February 27, 2020 • 46 mins
Kadie Major finds out she is pregnant again, this time with a son. The next day she is dead. Her body is found next to train tracks, and her little girl is found drowned in a pond. The corner rules murder-suicide. But is it?
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Vicky Hall - Mother of Kadie Major
- Jessica Sanders - Private Investigator, Clearview Investigations
- Ashley Willcott - Judge and trial attorney, Anchor on Court TV, www.ashleywillcott.com
- Dr Daniel Bober - Forensic Psychiatrist, follow on Instagram at drdanielbober
- Sheryl McCollum - Forensics Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder
- Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida,
- Anne Emerson - WCIV ABC 4 Charleston reporter
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
A beautiful mom and her infant daughter found dead near
train tracks counted off as a murder suicide? Or was it?
What happened to Katie Major and baby River Major Crime
(00:31):
Stories with Nancy Grace. She was living in the perfect
life for her. That's what Katie wanted to be was
a mother, have children, be a wife, take care of
her house, cook garden. She was living her dream. She
really was a Katie had married the love of her
(00:57):
life in two thousand and three, her high school's sweetheart,
Aaron Major. They really were just like bes friends. Aaron
went to work for Katie's dad, who was a house
paid she settled in as a homemaker. In two thousand
and seven, they welcomed River Lynn. She had this beautiful
(01:19):
little smile that made her just look like an angel.
She's all smiley, Vicky says. Katie had never been happier.
Need to give her she was so excited about having
children and she wanted a big family. Not long after
River was born, Katie got pregnant again. This time she
(01:41):
learned with a son, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
Thank you for being with us. You were hearing our
friend Peter van Zante at forty eight hours. Originally ruled
murder suicide. That's tough to take in with me an
all star panel to make sense of it all with
me Jessica Sanders, private investigator clear View Investigations on the case,
(02:05):
renounce Psycho Ana. Let's out of Beverly Hills, doctor Bethany
Marshall at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com, Director of the
Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, forensics expert Cheryl McCollum, the
medical examiner for the State of Florida. But straight out
now to Anne Emerson WCIV ABC for Charleston, and let's
(02:27):
just start at the beginning. How was Katie found dead?
It was a cold, rainy, sleety night. We don't have
a whole lot of those down here in South Carolina.
But it was in a little town called Monk's Corner,
about forty five minutes from Charleston. She lived there with
her family. Her mom had a beautiful health horse farm nearby.
(02:52):
The night that she sort of went missing, according to
the police, it was January seventeen, two thousand and nine.
She reportedly had been talking to her mom on the phone.
They had tried to make an instance for dinner didn't
work out. This is around six o'clock at night. Now.
According to police reports, what happened was that she came home.
(03:14):
Her husband says that she talked to him, had made
some rumblings that there was some kind of paranoid issues
going on. She was worried about her safety and had
left while he was in the shower. What we know
how she was found was the next day after searching
(03:36):
for her and the father. The husband was looking for her,
her mom is looking for her. Everyone's looking for this
young woman. And she had her little girl River with her,
and of course she also is pregnant at the time
with a little boy. And the police report they have
found a body, two bodies near the rail road trucks,
(04:00):
and that's where the disappearance ends, and we are now
dealing with what happened to this poor woman and her child.
The woman, Katie Majors, twenty six years old, is found
by the railroad tracks with lacerations to her stomach. Her
child is found nearby, floating in a pond, and at
(04:22):
that point the investigation turns towards looking at and from
what we understand, gets ruled rather quickly as some type
of we don't know what happened to the baby at
that time. They're saying it's undetermined. But the mother, they're
reporting it as a suicide at the railroad tracks. Well,
what was her cause of death? And the baby drowned
in a pond? What about Katie? The corner is reporting
(04:46):
from the autopsy report is that it was that she
threw herself in front of the train. That's what That's
what the official report was was that she had died
by suicide and that's why they found her by the
railroad tracks. Um. I also read the report said that
she had the baby had somehow gotten thrown during the
(05:07):
when she had been hit by the train that was coming,
and when that baby landed in in a pond that
was nearby, like a little water swursh nearby. That's a
lot to take in with me. Ann Emerson WCIV, ABC four, Charleston.
Her family insists this was no suicide murder, murdering a
little baby. I don't get it. Take a listen to
(05:31):
a police interview about halfway through the shower. I heard
I didn't know. I wasn't sure it was her truck
cranking up, but I heard something like that. You know
it was in the shower. So I got a shower,
looked out the winter and her truck was gone. So
I got dressed, got in my truck, tried to find her.
That Did you do anything else at the house before
(05:52):
you left? You try to did you pay your employees
or you just left? I left at that point, yeah,
I left. It went yeah, after and trying to find her.
You know, they've been It might have been five or
ten minutes before I got a shower, dried off, and
put my clothes on, you know, and got in the truck. Um,
and then I drove around just in the central Monkst
Corner areas hotels. I checked hotels because I thought, well,
(06:15):
she's not safe here. She's gonna go to a hotel,
and she's got you know, several hundred dollars to just
you know, where'd you get the money for him? We
do a cash budget every week. Okay, you're hearing her husband, Aaron,
He was spoken to by police immediately since he was
the last one to see her. Listen to this. You
rode around for a whole haystack, yeah, needle and a
(06:39):
haystagers exactly. So I just I sat there in the
Bailo shopping center for a man. I was just trying
to think, you know, I don't know, trying to figure
this out, I guess, and I was like, I'm just
gonna go home because she's gonna be back, just like before,
you know. And that's when I did Derek's payroll. About
(07:04):
what time do you think you got home? You look
at the clock when you came in. I don't know,
but it should be on a computer when you started
doing pile. I got the payroll that's still sitting in
the office because I hadn't had to check book to
pay him yet and stuff. But yeah, I got that.
It's on quick books. I got the thing printed out.
I don't know. I mean that was between eight and
(07:28):
I'm somewhere when I first left the house, I guess somewhere,
and so I don't know. It might have been. I'm
just guessing between nine to ten. Year you were hearing
the husband speak perfectly, calmly and giving answers to everything
police ask, But of course you have to ask the husband,
(07:48):
the partner, the lover, the boyfriend, and vice versa. With women. First,
he was the last one to see her before she
got in the car and drove off with the baby,
and naturally he's going to be questioned. First. Joining us
right now a special guest, Katie Major mom Vicky Hall.
She has created a website called Katie Kadie Katie and
(08:12):
her Babies dot com. VICKI, thank you so much for
being with us. Thank you, Nancy. Vicky, tell me about
the night that you discovered that your girl, Katie, just
twenty six years old, and River just ten months old,
had passed away. What happened? The husband showed up at
our house at one forty four am and called my
(08:36):
phone from the driveway, and Katie's dad answered and said, Jeff,
I need to come in and talk to you about something.
He didn't say, Jeff, is Katie here? Is River here?
And he came in with this story that Katie was
had a premonition that someone was going to kill her
(08:56):
and was shaken and trembling and wanted to leave the house,
and Eddie told her just give me a minute, let
me take a shower, and I'll bring you wherever you
want to go. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Vicky and
(09:24):
her husband Jeff were awakened at one forty four am
when Aaron suddenly showed up at their home and me,
I would tell myself, Oh my god, what is wrong.
Why is Eron here sitting down in the port. She's
never come in the middle of the night, Vicki says
he told her when they arrived home after Aaron finished working,
Katie started acting paranoid and stood in the doorway with River,
(09:46):
refusing to enter. He said, when Katie got home, she
said she had a premonition that someone was going to
kill her. He said, She's standing there shaking and trembling,
and she wanted to go get a hotel. And he said,
I told her, let me go take a shower and
then I'll bring you wherever you want. And he said
he went and took a shower. He heard her trunk
(10:08):
start and she's gone. Then, Vicky says, out of the blue,
Aaron suddenly started going off on a string of bizarre
conspiracy theories. Thank the world's coming in. Then you know,
the government blew up the Twin Towers. They asked him,
why are you talking about this? And that's the moment
everything changed. Okay, I don't understand that either. You're hearing
(10:29):
our friend Peter van Zand at forty eight hours reiterating
what Katie's mom just told us. Vicky Hall with us
along with Jessica Sanders PI, doctor Bethany Marshall, Cheryl McCollum,
doctor Tim Gallagher, and Anne Emerson WCIV ABC four. Back
to Katie's mom, Vicky Hall. All right, so at that point,
(10:52):
Katie's body had not been found near the railroad tracks.
