earlier. You know, how would China
know she did she in the band and building, But
(22:52):
there any difference is what side of town she was
found on. Yeah, see, what what do you think it's
going on there? Like do you think the body got
moved or do you think she was the body didn't
get moved, she was killed where she was found. Mhm.
You know, I had a scenario where I thought, well,
(23:15):
maybe trying to hurt it from somebody else, and then
she was just freading, you know, with with her. A
lot of things came to mind that could have been this,
could have been that. How you know because she's been
involved or did you know who did it? We don't know,
(23:35):
and and still today we don't know because she stopped
talking to the police. Now it's possible that she could
have knew Damn Van herself because as things came out,
China New Tierra and they hung out in the same
area together and come and find out vand head frequency
(24:00):
at area. He was the regular around that area. Because
once this picture came out, a lot of people in
that area came up and say, hey, they have seen
him in that area before. I think I read somewhere
that um one of the other victims, maybe Tracy Martin
(24:20):
also New Tierra. Yeah, who's that kind of like that
same group or that same area where China was or yeah,
let's say areas same group. It wasn't just Martin was
full out of sea. Well, they knew each other. This
(24:41):
is another place I'd like to reach out to the listeners.
If you knew China or Tierra or we're part of
the same group, please do you reach out. I'd love
to talk to you. Contact information is in the show
notes and at the end of the episode. Gary is
a pretty big place, right, So so that's kind of
surprising that four of them would have known each other. No,
(25:03):
it's not that big area together, you know. I mean
they all heard their own different habits that they had,
so it wouldn't be strange for them to know each
other because Gary is not that be What do you
mean when you say they all had their habits. They
(25:25):
all had their own problems that they was going through.
They all had their different drug habits that they were
trying to kick. Somen was able to kick it, song
wasn't you know. So I just used the word habits,
you know, because when some people get ideas of what
(25:46):
other people do, a lot of people like the stereotypele
I think they're a bad person. You know, they're not
a bad person at all. You know, it's just someone
was fighting their demons. Someone was able to kick us
on what and van thing was because they had these habits,
(26:11):
they wasn't worth living mm hmm. Because accring him. They
didn't mean nothing to nobody becoming the things that they do,
what the things that they did, you know, yeah, I
mean I hear that, and I think that's probably the
twisted way that he tried to justify it to himself,
(26:31):
you know, right, So you know, it was one girl.
She stayed out north in the suburbs of Chicago. She
was one of the very very first person that ever
weighing into him. But she happened to get away from him.
She talked to the detective, but because of her line
(26:54):
of work, they didn't have time for her. Next time
on algorithm usually, you know, he brought a cheep back
to the house and they got he's asking about your car,
who knows you're there? And he took your cell phone.
(27:17):
So you're saying that these are all science like you
were probably wind up dead. They say what they heard
was somebody in this dress and they look and they
seen the woman taed up in the backroom of the car.
Of sexual assaults in particular, the departments are under resource,
they're not followed up on, and this is what happens
(27:38):
when you don't follow up on them. Sexual offenders continue
to offend this episode was written and produced by me
Ben Key Brick. Algorithm is executive produced by Alex Williams,
Donald Albright, and Matt Frederick. Production assistance in mixing by
(27:58):
Eric Quintana. The music is by Makeup and Vanity Set
in Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to Christina Dana, Miranda Hawkins,
Jamie Albright, Rema l k Ali, Trevor Young, and Josh
Thane for their help and notes. Hey, thanks for continuing
to listen to Algorithm. If you're enjoying the show, please
(28:19):
do you leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
We've gotten some great messages from you guys already and
we're going to do a Q and A episode soon.
So if you have any questions you want me to address,
or if there are parts of the story that I
brushed over and you want more details, or especially if
you have any tips, please reach out. You can call
and leave a voicemail at eight five zero one three
(28:43):
three zero nine. That's five zero one three zero nine,
where you can reach out to me on Twitter. I'm
at ben Underscore Key Brick. That's B E N Underscore
KU E B R I C H and you can
find all of that information in the show notes, thanks,
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the authors and participants and do not necessarily
represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
This series contains discussions of violence and sexual violence. Listener
discretion is advised. Previously an algorithm, we dug into Darren
(00:21):
Bond's past crimes, like how he terrorized his ex girlfriend
in two thousand four the Girl Fire, Beat on Fire
and go to Building of All It. After serving time
and Gary, Von moved back to Austin where he's sexually
assaulted and almost killed a young woman Papa. But prosecutors
(00:46):
in Austin say they were unaware of Von's violent past
and labeled him as a low risk offender. Von pled
guilty and served five years in prison, and after his
release he went straight back to Indiana. This episode what
happened when women started disappearing in Gary? But I really
thought we caught longs half ago the first personal right
(01:09):
in here. I don't want to say how I am
no now states where this is everything from my Heart
Media and Tenderfoot TV. This is algorithm and I'm ben
Keye Brick. After Vaughan was released from prison in Austin
(01:31):
he needed somewhere to stay. Von ended up going straight
back to Gary and moving in with his brother, Reginald Beard.