I'm perfectly familiar with where Monk's Corner is. It's got
a low population surrounded by rural area. So at the
time he came to your home, Vicky, you're telling me
(11:12):
he had not. He didn't know what had happened yet,
and he came to your home one forty four am,
and instead of saying, hey, is Katie here, he started
telling you about how she was paranoid. But then he
started talking about the government caused the nine eleven Yes, ma'am, okay,
(11:32):
you know what, Let me just slow this whole thing
down for a minute with me. Everybody is Vicky Hall.
You can find out more about her and Katie at
Katie and her Babies dot com, created by Vicky. So
he shows up, you guys, let him in. He sits down.
What's his demeanor and what's the first thing he says,
as you remember it. What was really odd was his
(11:54):
demeanor when he told me they had gone to a hotel.
I started asking him questions like this, Katie have her glasses?
Does she have rivers portable bed? And he's sitting there calm.
I'm pulling my hair. I'm literally pulling my hair with
both hands up to the ceiling. I'm like, what do
you mean? And he's sitting there extremely calm. I can
still see him, and he had one hand cupped over,
(12:17):
his other hand in his lap, and he's just completely calm.
You said, Vicki that he the husband, Aaron Major said
that night one forty four am, after he comes to
your house, calm demeanor, that Katie went to a hotel.
That they were at a hotel. Is that right? That's
what he led us to believe. Interesting that she had
(12:38):
a premonition and wanted to go to a hotel, and
when he got in the showers, she left without him.
Oh okay, So he didn't confirm that she was at
a hotel, but that she wanted to go to a hotel. Yes,
he let us believe that she had you know was
there though, that she had went to a hotel somewhere. Okay,
got it. What else did he say? He started wanting
to talk about you know, I did want to call
(13:01):
the police, and and he didn't want me to, and
then my husband agreed that, you know, they probably wouldn't
do anything. At this point, Um, he started talking about
the twin towers blowing up the government. Um. He wanted
to act like the world was coming to an end
type of talk. Um. I'm trying to remember everything that moment,
(13:23):
because yeah, about websites. He was reading on, Um, Jeremiah
project dot com and what wooa whoa Jessica Sanders private Eye.
What is Jeremiah project dot com? It's a religious website.
But if there's a lot of conspiracies in it, and
(13:44):
he talks about, you know, the Antichrist, the end of time,
it's I think it's actually a lot of different people's
outlooks that are put into that website. But that wasn't
the only one he was looking at. There was several.
But he was claiming that Katie was the one looking
at these websites and was paranoid. But in fact, when
(14:07):
I went through the computer history, I was able to
find it. They were only looked at when he was home,
and in fact, the night that they went missing, he
was on those websites for hours while they were missing,
and the police never did catch up. Okay, wait, he
was on those websites while they're missing. Yeah, before their
bodies are found. Yes, okay, let me tell you what
(14:29):
Jeremiah Project is about. Quote Bible prophecy and the end times.
Hear this, America. Therefore I bring charges against you again,
declares the Lord. Okay, a lot about charges against your
children and your children's children. Mmmm. All about warnings and
(14:56):
scary pictures painted in black and white, about how all
sorts of people are guilty, that there are no political
solutions for our spiritual problems. There are pictures of children
crying with flames behind them to do It's got pictures
of the Twin Towers smoking about to fall. Resist the
(15:22):
new World Order. Okay, Doctor Bethany Marshall shrink excuse me.
Renowned psychoanalysts joining me out of Beverly Hills at doctor
Bethany Marshall dot com. Many many times I have told
my investigators. I have told people working on cases with me,
when you're looking for a perp, pick the nut if
(15:46):
there is a nut involved in the scenario. That's where
you look first. Why would he be talking about the
twin towers and the government causing nine one one at
the time, according to Jessica Sanders and Vicky Hall, who
hurted herself, his wife and baby are missing. And I
(16:10):
don't like doomsday talk. I mean, it's very clear if
you're a Bible if you see an auto and I
certainly don't claim to be a Bible scholar, but I
know this, We're not going to know at the end
of time. No human is going to know that they
can be all the prophecies they want, but it's very
clear that's not for us to know. So all of
(16:33):
that is just a big waste of time when you
could be out helping other people. That's our directive as
Christians to help other people. Okay, so you're the shrink.
What do you think, Bethany, If a person has homicidal feelings,
it is often towards their most intimate partner, because that's
where their strongest emotions are. When we feel resentment and
(16:57):
the fear anxiety, usually it's in the context of our
most intimate relationships. So here Katie's most intimate person in
her life. At one forty five in the morning, goes
and knocks on his in law's doors and he starts
spouting all these doomsday prophecies. Now, my question would be,
(17:19):
does he have a history of paranoia? Has he been
a conspiracy theorist all along? Is this typical behavior for him?
Or was he was researching on his computer while his
wife and baby and unformed baby we're missing all these
doomsday prophecies so that he could malinger craziness. And what
(17:40):
I mean by that malingering is when you make up
a fictitious or fake disorder in order to cover a
crime or some consequence for negative actions. It's faking. So
is he faking being crazy to throw the parents off
of the trail? Is he faking that his wife is
crazy in order to throw the police potentially and his
(18:02):
wife off the trail. I feel like he's beginning to
build an alibi. He's beginning to build a case for
why he is not the one who would have murdered
his wife, that she was involved in all these doomsday prophecies,
and that also he's too crazy to commit a crime.
(18:23):
He's talking about the twin powers, He's babbling about the
end times and dead babies or whatever else is on
the website Crime stories with Nancy Grace guys Basy Grace here.
(18:46):
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But first, how can you keep yourself and your children safe?
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(19:08):
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(19:30):
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(20:14):
Missing and Exploited Children. Back at Katie's house, Sarah was
waiting alone in case her sister came home. She noticed
a highlighted Bible passage on the kitchen table. What did
you read on those papers? The thing that stands out
that I read that I will never forget is that
(20:36):
the first one's son is to be sacrificed. I knew
something wasn't right. Frightened, Sarah immediately called her mom to
come get her. When Vicky and Aaron picked her up,
both mother and daughter noticed something that would become etched
in their memories. Aaron's hand. He had lifted his hand up,
and I'm like, why is his hand so big? What
(21:00):
I didn't know at that moment is sarah side too.
It just almost looked like a monster's head, you know,
just look bad. His whole fekers were swollen. Was it
connected to Katie's disappearance? Vicki filed that detail and the
other red flags in the back of her mind. You're
hearing our friend Peter van Zanna at forty eight hours
(21:20):
what happened to Katie? Major? Why was that particular verse
in the Bible highlighted that the firstborn son is to
be sacrificed. I guess that's out of the Old Testament.
How could it be that that is highlighted Cheryl McCollum
on the night the baby is killed. Cheryl, you know
(21:43):
there is no coincidence in criminal law, correct Nancy. This
is going to come down to math for me. So again,
you say to yourself, there's thirty thousand two aside the
year less than seventy of our trade, and of those seventies,
nobody holding a baby, and nobody that's been documented with pregnant.
(22:04):
To hold on a second. If you accept that its fact,
then you have to look at this by much much more.
Then this was a suicide and walk away from it.
It's not going to be possible for you to accept
that quickly, if at all. When you add the Bible
verse and then you look at her only injury, so
(22:24):
you have a Bible verse the only son is to
be sacrificed. She's pregnant with a son that she's already named,
which means she's future planning, she's loving and caring for
that baby boy Aden. Then you say, okay, she's going
to commit suicide by train. How do you do that?
When only your stomach is hit by the trade. I mean,
(22:47):
I can't fathom how she's able to do that with
an old Cooman train and only your stomach is hit
with a two foot laceration. I mean, this is crime
seeing recontrol. Take a listen to this. At eleven thirty
one am, came a call from Aaron that would alter
the course of her life. He said, I heard on
(23:10):
the radio that there's an accident, a train hit a
vehicle on Oakley Road and two people are dead. Vicky
headed straight to Oakley Road, but there was no train,
no vehicle, no sign of a collision. Then as she
was leaving, she spotted Katie's truck, undamaged, about five hundred
(23:31):
feet from the tracks, and I just fell on my
knees and collapsed because I knew it wouldn't make any sense.
Her truck should never be here right here. Aaron was
her first call. And you tell him that you have
found the pickup truck? Does he cry out? No, not
at all? Okay, none of this is making sense. And
(23:52):
the likelihood of committing suicide during pregnancy is extremely, extremely
hello statistically, I mean, see Grace, this is crime stories.
What happened to Katie to doctor Tim Gallagher, the medical
exam erre joining us out of the state of Florida,
what do you make of Katie's injuries. There's a couple
(24:13):
of pieces of information that I would need to know
in order to determine what an opinion would be of
the injuries. Number one, what is the speed of the
trains as they go past that area where she was found?
Were they going two miles an hour? Are they going
one hundred miles an hour? You know, this would help
me to determine if the injuries were caused in fact
by that train. So from what I understand, she had
(24:36):
lacerations of the stomach and possibly a broken leg. These
are typically injuries that are not found with somebody who
meets their end with a train. Typically we would find
much more devastating injuries, the spinal injuries, injuries to the head,
injuries to all of the limbs, both arms, both legs,
because you have to remember, after the impact with the train,
(24:59):
they are going through the air and land on the
ground and have secondary and secondary impacts that also caused
a lot of damage. So minor damage or minor injuries
the way that was described is certainly not consistent at
first blush with being impacted by a train. But I
would have to know what the speed of the train
(25:20):
was at that time of the night, Jessica jump him. Yeah,
what they said. Back then, with the CSX being the train,
it would have been going around fifty five miles an hour,
and then they changed it last year to the AM track,
which would run about seventy miles an hour. So in
her body was actually lighting six feet from the actual track,
(25:41):
which you would think if you're hit. No matter which
train it was, she would have been thrown to the
side pretty significantly. I mean, a five hundred pound cow
is thrown, you know, one hundred feet at least. Let
me ask you this, how far where was her vehicle?
Her vehicle was parked in a driveway, almost blocking the
man strike ability to get in, and it was five
(26:02):
hundred feet from the crossing, and then her body was down.
I believe it was around half a mile from that point,
so she would have had to walk that far. We
know that a forensic team came to the trucks. A
railroad worker had discovered the bodies around eight twenty that morning.
They theorized she had been struck on the side by
(26:22):
an object hanging off the train because there had been
no report of a train accident. It's my understanding joining me,
Vicky Hall, this is Katie's mom. Tell me the demeanor
of the husband, Aaron Major after Katie's body was found
(26:43):
and he had he exhibited any of this abnormal behavior
regarding conspiracy theories and end of times doomsday websites before.
No there there was none zero before and his demeanor
afterwards was very strange. The police told him to come
to my house that morning when they know the bodies
(27:05):
were found, and he came to my house. I didn't
even know he was here. He was sitting on my couch.
The police are in my house the corner. You know.
My husband's in the bedroom screaming. We just found out
they're dead. And Aaron sat on the couch and didn't
say a word to anybody. He didn't come and say, Vicky,
what do you know? He sat there with his head
(27:26):
looking at the floor. And then they took him away
and he never acted normal after that. I never saw
him grieve. I never saw one tea or nothing. Well.
As a matter of fact, listen to this, he wanted
aid in the unborn son displayed publicly for viewing on
(27:51):
top of kating, go my Aaron. No, that wasn't the
end of his bizarre behavior at the viewing, says Chad.
It was sitting there nonchalantly on the front repeal, eating McDonald's,
drinking out of his big McDonald's cup. The dead bodies
of his family are right in front. You can reach
out and touch him. He never said it here. He
(28:12):
never came and hugged anybody. There. Was the sickest thing
I've ever witnessed my whole life. Two days after the funeral,
Aaron went in for surgery to mend his broken hand. Okay,
I'm having a hard time taking that in. Did I
understand that right? Vicky Hall, Katie's mom. He ate McDonald's
and drank out of a big McDonald's cup. Yes, ma'am,
(28:32):
he did, yes, on the front road at the funeral home. Yeah,
It's like he kind of guarded the bodies. He'd sit
there and eat and like nobody could get, you know,
get up there to them. But yeah, he just sit
there eating, eating French fries. A hammocker had this really big,
the biggest drink from McDonald's you can get, sitting on
that I want to get something clear regarding the timeline.
(28:54):
Vicky Hall, this is Katie's mom. Everybody, immediately after she
goes missing. You observe along with Sarah that his hand
is swollen up, really swollen, as she said, like a
quote monster hand. Yeah, is that correct? Yes, Okay, take
(29:15):
a listen to this. Sarah, remembering that swollen hand, was
convinced Aaron broke it while killing her sister. It just
made me think, like, did he hit his hand on
the train and pushing her into the train or fighting
with her. That's what made me know in my heart
in my head that he was involved. Both Sarah and
Vicky say they had seen Aron's injured hand the morning
(29:38):
the bodies were discovered, but Alex's investigation turned up another
explanation that Aaron injured it two days later at the
funeral home when he punched a wall while choosing a coffin.
We inquired with the funeral director and she said, yes,
I witnessed him puncha send a block wall. At first,
Aaron tried to make the funeral private, tell Vicky and
(30:00):
her family they were not invited. Everything was a fight
from the very moment they died to have things done normally.
Mother and daughter were in the same coffin. Miraculously, Katie's
face was largely undamaged, and the family wanted an open
casket for Katie. And River climb stories with Nancy, Grace, Vicky,
(30:35):
and Jessica say there were more damning clues back at
the house. Some stuff was knocked off a River's dresser.
There was clothes on the floor, all of these jewels,
they were all open in the whole bathroom. What does
that suggest to you? There was a fight. I believed
there was a fight and she was trying to leave him.
Do you believe that Katie Major may have died inside
(30:57):
her own house? I do. I think it's very possible
that she died at the house. Their house, a potential
crime scene, was never properly processed. There's no photos, no
forensics search at all. If there was a fight, that's
starting there luminal tests easy. They did nothing. Okay, that's
(31:18):
very disturbing. You're hearing our friends at forty eight hours
to Cheryl McCollum, From what I have learned regarding Katie Major,
her home, especially the baby's room, would never have looked
like this. Things knocked off rivers. Dresser just knocked off
clothes all over the floor, drawers were open that that
(31:38):
doesn't make sense. But no forensics were done at the home.
I don't understand it, Cheryl McCollum. I don't understand it either, Nancy,
and there's just no excuse for it. Another thing that
goes toward them having a fight. Her wedding ring was
in her pocket. Now she supposedly drives this car and
abandons it, but there's no car keys, but her wedding
(31:59):
ring is the pocket That to me is indicative of
somebody that is angered. Take that ring off, like I'm done.
So there was something that should have been followed up.
To me, that house should have been combed through with
every forensic agent they had. If I could say something,
not only do they not forensics the house, they never
(32:19):
went to the house and looked around when their bodies
were found. There's been nothing done. Fleet Lord, take a
listen to this. Lewis and Cooke, Kenda did what Paulick
and his team didn't do. Hello talk to Katie's closest friends.
Monday Cookenda says the cold case unit has confirmed that
(32:43):
Aaron told the original detective a huge line a potential
game changer. That's when I heard on talk radio ninety
four point three that there had been a person and
a young child hit by the train in Berkelen County.
And I and just as Vicky had said, that was
a bold faced line. There was no radio report. There
(33:06):
was no radio report. Well, why would he have told
a story about hearing this report? Do you think I
think he wanted Katie and River fawn? Okay, that is
one of the single most disturbing facts to me out
of so many. First the hand was swollen like a
quote monster hand. And then later at the funeral home,
(33:29):
many many hours later, he suddenly hits that same hand
against the wall, thereby explaining the swelling. But this radio
report to Vicky Hall, this is Katie's mom, Is this true?
He told, and I'm talking about the husband, Aaron Major.
(33:52):
He said he found out about the train tracks on
the radio, but yet that never happened. Yes, ma'am, knew
he found out. He called me and told me to
go to Oakley Road that a train hit a vehicle
and two people are dead. And the radio station said
they did not say that. He told me to go
to Oakley Road. Oakley Road was never announced on the radio,
(34:16):
whether Berkeley County. Could you know there could have been
an announcement of Berkeley County. Berkeley County is huge. His
mistake is he sent me to Oakley Road and there
was never Oakley Road was never announced on the radio,
and there was no announcement on the radio period. When
he called me and said he just heard on the radio,
you know that there was a train hit a vehicle
(34:37):
and no train hit a vehicle either. So okay, that
is a huge red flag to Cheryl McCollum. In my mind,
that's one of the strongest pieces of Evans. Before it's
out there, before the bodies have been found. He, according
to Vicky Hall, is directing his wife's mother to where
(34:58):
the bodies are. Yet it had not been made public.