It's unclear exactly when Von started killing after he returned
to Indiana, but Von's confirmed murders, the ones where he
took police to the bodies, those appeared to have started
six months after Vaughan was released from prison, when on Januen,
(01:55):
Tierra Batty disappeared. She was kind person. Either if she
can't help a person right then and this she would
find a way to make something that happens for you know.
She was like putting a smile on a person's face.
My name is Marvin Clinton and gl was fiance. And
(02:19):
how did you guys first meet? I'm in her on
a cold winter night in the winter of two thousand
and eight. I was dripping down the street and it
was snow on the ground, and I just seen the
person walking that the election was stressed to be outside
in the wintertime instead of having on the winter coach
(02:39):
on like a thin jacket. So I pulled up and
acts she needed ris somewhere and she said yeah, but
I in mind. We shaid and talked for a minute,
then we exchanged from my birth and then it took
off from there. Marvin liked how kind Tier was and
they had more in common, and then he would have
(03:00):
guessed her thing was football. My thing was basketball. But
it was fun, you know, because she talked the way
to get me interested in it and last a verse
with me. Susan kind of like you could teach her
about basketball, and she would teach him about football exactly.
Tira and Marvin continued to date over the next four years,
(03:23):
and in January they had a son together, tray Von.
You'll actually hear him some in the background of this
phone call. Tira and Marvin lived separately, and their sons
stayed with Marvin, but if Tira wasn't around, she would
always call. She made it a habit to talk to
him three times a day. She had talked to him
(03:45):
before he go to school, she had talked to him
when he come home from school, and then she had
talked to him before I put him in a bid
and that was assisted with her. She never was a
minute earlier. She never was a minute make On January thirteentheen,
Tira disappeared. She was only twenty eight years old. We
(04:07):
got up that morning we went around. We did a
lit shopping, and I think around noon we went in
Peppy Tacos's, just like a little local Mexican place. Yeahs
complaining heavy tacos with Margarita's. I had a burrito squeeze
and she hid full tacos two crush intoksal and then
(04:29):
we just hung out for the rest of the day,
watch TV, and I left and went to my house.
She told him she's gonna call me later and wait
on a call. It never happened. This wasn't normal for Tierra.
She never missed her checking calls with her son, no
(04:51):
matter what was going on. She went calls. I went
on and I wait the world. Maybe she looked up out.
I thought she probably fell asleep or so and round
good night. The one in the morning, I tried to
give him her a call, but I couldn't get an answer.
(05:13):
And then I know, I texted her a couple of times,
still no answer. I didn't think too much of it,
you know, but then the next morning she didn't call.
Then she didn't call that afternoon after you bout in school,
and then she didn't call that night. You know, were
by a house. Let myself in she want nowhere in
(05:34):
the house. The second day not here from a contacted
police and they said, well, you have to wait StEB
me two hours to report the person missing to Marvin
waited another day and then went back to the police,
but he still couldn't convince them that something was wrong.
(05:55):
They what they were telling enough that she probably want
to be bothered with nobody. But we knew it that
wasn't the case. But you n the work off with
it because she called every day at the same time
on the die. So a week and a half went
by still having heard from him, Seeing that nobody talked
(06:15):
to us, she had called anybody phone. We kept pounding
them about the miss a person thing, and about two
weeks and two that's when they finally came out and
did a report. Marvin had been calling to his cell
phone over and over. He says, her phone would ring
and then get a voicemail, and he left her message
after message until the mailbox was full, and then he
(06:39):
started noticing something unusual. Sometimes voicemail before and then sometimes
it was like somebody was going in that empty in
the voicemail to the point where you can leave messages.
(07:05):
In January, Marvin Clinton's fiancee, Tierra Batty, disappeared. Marvin called
her repeatedly and never got through, but he noticed something strange.
Sometimes it would tell him the voicemail was full, but
other times there would be room to leave a message.
What did you think was going on with the voicemails?