The keys to the vehicle were gone, although everything else
was still in the victim's pocket. Who drove the car there?
Who had the keys? How did he fabricate a radio
report that never existed? He knew where the bodies were, Cheryl.
Not only did he know where they were, he had
(35:19):
already set the stage for what happened to them. He's
already telling you a train hits them. So no matter
what you see, he wants you to accept that. If
you already heard the pis say that a cow would
be hit a hundred yards, that baby was fifty yards
from her mama, she would have gone much further. Nancy,
and somebody's punched in the stomach just with a fist,
(35:42):
they go forward, Their face goes forward. Her face was
without injury. The baby has no additional injury. The baby
was alive when she went in the water. Her little
loans will show that that statement alone is a money
tree and a game change with the wise cat. To
doctor Tim Gallagher, a medical examiner for the State of Florida, doctor,
how could you tell if the lacerations on her body
(36:06):
half a mile away from her car, we're from a train. Well,
there's nothing more devastating to the human body than being
hit by a train going at the reported seventy miles
an hour. The injuries would be on every part of
her body, including broken spine, severed spinal cord. Sometimes the
(36:26):
intestines are then ejected from the abdominal cavity. A lot
of times the brain is ejected from the cranial cavity,
you know, So there's nothing more devastating to the human
body than being impacted by a train, and certainly there'd
be no doubt that that was the cause of death,
you know, in her case, you know, I'd like to
(36:48):
see the her injuries how to come from someplace, you know,
so it would be important to see what the pattern
of that type of injury was. But it certainly doesn't
appear to be that of being struck by a train.
We also know that Katie had just seen her doctor
the day before. Vicky and Jessica went to work determined
(37:09):
to show that Katie was not psychotic. They spoke to
dozens of witnesses, including Katie's obstetrician, Christine Case, who examined
her the day before her death. I do not think,
in my professional opinion, that she had any depression or
postpartum depression. Back then, Olik and his team did not
(37:29):
speak to doctor Case, and Vicky says would not listen
to what she had to say. She says she was
never questioned about her daughter's state of mind and what
had happened in the hours on that day that she disappeared.
How could someone not have interviewed the family about those things.
I don't recall when she was interviewed, and they should
have been interviewed for those things. Are you darn right?
(37:50):
Our friend Peter van zandt there's so many theories abounding.
Vicky Hall, Katie's mom. According to her own she was
not depressed. She was not having any type of psychosis
the very day before. So these stories about her being
paranoid don't make sense to me. No, they make zero sense.
(38:12):
I actually was with her after her ultrasound and before
her ultrasound with doctor Kase. She was so excited for
finding out she's having a baby boy. I was so excited.
Our whole family was so excited would be our first grandson.
And then she called me the night that she died.
She called me when she got home. She called me,
(38:32):
and I talked to her at six forty three that night.
I was driving and and I don't know what happened,
but I talked to her that night and she was fine.
When she got home, she was in the house and
she called me and she was fine. So Aaron's story
doesn't add up that she's scared, paranoid, shake and tremblin
don't want to go in the house. Tell me about
their marriage, VICKI, Yeah, they were high school sweetheart. I'd
(38:57):
known Aaron for ten years. They dated for five years
before they got married. They were like best friends. Aaron
was a very private man, Katie was very more outgoing,
and I just noticed changes after river Lyn was born,
my first granddaughter, where he just seemed to really be
(39:18):
distant himself. I was getting concerned that he wasn't bonding
with river And then Katie found out she's pregnant again
with a little boy the day before, but he just
seemed to be distant in himself. I'm not sure he
wanted the children. White she found out she was pregnant
the day before. He found of tooth having a baby
boy the day before she died. But I'm not sure
(39:42):
he wanted a family. I believe he wanted Katie, but
I'm not sure he wanted the children. You know, I
was getting concerned. Okay, so I didn't realize she had
just found out the day before she died. Did he remarry? No,
he has not remarried him. From what I understand, he
has not dated another woman. What do you think is
(40:05):
the problem with the law enforcement. I don't understand what
the hold up is. Vicky in Berkeley County. It's called
the good O Boys system. We have a new sheriff,
a new corner, but they're all related colleague wide to
the old administration, and I feel like they do not
want to make changes here, change the manner of death
(40:27):
from suicide, because they're looking out for the previous administration.
Now I'm just trying to take everything into Jessica Sanders
private investigator clear View investigations. In my mind, there is
so much evidence it was actually reopened by the Sheriff's department.
What a piece of evidence that I would like to
add is that I had found any computer records, the
(40:49):
same computer records that they hide back then. That at
ten am was like ten oh seven, which was an
hour and a half before Aaron called the he to
send her to Oakley Road. He had searched on his
home computer two people found at Berkeley County, so he
was already looking to find out if they were if
(41:11):
they were found, yes, before he ever even talked to
Victor Cheryl McCollum. This reminds me so much of the
Heidi Brussard case where her friend Megan Feara mousco is
there at the delivery room and then ends up according
to police, killing her best friend Heidi Brissard to get
(41:32):
the baby, but before it was announced that the bodies
were found, she was looking up frantically, over and over
and over deaths in the county, bodies Heidi Broussard. She
was looking up all of that online before anything had
been said about Heidi missing. So it's very damning if
(41:57):
that time is correct. Vicky Hall is the timing of
the husband, Aaron Major's Google searches. I understand he was
searching for train deaths, train accidents. Was that before the
bodies were found at ten o seven am. I believe
I could have been ten h six, but he searched
(42:19):
on the computer Jessica found it two people dead Berkeley County.
He was searching to see if they were found. We
didn't know they were dead. No one knew except law
enforcement that they were dead. We didn't know. And then
after that he starts heading out of this area. He's
driving halfway to Columbia, South Carolina, which is an hour
(42:42):
and a half drive. He's halfway there when he calls
me and tells me to go to Oakley Road. So
he's getting himself out of town at the same time.
You know, far enough halfway out of town, and then
he called me and tells me what he heard on
the radio, which we've proven. What was his excuse about
why he was halfway out of town so far away?
He told me he was going to go search hotels
(43:03):
in Columbia, South Carolina, and it made no sense. He
was supposed to go to Somerville, a town, you know,
right in the area and look at hotels, while I
would go into another local area to look at hotels,
and all of a sudden he starts headed to Columbia
and it made no sense. Vicky. When you speak to
the sheriff's what do they say. They led us to
believe that they were going to be moving forward on
the case up to the point of Colin Aaron the
(43:26):
one and only suspect to the media, and now they're
backtracking and they're not doing anything. They won't change the
ruling on the man or death. It's like they're protecting
the system. What do you make of the note in
Katy's pocket? Some people believe she was documenting her husband's
Internet searches. Yes, it looks to me like them are
(43:52):
titles of what you would find on the Jeremiah project,
and whether she was seeing next to him. You know
that that document, that paper only showed up the last
twenty four hours that it could have been written on.
Whether she was sitting next to him as he's going
through this Jeremiah Project stuff and she's just making notes
(44:13):
of what he's saying, or whether she went on and
saw his search history and was writing down the titles
that he was looking at and getting concerned. What was
on the note of a woman could be the anti
Christ sacrificing a virgin baby. I might, you know, I
might not have every exact word something about Halloween, so
(44:37):
just titles that I know, looking back in the archivage
of Jeremiah Project, it looked like titles on there. What
about it? Jessica Sanders, I do believe that as well,
because we went on the Jeremiah Project and there is
a search bar there where you can if you type
in one thing, it'll actually drop down and show you
interesting that's been typed in there, So you know, after
(45:00):
that and some of the other stuff he was looking at,
we do believe that that's what she was doing. She
was worried and she was writing down the stuff. He
looked at the paper that she wrote those things on
was actually a worksheet of her brothers that had been
sacked to the home the day before. So that's how
we know that paper was fresh. It was only twenty
four hours. Was it in her handwriting? We haven't had
(45:20):
it analyzed, but just from looking at it, we believe
some of it is. Katie's family has never believed she
was delusional, or that she would take her own life,
or that she would murder her own child. If you
believe the case should be investigated as I do, please
call Berkeley County Sheriffs eight four three seven one nine
(45:43):
four four six five repeat eight four three seven one
nine four four six five. Also, if you want to
donate to help the private investigation to help Katie and
her babies get the truth and get justice, go to
(46:03):
Haul's go fund me account h A L l apostrophe
s go fund me account. It's at help Katie and
her babies case get truth and justice. K A d
I E and Her Baby's one word Help Katie and
her Baby's case get truth and justice. Nancy Grace Crime
(46:27):
Story signing off, Goodbye friend,
A beautiful mom and her infant daughter found dead near
train tracks counted off as a murder suicide? Or was it?
What happened to Katie Major and baby River Major Crime
(00:31):
Stories with Nancy Grace. She was living in the perfect
life for her. That's what Katie wanted to be was
a mother, have children, be a wife, take care of
her house, cook garden. She was living her dream. She
really was a Katie had married the love of her
(00:57):
life in two thousand and three, her high school's sweetheart,
Aaron Major. They really were just like bes friends. Aaron
went to work for Katie's dad, who was a house
paid she settled in as a homemaker. In two thousand
and seven, they welcomed River Lynn. She had this beautiful
(01:19):
little smile that made her just look like an angel.
She's all smiley, Vicky says. Katie had never been happier.
Need to give her she was so excited about having
children and she wanted a big family. Not long after
River was born, Katie got pregnant again. This time she
(01:41):
learned with a son, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
Thank you for being with us. You were hearing our
friend Peter van Zante at forty eight hours. Originally ruled
murder suicide. That's tough to take in with me an
all star panel to make sense of it all with
me Jessica Sanders, private investigator clear View Investigations on the case,
(02:05):
renounce Psycho Ana. Let's out of Beverly Hills, doctor Bethany
Marshall at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com, Director of the
Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, forensics expert Cheryl McCollum, the
medical examiner for the State of Florida. But straight out
now to Anne Emerson WCIV ABC for Charleston, and let's
(02:27):
just start at the beginning. How was Katie found dead?
It was a cold, rainy, sleety night. We don't have
a whole lot of those down here in South Carolina.
But it was in a little town called Monk's Corner,
about forty five minutes from Charleston. She lived there with
her family. Her mom had a beautiful health horse farm nearby.
(02:52):
The night that she sort of went missing, according to
the police, it was January seventeen, two thousand and nine.
She reportedly had been talking to her mom on the phone.
They had tried to make an instance for dinner didn't
work out. This is around six o'clock at night. Now.
According to police reports, what happened was that she came home.
(03:14):
Her husband says that she talked to him, had made
some rumblings that there was some kind of paranoid issues
going on. She was worried about her safety and had
left while he was in the shower. What we know
how she was found was the next day after searching
(03:36):
for her and the father. The husband was looking for her,
her mom is looking for her. Everyone's looking for this
young woman. And she had her little girl River with her,
and of course she also is pregnant at the time
with a little boy. And the police report they have
found a body, two bodies near the rail road trucks,
(04:00):
and that's where the disappearance ends, and we are now
dealing with what happened to this poor woman and her child.
The woman, Katie Majors, twenty six years old, is found
by the railroad tracks with lacerations to her stomach. Her
child is found nearby, floating in a pond, and at
(04:22):
that point the investigation turns towards looking at and from
what we understand, gets ruled rather quickly as some type
of we don't know what happened to the baby at
that time. They're saying it's undetermined. But the mother, they're
reporting it as a suicide at the railroad tracks. Well,
what was her cause of death? And the baby drowned
in a pond? What about Katie? The corner is reporting
(04:46):
from the autopsy report is that it was that she
threw herself in front of the train. That's what That's
what the official report was was that she had died
by suicide and that's why they found her by the
railroad tracks. Um. I also read the report said that
she had the baby had somehow gotten thrown during the
(05:07):
when she had been hit by the train that was coming,
and when that baby landed in in a pond that
was nearby, like a little water swursh nearby. That's a
lot to take in with me. Ann Emerson WCIV, ABC four, Charleston.
Her family insists this was no suicide murder, murdering a
little baby. I don't get it. Take a listen to
(05:31):
a police interview about halfway through the shower. I heard
I didn't know. I wasn't sure it was her truck
cranking up, but I heard something like that. You know
it was in the shower. So I got a shower,
looked out the winter and her truck was gone. So
I got dressed, got in my truck, tried to find her.
That Did you do anything else at the house before
(05:52):
you left? You try to did you pay your employees
or you just left? I left at that point, yeah,
I left. It went yeah, after and trying to find her.
You know, they've been It might have been five or
ten minutes before I got a shower, dried off, and
put my clothes on, you know, and got in the truck. Um,
and then I drove around just in the central Monkst
Corner areas hotels. I checked hotels because I thought, well,
(06:15):
she's not safe here. She's gonna go to a hotel,
and she's got you know, several hundred dollars to just
you know, where'd you get the money for him? We
do a cash budget every week. Okay, you're hearing her husband, Aaron,
He was spoken to by police immediately since he was
the last one to see her. Listen to this. You
rode around for a whole haystack, yeah, needle and a
(06:39):
haystagers exactly. So I just I sat there in the
Bailo shopping center for a man. I was just trying
to think, you know, I don't know, trying to figure
this out, I guess, and I was like, I'm just
gonna go home because she's gonna be back, just like before,
you know. And that's when I did Derek's payroll. About
(07:04):
what time do you think you got home? You look
at the clock when you came in. I don't know,
but it should be on a computer when you started
doing pile. I got the payroll that's still sitting in
the office because I hadn't had to check book to
pay him yet and stuff. But yeah, I got that.
It's on quick books. I got the thing printed out.
I don't know. I mean that was between eight and
(07:28):
I'm somewhere when I first left the house, I guess somewhere,
and so I don't know. It might have been. I'm
just guessing between nine to ten. Year you were hearing
the husband speak perfectly, calmly and giving answers to everything
police ask, But of course you have to ask the husband,
(07:48):
the partner, the lover, the boyfriend, and vice versa. With women. First,
he was the last one to see her before she
got in the car and drove off with the baby,
and naturally he's going to be questioned. First. Joining us
right now a special guest, Katie Major mom Vicky Hall.
She has created a website called Katie Kadie Katie and
(08:12):
her Babies dot com. VICKI, thank you so much for
being with us. Thank you, Nancy. Vicky, tell me about
the night that you discovered that your girl, Katie, just
twenty six years old, and River just ten months old,
had passed away. What happened? The husband showed up at
our house at one forty four am and called my
(08:36):
phone from the driveway, and Katie's dad answered and said, Jeff,
I need to come in and talk to you about something.
He didn't say, Jeff, is Katie here? Is River here?
And he came in with this story that Katie was
had a premonition that someone was going to kill her
(08:56):
and was shaken and trembling and wanted to leave the house,
and Eddie told her just give me a minute, let
me take a shower, and I'll bring you wherever you
want to go. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Vicky and
(09:24):
her husband Jeff were awakened at one forty four am
when Aaron suddenly showed up at their home and me,
I would tell myself, Oh my god, what is wrong.
Why is Eron here sitting down in the port. She's
never come in the middle of the night, Vicki says
he told her when they arrived home after Aaron finished working,
Katie started acting paranoid and stood in the doorway with River,
(09:46):
refusing to enter. He said, when Katie got home, she
said she had a premonition that someone was going to
kill her. He said, She's standing there shaking and trembling,
and she wanted to go get a hotel. And he said,
I told her, let me go take a shower and
then I'll bring you wherever you want. And he said
he went and took a shower. He heard her trunk
(10:08):
start and she's gone. Then, Vicky says, out of the blue,
Aaron suddenly started going off on a string of bizarre
conspiracy theories. Thank the world's coming in. Then you know,
the government blew up the Twin Towers. They asked him,
why are you talking about this? And that's the moment
everything changed. Okay, I don't understand that either. You're hearing
(10:29):
our friend Peter van Zand at forty eight hours reiterating
what Katie's mom just told us. Vicky Hall with us
along with Jessica Sanders PI, doctor Bethany Marshall, Cheryl McCollum,
doctor Tim Gallagher, and Anne Emerson WCIV ABC four. Back
to Katie's mom, Vicky Hall. All right, so at that point,
(10:52):
Katie's body had not been found near the railroad tracks.
I'm perfectly familiar with where Monk's Corner is. It's got
a low population surrounded by rural area. So at the
time he came to your home, Vicky, you're telling me
(11:12):
he had not. He didn't know what had happened yet,
and he came to your home one forty four am,
and instead of saying, hey, is Katie here, he started
telling you about how she was paranoid. But then he
started talking about the government caused the nine eleven Yes, ma'am, okay,
(11:32):
you know what, Let me just slow this whole thing
down for a minute with me. Everybody is Vicky Hall.