(07:25):
I'm thinking somebody had not a pass code, or maybe
she had gave him her pass called because she would
let people use her phone, or maybe she lost the phone,
or somebody just stole the phone. Whatever was going on,
Marvin realized that the phone was a clue. If Tira
still had it, maybe they could use the phone to
(07:47):
locate her, and if she didn't, whoever was using it
would be able to tell him something about how they'd
gotten the phone. Marvin went to the police and asked
them to investigate it. They were like, well, you know,
we gotta get the warn we got this that it's
gonna take time. So I said, okay, I'm gonna cut
out the little man. So Marvin went to the Boost
(08:08):
Mobile store, where he and Tira both had phone subscriptions.
I knew the guy at the full store, he knew
both of us, and he knew I would come in
and pay both phone bills. So I talked to him
I tone was going on. He gave me the print
out of phone records. The phone records showed that Tira's
phone was being used to make outgoing calls, but they
(08:30):
weren't to any numbers that Marvin was familiar with. It
was numbers with different area codes like Chicago, the suburbs
of Chicago that was at least an hour hour and
half away from where we were staying. So I said,
well let me start. It's best gating myself. I started
(08:51):
callings from the numbers, and a lot of numbers had
became connected, but there was maybe five numbers that someone
asked the phone and will always be a female that
would ask them the phone. So I would say, hey,
I'm calling and see if you know this person. Then
they'd be like, well, how did you give my number?
(09:13):
I said, well, this person is missing and it showed
that her phone called your number, so I want to
know if you know her or have you seen her?
And then when I tell them it's a female, they
respond to me, is that out on associate with females?
M hm? So I said, well, do you remember who
(09:35):
would call you from this number? And I would give
them the number. They all would say that it will
be a guy call it m hmm. It became clear
that some man was using tirast phone, but Marvin had
no idea who it was. One of the women Marvin
spoke to seemed sympathetic to a story and offered to
(09:56):
help man her got more into talking about what was
going on, and she told me. She said, well, I
don't associate with women. And I say, so, what do
you mean? So she asked me, what do you need
me to spell it out for you. I said, no,
I understand what you're talking about. Nowt for me that
(10:18):
she was more of a working woman to prostitute. And
we talked a couple of times, and then it got
to the point where she actually tried to help me
find out who had the phone. She said, well, I
know I talked to the guy a couple of times
from that number and he was trying to pick me up,
you know, he was trying to go out on a
(10:39):
date with me. And I said, well when I called,
no one answer. So she said, okay, well let me
see what I could do. So she told me she
was going to call it not before me, and see
if she could get anybody answer, So we were the
sworman since he had been calling her that if she
(11:00):
called the number back, you know, he would ask them
because she has spoke to him on that nomber before.
But then she finally called me back and said, well,
I'm not getting the answer. So that was the end
of that. And so at that time, what were you thinking,
like might have happened to her? I just knew something
(11:22):
one right. I didn't have an idea what may have happened.
I just knew something wasn't right. Marvin didn't know exactly
what was going on, but he felt like he was
onto something. So he went back to the police and
told them that a man had been using Tira's phone
to call prostitutes. I gave the detective a copy of
(11:46):
the phone records. You seemed like he was interested in it,
and he didn't tell me thanks. But from that point
on what he did with the record, I have no idea.
And do you remember around when that would have been.
That would have been in mid February. Marvin says that
after he'd given the Gary police hear his Foon records,
(12:08):
he would regularly call to check in on their investigation.
I was calling in maybe twice a week every week.
If I would talk to him on Monday, I'll make
my attentions to call him by Friday. Let's see what
happened between Monday and Friday. Because it felt like nothing
was being done. That's always we actively looking for. We're
(12:31):
trying to gather what information we could gather, same old
thing every week. And were you trying to like hold
him accountable, like let him know, like, hey, I'm I'm
gonna keep on you until you do something. Well he
kind of figured that out. He mentioned to me, you
do call a lot, and I'm like, yeah, I do.
(12:52):
But my thing is I'm trying to get answers. Yeah,
so you're going to hear from me until we do
get asses. Unsatisfied with the lack of progress that police
seemed to be making, Marvin continued investigating Tira's disappearance on
his own. I would go to different nightclubs, different bars
(13:14):
and stuff. Actually, hey, have you seen this person in here?
I will leave a picture with information on the back
of it. If you see her, here's my phone novel
or calmed now one one because she's been reported missing.