You can find out more about her and Katie at
Katie and her Babies dot com, created by Vicky. So
he shows up, you guys, let him in. He sits down.
What's his demeanor and what's the first thing he says,
as you remember it. What was really odd was his
(11:54):
demeanor when he told me they had gone to a hotel.
I started asking him questions like this, Katie have her glasses?
Does she have rivers portable bed? And he's sitting there calm.
I'm pulling my hair. I'm literally pulling my hair with
both hands up to the ceiling. I'm like, what do
you mean? And he's sitting there extremely calm. I can
still see him, and he had one hand cupped over,
(12:17):
his other hand in his lap, and he's just completely calm.
You said, Vicki that he the husband, Aaron Major said
that night one forty four am, after he comes to
your house, calm demeanor, that Katie went to a hotel.
That they were at a hotel. Is that right? That's
what he led us to believe. Interesting that she had
(12:38):
a premonition and wanted to go to a hotel, and
when he got in the showers, she left without him.
Oh okay, So he didn't confirm that she was at
a hotel, but that she wanted to go to a hotel. Yes,
he let us believe that she had you know was
there though, that she had went to a hotel somewhere. Okay,
got it. What else did he say? He started wanting
to talk about you know, I did want to call
(13:01):
the police, and and he didn't want me to, and
then my husband agreed that, you know, they probably wouldn't
do anything. At this point, Um, he started talking about
the twin towers blowing up the government. Um. He wanted
to act like the world was coming to an end
type of talk. Um. I'm trying to remember everything that moment,
(13:23):
because yeah, about websites. He was reading on, Um, Jeremiah
project dot com and what wooa whoa Jessica Sanders private Eye.
What is Jeremiah project dot com? It's a religious website.
But if there's a lot of conspiracies in it, and
(13:44):
he talks about, you know, the Antichrist, the end of time,
it's I think it's actually a lot of different people's
outlooks that are put into that website. But that wasn't
the only one he was looking at. There was several.
But he was claiming that Katie was the one looking
at these websites and was paranoid. But in fact, when
(14:07):
I went through the computer history, I was able to
find it. They were only looked at when he was home,
and in fact, the night that they went missing, he
was on those websites for hours while they were missing,
and the police never did catch up. Okay, wait, he
was on those websites while they're missing. Yeah, before their
bodies are found. Yes, okay, let me tell you what
(14:29):
Jeremiah Project is about. Quote Bible prophecy and the end times.
Hear this, America. Therefore I bring charges against you again,
declares the Lord. Okay, a lot about charges against your
children and your children's children. Mmmm. All about warnings and
(14:56):
scary pictures painted in black and white, about how all
sorts of people are guilty, that there are no political
solutions for our spiritual problems. There are pictures of children
crying with flames behind them to do It's got pictures
of the Twin Towers smoking about to fall. Resist the
(15:22):
new World Order. Okay, Doctor Bethany Marshall shrink excuse me.
Renowned psychoanalysts joining me out of Beverly Hills at doctor
Bethany Marshall dot com. Many many times I have told
my investigators. I have told people working on cases with me,
when you're looking for a perp, pick the nut if
(15:46):
there is a nut involved in the scenario. That's where
you look first. Why would he be talking about the
twin towers and the government causing nine one one at
the time, according to Jessica Sanders and Vicky Hall, who
hurted herself, his wife and baby are missing. And I
(16:10):
don't like doomsday talk. I mean, it's very clear if
you're a Bible if you see an auto and I
certainly don't claim to be a Bible scholar, but I
know this, We're not going to know at the end
of time. No human is going to know that they
can be all the prophecies they want, but it's very
clear that's not for us to know. So all of
(16:33):
that is just a big waste of time when you
could be out helping other people. That's our directive as
Christians to help other people. Okay, so you're the shrink.
What do you think, Bethany, If a person has homicidal feelings,
it is often towards their most intimate partner, because that's
where their strongest emotions are. When we feel resentment and
(16:57):
the fear anxiety, usually it's in the context of our
most intimate relationships. So here Katie's most intimate person in
her life. At one forty five in the morning, goes
and knocks on his in law's doors and he starts
spouting all these doomsday prophecies. Now, my question would be,
(17:19):
does he have a history of paranoia? Has he been
a conspiracy theorist all along? Is this typical behavior for him?
Or was he was researching on his computer while his
wife and baby and unformed baby we're missing all these
doomsday prophecies so that he could malinger craziness. And what
(17:40):
I mean by that malingering is when you make up
a fictitious or fake disorder in order to cover a
crime or some consequence for negative actions. It's faking. So
is he faking being crazy to throw the parents off
of the trail? Is he faking that his wife is
crazy in order to throw the police potentially and his
(18:02):
wife off the trail. I feel like he's beginning to
build an alibi. He's beginning to build a case for
why he is not the one who would have murdered
his wife, that she was involved in all these doomsday prophecies,
and that also he's too crazy to commit a crime.
(18:23):
He's talking about the twin powers, He's babbling about the
end times and dead babies or whatever else is on
the website Crime stories with Nancy Grace guys Basy Grace here.
(18:46):
We don't have him straight into breaking crime and justice news.
But first, how can you keep yourself and your children safe?
I have investigated and prosecuted literally thousands of felony cases.
I have covered literally thousands of cases of missing people,
(19:08):
adults and children, unsolved homicides, violent crimes. After all the cases,
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I don't want to just sit back and report on it.
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(19:30):
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(20:14):
Missing and Exploited Children. Back at Katie's house, Sarah was
waiting alone in case her sister came home. She noticed
a highlighted Bible passage on the kitchen table. What did
you read on those papers? The thing that stands out
that I read that I will never forget is that
(20:36):
the first one's son is to be sacrificed. I knew
something wasn't right. Frightened, Sarah immediately called her mom to
come get her. When Vicky and Aaron picked her up,
both mother and daughter noticed something that would become etched
in their memories. Aaron's hand. He had lifted his hand up,
and I'm like, why is his hand so big? What
(21:00):
I didn't know at that moment is sarah side too.
It just almost looked like a monster's head, you know,
just look bad. His whole fekers were swollen. Was it
connected to Katie's disappearance? Vicki filed that detail and the
other red flags in the back of her mind. You're
hearing our friend Peter van Zanna at forty eight hours
(21:20):
what happened to Katie? Major? Why was that particular verse
in the Bible highlighted that the firstborn son is to
be sacrificed. I guess that's out of the Old Testament.
How could it be that that is highlighted Cheryl McCollum
on the night the baby is killed. Cheryl, you know
(21:43):
there is no coincidence in criminal law, correct Nancy. This
is going to come down to math for me. So again,
you say to yourself, there's thirty thousand two aside the
year less than seventy of our trade, and of those seventies,
nobody holding a baby, and nobody that's been documented with pregnant.
(22:04):
To hold on a second. If you accept that its fact,
then you have to look at this by much much more.
Then this was a suicide and walk away from it.
It's not going to be possible for you to accept
that quickly, if at all. When you add the Bible
verse and then you look at her only injury, so
(22:24):
you have a Bible verse the only son is to
be sacrificed. She's pregnant with a son that she's already named,
which means she's future planning, she's loving and caring for
that baby boy Aden. Then you say, okay, she's going
to commit suicide by train. How do you do that?
When only your stomach is hit by the trade. I mean,
(22:47):
I can't fathom how she's able to do that with
an old Cooman train and only your stomach is hit
with a two foot laceration. I mean, this is crime
seeing recontrol. Take a listen to this. At eleven thirty
one am, came a call from Aaron that would alter
the course of her life. He said, I heard on
(23:10):
the radio that there's an accident, a train hit a
vehicle on Oakley Road and two people are dead. Vicky
headed straight to Oakley Road, but there was no train,
no vehicle, no sign of a collision. Then as she
was leaving, she spotted Katie's truck, undamaged, about five hundred
(23:31):
feet from the tracks, and I just fell on my
knees and collapsed because I knew it wouldn't make any sense.
Her truck should never be here right here. Aaron was
her first call. And you tell him that you have
found the pickup truck? Does he cry out? No, not
at all? Okay, none of this is making sense. And
(23:52):
the likelihood of committing suicide during pregnancy is extremely, extremely
hello statistically, I mean, see Grace, this is crime stories.