And then around March, somewhere between March April. I started
in romas a woman who went by the name China
(13:35):
was saying that she knew where Tira was. China was
going around telling people that she's in a band of
building on the west side of the town, and then
she was the scene. So did you hear it straight
from China or someone told you that she had been
going around saying that I heard it from different people
(13:59):
that this was China was saying. So, I mean, if
it would have just been one person, I could have
just kind of brushed it on. But when you're here
from multiple people, different people, you know, then it starts
to sink again. In the spring of Marvin Clinton went
(14:32):
to the detective working on terrabetes missing person case. So
I told him, I said, this is what I'm hearing
on the streets. So he actually went and picked China up.
He picked up on another charge, and he helped her
in jail for three or four days. And he said
(14:54):
he's been with a couple of times trying to get
information out on for but she would used talk to him.
So that made me start thinking, what she a part
of this? That she helped with this, you know, because
a person only knows so much unless they there, and
(15:16):
for her to say that she's dead on the west
side of town, that's knowing an awful lot. Yeah, do
your China's real name? No? And have you ever ever
met her? I've seen her a couple time of physically
met her. See you've never like asked her for more information.
(15:41):
Are you curious about that? Like how she found that out?
I've been I've been curious about that from day one
when I first started hitting it, you know. But then
the detective was telling me, you know, he said, well, hey,
let me do my job. This is my job. You know,
you gave me the information, Now let me do my job.
(16:02):
And I was like, okay, fine, you know, do you
know did the police look into that? Did anyone search
for the body? Yeah? He said they did those some
active searches and some buildings on the west side and
the east side of the town. But the buildings that
they searched, they all came up empty. But remember Gary's
(16:23):
population had been shrinking for decades, so the city was
riddled with abandoned buildings. They're about seven thousand. Marvin knew
from talking to the police that there was no way
that they've done Thorist search, so he and some of
Tira's friends decided to start searching through abandoned buildings themselves.
(16:44):
The first building I went in to it was black
of singing from a horror movie gang side stuff on
the wall and old ragged couch that was sitting in
a little wrong that had with the bottles, beer camp
not cart it baggies, um use needles and stuff like that.
(17:08):
And as I moved through the house, it was kind
of scary because I didn't know what I would finding there.
Were you worried about like running into someone, like someone
who is like squatting or or something like that. No,
not really, I was more worried about running into or
(17:31):
being in there. That was the scariest part about it.
You know. Then I stumbled in the house that I
be had her in the house. Yeah, you're trying to
find her, but at the same time, you almost don't
want to find her exactly exactly, you know, because then
(17:54):
you have that immature how you found her. Yeah, and
and you don't know what you would look like. When's
the founder if if somebody you're recognize, somebody won't recognize.
So in a way, I always said to myself, Okay,
I'm glad I didn't find because I want to be
(18:16):
the one to find a person that way anyway, But
I felt, you know, it was something I had to
do because I felt that game police department one't doing enough.
Marvin says that when he told police he was investigating
abandoned buildings himself, they told him to stop. And I
(18:38):
was like, okay, why you should want all the help
you can't search you. And this explanation for me not
doing it was because he said, I hate for you
to be and when the houses, I know what you're
not looking for. You know what you're not looking for.
(18:59):
But just say another police drive up and see you
coming out of his house, he gonna want to know
what you're doing in there. So he said, I would
hate to have to come and get you out of
jail for being an these abandoned builders. And then he said, also,
it's not really safe to do it because you don't
(19:21):
know what the condition of the buildings before you go
in now hm. So I kind of backed off of
doing that, but I continue to go around with the
pictures and things like that. You know, you wanted the more,
but your hands really tied as far as what you
can do. So the angle part come in because you
(19:44):
felt like when none being done, you know, when none
being done. And as the case went on, the more
angry you got, because now it's turned from one month
to months, six months and nothing that's being done. Do
(20:08):
you remember where you were when you learned that Tira
had died? Yeah? I would. Actually I was at home
watching CNN and the story about Afric hardy Head came on,
and they put up four of the seven names that
(20:32):
they had identified. One person they had on there. They
didn't have her name, but they heard what she was wearing,
blue jeans, a blue hoodie under brownish colored coat, and
right then I knew it well, because that's exactly what
(20:56):
she had on left day. I seen her, and I
picked up the phone and I called the Corners office
and I said, I know who that person is. So
I gave them the name of the dinners that I
took it too, and they typed up a warning. They
(21:18):
went to the dinnerst office and poor to Dentner records.
The first couple of hours was really anxious because they
they had called me right back. But you know, after
three hours went by, I kind of relaxed because I like, well,
maybe it wasn't her. Somebody just said on the same
clothes she had on. And then my phone from the
(21:42):
corner office and he told me he just wanted to
confront that the dental records matched up and it was her.