What happened to Katie to doctor Tim Gallagher, the medical
exam erre joining us out of the state of Florida,
what do you make of Katie's injuries. There's a couple
(24:13):
of pieces of information that I would need to know
in order to determine what an opinion would be of
the injuries. Number one, what is the speed of the
trains as they go past that area where she was found?
Were they going two miles an hour? Are they going
one hundred miles an hour? You know, this would help
me to determine if the injuries were caused in fact
by that train. So from what I understand, she had
(24:36):
lacerations of the stomach and possibly a broken leg. These
are typically injuries that are not found with somebody who
meets their end with a train. Typically we would find
much more devastating injuries, the spinal injuries, injuries to the head,
injuries to all of the limbs, both arms, both legs,
because you have to remember, after the impact with the train,
(24:59):
they are going through the air and land on the
ground and have secondary and secondary impacts that also caused
a lot of damage. So minor damage or minor injuries
the way that was described is certainly not consistent at
first blush with being impacted by a train. But I
would have to know what the speed of the train
(25:20):
was at that time of the night, Jessica jump him. Yeah,
what they said. Back then, with the CSX being the train,
it would have been going around fifty five miles an hour,
and then they changed it last year to the AM track,
which would run about seventy miles an hour. So in
her body was actually lighting six feet from the actual track,
(25:41):
which you would think if you're hit. No matter which
train it was, she would have been thrown to the
side pretty significantly. I mean, a five hundred pound cow
is thrown, you know, one hundred feet at least. Let
me ask you this, how far where was her vehicle?
Her vehicle was parked in a driveway, almost blocking the
man strike ability to get in, and it was five
(26:02):
hundred feet from the crossing, and then her body was down.
I believe it was around half a mile from that point,
so she would have had to walk that far. We
know that a forensic team came to the trucks. A
railroad worker had discovered the bodies around eight twenty that morning.
They theorized she had been struck on the side by
(26:22):
an object hanging off the train because there had been
no report of a train accident. It's my understanding joining me,
Vicky Hall, this is Katie's mom. Tell me the demeanor
of the husband, Aaron Major after Katie's body was found
(26:43):
and he had he exhibited any of this abnormal behavior
regarding conspiracy theories and end of times doomsday websites before.
No there there was none zero before and his demeanor
afterwards was very strange. The police told him to come
to my house that morning when they know the bodies
(27:05):
were found, and he came to my house. I didn't
even know he was here. He was sitting on my couch.
The police are in my house the corner. You know.
My husband's in the bedroom screaming. We just found out
they're dead. And Aaron sat on the couch and didn't
say a word to anybody. He didn't come and say, Vicky,
what do you know? He sat there with his head
(27:26):
looking at the floor. And then they took him away
and he never acted normal after that. I never saw
him grieve. I never saw one tea or nothing. Well.
As a matter of fact, listen to this, he wanted
aid in the unborn son displayed publicly for viewing on
(27:51):
top of kating, go my Aaron. No, that wasn't the
end of his bizarre behavior at the viewing, says Chad.
It was sitting there nonchalantly on the front repeal, eating McDonald's,
drinking out of his big McDonald's cup. The dead bodies
of his family are right in front. You can reach
out and touch him. He never said it here. He
(28:12):
never came and hugged anybody. There. Was the sickest thing
I've ever witnessed my whole life. Two days after the funeral,
Aaron went in for surgery to mend his broken hand. Okay,
I'm having a hard time taking that in. Did I
understand that right? Vicky Hall, Katie's mom. He ate McDonald's
and drank out of a big McDonald's cup. Yes, ma'am,
(28:32):
he did, yes, on the front road at the funeral home. Yeah,
It's like he kind of guarded the bodies. He'd sit
there and eat and like nobody could get, you know,
get up there to them. But yeah, he just sit
there eating, eating French fries. A hammocker had this really big,
the biggest drink from McDonald's you can get, sitting on
that I want to get something clear regarding the timeline.
(28:54):
Vicky Hall, this is Katie's mom. Everybody, immediately after she
goes missing. You observe along with Sarah that his hand
is swollen up, really swollen, as she said, like a
quote monster hand. Yeah, is that correct? Yes, Okay, take
(29:15):
a listen to this. Sarah, remembering that swollen hand, was
convinced Aaron broke it while killing her sister. It just
made me think, like, did he hit his hand on
the train and pushing her into the train or fighting
with her. That's what made me know in my heart
in my head that he was involved. Both Sarah and
Vicky say they had seen Aron's injured hand the morning
(29:38):
the bodies were discovered, but Alex's investigation turned up another
explanation that Aaron injured it two days later at the
funeral home when he punched a wall while choosing a coffin.
We inquired with the funeral director and she said, yes,
I witnessed him puncha send a block wall. At first,
Aaron tried to make the funeral private, tell Vicky and
(30:00):
her family they were not invited. Everything was a fight
from the very moment they died to have things done normally.
Mother and daughter were in the same coffin. Miraculously, Katie's
face was largely undamaged, and the family wanted an open
casket for Katie. And River climb stories with Nancy, Grace, Vicky,
(30:35):
and Jessica say there were more damning clues back at
the house. Some stuff was knocked off a River's dresser.
There was clothes on the floor, all of these jewels,
they were all open in the whole bathroom. What does
that suggest to you? There was a fight. I believed
there was a fight and she was trying to leave him.
Do you believe that Katie Major may have died inside
(30:57):
her own house? I do. I think it's very possible
that she died at the house. Their house, a potential
crime scene, was never properly processed. There's no photos, no
forensics search at all. If there was a fight, that's
starting there luminal tests easy. They did nothing. Okay, that's
(31:18):
very disturbing. You're hearing our friends at forty eight hours
to Cheryl McCollum, From what I have learned regarding Katie Major,
her home, especially the baby's room, would never have looked
like this. Things knocked off rivers. Dresser just knocked off
clothes all over the floor, drawers were open that that
(31:38):
doesn't make sense. But no forensics were done at the home.
I don't understand it, Cheryl McCollum. I don't understand it either, Nancy,
and there's just no excuse for it. Another thing that
goes toward them having a fight. Her wedding ring was
in her pocket. Now she supposedly drives this car and
abandons it, but there's no car keys, but her wedding
(31:59):
ring is the pocket That to me is indicative of
somebody that is angered. Take that ring off, like I'm done.
So there was something that should have been followed up.
To me, that house should have been combed through with
every forensic agent they had. If I could say something,
not only do they not forensics the house, they never
(32:19):
went to the house and looked around when their bodies
were found. There's been nothing done. Fleet Lord, take a
listen to this. Lewis and Cooke, Kenda did what Paulick
and his team didn't do. Hello talk to Katie's closest friends.
Monday Cookenda says the cold case unit has confirmed that
(32:43):
Aaron told the original detective a huge line a potential
game changer. That's when I heard on talk radio ninety
four point three that there had been a person and
a young child hit by the train in Berkelen County.
And I and just as Vicky had said, that was
a bold faced line. There was no radio report. There
(33:06):
was no radio report. Well, why would he have told
a story about hearing this report? Do you think I
think he wanted Katie and River fawn? Okay, that is
one of the single most disturbing facts to me out
of so many. First the hand was swollen like a
quote monster hand. And then later at the funeral home,
(33:29):
many many hours later, he suddenly hits that same hand
against the wall, thereby explaining the swelling. But this radio
report to Vicky Hall, this is Katie's mom, Is this true?
He told, and I'm talking about the husband, Aaron Major.
(33:52):
He said he found out about the train tracks on
the radio, but yet that never happened. Yes, ma'am, knew
he found out. He called me and told me to
go to Oakley Road that a train hit a vehicle
and two people are dead. And the radio station said
they did not say that. He told me to go
to Oakley Road. Oakley Road was never announced on the radio,
(34:16):
whether Berkeley County. Could you know there could have been
an announcement of Berkeley County. Berkeley County is huge. His
mistake is he sent me to Oakley Road and there
was never Oakley Road was never announced on the radio,
and there was no announcement on the radio period. When
he called me and said he just heard on the radio,
you know that there was a train hit a vehicle
(34:37):
and no train hit a vehicle either. So okay, that
is a huge red flag to Cheryl McCollum. In my mind,
that's one of the strongest pieces of Evans. Before it's
out there, before the bodies have been found. He, according
to Vicky Hall, is directing his wife's mother to where
(34:58):
the bodies are. Yet it had not been made public.
The keys to the vehicle were gone, although everything else
was still in the victim's pocket. Who drove the car there?
Who had the keys? How did he fabricate a radio
report that never existed? He knew where the bodies were, Cheryl.