Now the hard part about it where her body was found.
It's only like about nine blocks from where I stayed,
(22:07):
So she was basically around the corner from where I lived.
And what strikes me about it. Once everything came to
a head, I got curious about the information China was
putting out there, because everything she was saying was correct
except for one detail. She was to see she was
(22:31):
something in banded building, But China was saying she was
in a banded building on the west side of town,
But she was actually in a banded building on the
east side of town. And see that brings back the
point I was making earlier. You know, how would China
know she did she in the band and building, But
(22:52):
there any difference is what side of town she was
found on. Yeah, see, what what do you think it's
going on there? Like do you think the body got
moved or do you think she was the body didn't
get moved, she was killed where she was found. Mhm.
You know, I had a scenario where I thought, well,
(23:15):
maybe trying to hurt it from somebody else, and then
she was just freading, you know, with with her. A
lot of things came to mind that could have been this,
could have been that. How you know because she's been
involved or did you know who did it? We don't know,
(23:35):
and and still today we don't know because she stopped
talking to the police. Now it's possible that she could
have knew Damn Van herself because as things came out,
China New Tierra and they hung out in the same
area together and come and find out vand head frequency
(24:00):
at area. He was the regular around that area. Because
once this picture came out, a lot of people in
that area came up and say, hey, they have seen
him in that area before. I think I read somewhere
that um one of the other victims, maybe Tracy Martin
(24:20):
also New Tierra. Yeah, who's that kind of like that
same group or that same area where China was or yeah,
let's say areas same group. It wasn't just Martin was
full out of sea. Well, they knew each other. This
(24:41):
is another place I'd like to reach out to the listeners.
If you knew China or Tierra or we're part of
the same group, please do you reach out. I'd love
to talk to you. Contact information is in the show
notes and at the end of the episode. Gary is
a pretty big place, right, So so that's kind of
surprising that four of them would have known each other. No,
(25:03):
it's not that big area together, you know. I mean
they all heard their own different habits that they had,
so it wouldn't be strange for them to know each
other because Gary is not that be What do you
mean when you say they all had their habits. They
(25:25):
all had their own problems that they was going through.
They all had their different drug habits that they were
trying to kick. Somen was able to kick it, song
wasn't you know. So I just used the word habits,
you know, because when some people get ideas of what
(25:46):
other people do, a lot of people like the stereotypele
I think they're a bad person. You know, they're not
a bad person at all. You know, it's just someone
was fighting their demons. Someone was able to kick us
on what and van thing was because they had these habits,
(26:11):
they wasn't worth living mm hmm. Because accring him. They
didn't mean nothing to nobody becoming the things that they do,
what the things that they did, you know, yeah, I
mean I hear that, and I think that's probably the
twisted way that he tried to justify it to himself,
(26:31):
you know, right, So you know, it was one girl.
She stayed out north in the suburbs of Chicago. She
was one of the very very first person that ever
weighing into him. But she happened to get away from him.
She talked to the detective, but because of her line
(26:54):
of work, they didn't have time for her. Next time
on algorithm usually, you know, he brought a cheep back
to the house and they got he's asking about your car,
who knows you're there? And he took your cell phone.
(27:17):
So you're saying that these are all science like you
were probably wind up dead. They say what they heard
was somebody in this dress and they look and they
seen the woman taed up in the backroom of the car.
Of sexual assaults in particular, the departments are under resource,
they're not followed up on, and this is what happens
(27:38):
when you don't follow up on them. Sexual offenders continue
to offend this episode was written and produced by me
Ben Key Brick. Algorithm is executive produced by Alex Williams,
Donald Albright, and Matt Frederick. Production assistance in mixing by
(27:58):
Eric Quintana. The music is by Makeup and Vanity Set
in Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to Christina Dana, Miranda Hawkins,
Jamie Albright, Rema l k Ali, Trevor Young, and Josh
Thane for their help and notes. Hey, thanks for continuing
to listen to Algorithm. If you're enjoying the show, please
(28:19):
do you leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
We've gotten some great messages from you guys already and
we're going to do a Q and A episode soon.
So if you have any questions you want me to address,
or if there are parts of the story that I
brushed over and you want more details, or especially if
you have any tips, please reach out. You can call
and leave a voicemail at eight five zero one three
(28:43):
three zero nine. That's five zero one three zero nine,
where you can reach out to me on Twitter. I'm
at ben Underscore Key Brick. That's B E N Underscore
KU E B R I C H and you can
find all of that information in the show notes, thanks,
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