Not only did he know where they were, he had
(35:19):
already set the stage for what happened to them. He's
already telling you a train hits them. So no matter
what you see, he wants you to accept that. If
you already heard the pis say that a cow would
be hit a hundred yards, that baby was fifty yards
from her mama, she would have gone much further. Nancy,
and somebody's punched in the stomach just with a fist,
(35:42):
they go forward, Their face goes forward. Her face was
without injury. The baby has no additional injury. The baby
was alive when she went in the water. Her little
loans will show that that statement alone is a money
tree and a game change with the wise cat. To
doctor Tim Gallagher, a medical examiner for the State of Florida, doctor,
how could you tell if the lacerations on her body
(36:06):
half a mile away from her car, we're from a train. Well,
there's nothing more devastating to the human body than being
hit by a train going at the reported seventy miles
an hour. The injuries would be on every part of
her body, including broken spine, severed spinal cord. Sometimes the
(36:26):
intestines are then ejected from the abdominal cavity. A lot
of times the brain is ejected from the cranial cavity,
you know, So there's nothing more devastating to the human
body than being impacted by a train, and certainly there'd
be no doubt that that was the cause of death,
you know, in her case, you know, I'd like to
(36:48):
see the her injuries how to come from someplace, you know,
so it would be important to see what the pattern
of that type of injury was. But it certainly doesn't
appear to be that of being struck by a train.
We also know that Katie had just seen her doctor
the day before. Vicky and Jessica went to work determined
(37:09):
to show that Katie was not psychotic. They spoke to
dozens of witnesses, including Katie's obstetrician, Christine Case, who examined
her the day before her death. I do not think,
in my professional opinion, that she had any depression or
postpartum depression. Back then, Olik and his team did not
(37:29):
speak to doctor Case, and Vicky says would not listen
to what she had to say. She says she was
never questioned about her daughter's state of mind and what
had happened in the hours on that day that she disappeared.
How could someone not have interviewed the family about those things.
I don't recall when she was interviewed, and they should
have been interviewed for those things. Are you darn right?
(37:50):
Our friend Peter van zandt there's so many theories abounding.
Vicky Hall, Katie's mom. According to her own she was
not depressed. She was not having any type of psychosis
the very day before. So these stories about her being
paranoid don't make sense to me. No, they make zero sense.
(38:12):
I actually was with her after her ultrasound and before
her ultrasound with doctor Kase. She was so excited for
finding out she's having a baby boy. I was so excited.
Our whole family was so excited would be our first grandson.
And then she called me the night that she died.
She called me when she got home. She called me,
(38:32):
and I talked to her at six forty three that night.
I was driving and and I don't know what happened,
but I talked to her that night and she was fine.
When she got home, she was in the house and
she called me and she was fine. So Aaron's story
doesn't add up that she's scared, paranoid, shake and tremblin
don't want to go in the house. Tell me about
their marriage, VICKI, Yeah, they were high school sweetheart. I'd
(38:57):
known Aaron for ten years. They dated for five years
before they got married. They were like best friends. Aaron
was a very private man, Katie was very more outgoing,
and I just noticed changes after river Lyn was born,
my first granddaughter, where he just seemed to really be
(39:18):
distant himself. I was getting concerned that he wasn't bonding
with river And then Katie found out she's pregnant again
with a little boy the day before, but he just
seemed to be distant in himself. I'm not sure he
wanted the children. White she found out she was pregnant
the day before. He found of tooth having a baby
boy the day before she died. But I'm not sure
(39:42):
he wanted a family. I believe he wanted Katie, but
I'm not sure he wanted the children. You know, I
was getting concerned. Okay, so I didn't realize she had
just found out the day before she died. Did he remarry? No,
he has not remarried him. From what I understand, he
has not dated another woman. What do you think is
(40:05):
the problem with the law enforcement. I don't understand what
the hold up is. Vicky in Berkeley County. It's called
the good O Boys system. We have a new sheriff,
a new corner, but they're all related colleague wide to
the old administration, and I feel like they do not
want to make changes here, change the manner of death
(40:27):
from suicide, because they're looking out for the previous administration.
Now I'm just trying to take everything into Jessica Sanders
private investigator clear View investigations. In my mind, there is
so much evidence it was actually reopened by the Sheriff's department.
What a piece of evidence that I would like to
add is that I had found any computer records, the
(40:49):
same computer records that they hide back then. That at
ten am was like ten oh seven, which was an
hour and a half before Aaron called the he to
send her to Oakley Road. He had searched on his
home computer two people found at Berkeley County, so he
was already looking to find out if they were if
(41:11):
they were found, yes, before he ever even talked to
Victor Cheryl McCollum. This reminds me so much of the
Heidi Brussard case where her friend Megan Feara mousco is
there at the delivery room and then ends up according
to police, killing her best friend Heidi Brissard to get
(41:32):
the baby, but before it was announced that the bodies
were found, she was looking up frantically, over and over
and over deaths in the county, bodies Heidi Broussard. She
was looking up all of that online before anything had
been said about Heidi missing. So it's very damning if
(41:57):
that time is correct. Vicky Hall is the timing of
the husband, Aaron Major's Google searches. I understand he was
searching for train deaths, train accidents. Was that before the
bodies were found at ten o seven am. I believe
I could have been ten h six, but he searched
(42:19):
on the computer Jessica found it two people dead Berkeley County.
He was searching to see if they were found. We
didn't know they were dead. No one knew except law
enforcement that they were dead. We didn't know. And then
after that he starts heading out of this area. He's
driving halfway to Columbia, South Carolina, which is an hour
(42:42):
and a half drive. He's halfway there when he calls
me and tells me to go to Oakley Road. So
he's getting himself out of town at the same time.
You know, far enough halfway out of town, and then
he called me and tells me what he heard on
the radio, which we've proven. What was his excuse about
why he was halfway out of town so far away?
He told me he was going to go search hotels
(43:03):
in Columbia, South Carolina, and it made no sense. He
was supposed to go to Somerville, a town, you know,
right in the area and look at hotels, while I
would go into another local area to look at hotels,
and all of a sudden he starts headed to Columbia
and it made no sense. Vicky. When you speak to
the sheriff's what do they say. They led us to
believe that they were going to be moving forward on
the case up to the point of Colin Aaron the
(43:26):
one and only suspect to the media, and now they're
backtracking and they're not doing anything. They won't change the
ruling on the man or death. It's like they're protecting
the system. What do you make of the note in
Katy's pocket? Some people believe she was documenting her husband's
Internet searches. Yes, it looks to me like them are
(43:52):
titles of what you would find on the Jeremiah project,
and whether she was seeing next to him. You know
that that document, that paper only showed up the last
twenty four hours that it could have been written on.
Whether she was sitting next to him as he's going
through this Jeremiah Project stuff and she's just making notes
(44:13):
of what he's saying, or whether she went on and
saw his search history and was writing down the titles
that he was looking at and getting concerned. What was
on the note of a woman could be the anti
Christ sacrificing a virgin baby. I might, you know, I
might not have every exact word something about Halloween, so
(44:37):
just titles that I know, looking back in the archivage
of Jeremiah Project, it looked like titles on there. What
about it? Jessica Sanders, I do believe that as well,
because we went on the Jeremiah Project and there is
a search bar there where you can if you type
in one thing, it'll actually drop down and show you
interesting that's been typed in there, So you know, after
(45:00):
that and some of the other stuff he was looking at,
we do believe that that's what she was doing. She
was worried and she was writing down the stuff. He
looked at the paper that she wrote those things on
was actually a worksheet of her brothers that had been
sacked to the home the day before. So that's how
we know that paper was fresh. It was only twenty
four hours. Was it in her handwriting? We haven't had
(45:20):
it analyzed, but just from looking at it, we believe
some of it is. Katie's family has never believed she
was delusional, or that she would take her own life,
or that she would murder her own child. If you
believe the case should be investigated as I do, please
call Berkeley County Sheriffs eight four three seven one nine
(45:43):
four four six five repeat eight four three seven one
nine four four six five. Also, if you want to
donate to help the private investigation to help Katie and
her babies get the truth and get justice, go to
(46:03):
Haul's go fund me account h A L l apostrophe
s go fund me account. It's at help Katie and
her babies case get truth and justice. K A d
I E and Her Baby's one word Help Katie and
her Baby's case get truth and justice. Nancy Grace Crime
(46:27):
Story signing off, Goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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